Mission Innovation alliance awards 21 innovators who are accelerating the clean energy revolution.
Mission Innovation (MI), a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union), has unveiled the second cohort of Mission Innovation Champions as part of the global MI Champions Programme. The programme seeks to celebrate and support innovative individuals who are accelerating the clean energy revolution. The twenty-one awarded champions work in a variety of energy-related fields and industries. They are individuals with a track record of progressing creative new ideas that can drive the pace and scale of the clean energy revolution and they will continue to receive recognition and support through outreach and communication efforts.
MI was announced at COP21 on 30 November 2015, as world leaders came together in Paris to combat climate change. In addition to some EU countries, its members include also countries across the Americas and Asia. Together, they seek to reinvigorate and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely affordable by supporting cross-border exchanges of ideas and talent and building a community of visionaries committed to the promise of clean energy research and development, the MI Champions programme activates and engages a new generation of researchers, inventors, and leaders.
MI members have committed to:
- Seek to double their governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) investments over five years.
- Work closely with the private sector as it increases its investment in the earlier-stage clean energy companies that emerge from government programmes.
- Build and improve technology innovation roadmaps and other tools to help in our innovation efforts.
- Provide, on an annual basis, transparent, easily-accessible information on their respective clean energy RD&I efforts.
Among their more recent activities, MI is building a global collaboration platform for flagship hydrogen projects, in cooperation with the EU Fuel Cell and Hydrogen joint Undertaking (FCH JU). By promoting the emergence and implementation of hydrogen projects, as well as raising awareness among policy maker, the platform aims to ultimately facilitate the clean energy transition.