The ETHYC Project is One of the ENLIGHT 2025 Call Winners!

We are excited to announce that the ETHYC Project, coordinated by a team at the UG, has been selected as one of the 2025 ENLIGHT Call winners! This project aims to establish a robust, multidisciplinary hydrogen education and training network. Find out more about ETHYC and the people behind it below!

What is the main goal of the project? Who are your collaborative partners?

ETHYC aims to establish a robust, multidisciplinary hydrogen education and training network in collaboration with the University of Groningen, Galway, Basque Country, Ghent, and Bern. Building on existing hydrogen projects, courses, and regional complementary strengths, the project seeks to consolidate partnerships within the ETHYC consortium while engaging new partners from across the ENLIGHT alliance and beyond, including academia, industry, NGOs, civil society, and governmental bodies.

What inspired this project idea?

This ETN is unique in its focus on a recurrent issue faced by countries developing a hydrogen economy: the lack of a well-trained workforce. To solve this issue, this network focuses on hydrogen education and research, connecting the 5 partners and empowering stakeholders across the different local H2 value chains and the combined ENLIGHT/EU H2 ecosystem to tackle critical global challenges. It addresses the crucial need to develop a skilled workforce for hydrogen production and utilization by significantly enhancing the connection between the current technical and non-technical hydrogen knowledge produced by the ETHYC partners, as well as to ensure better alignment of academic offerings with industry and societal needs.

Why is this international collaboration essential to your work?

Incorporating diverse academic institutions and industry leaders will bring in a wide range of expertise and resources, enriching the educational and outreach capabilities of the network. Taking advantage of the ENLIGHT Network, which is already a collective of important institutions placed in regions where hydrogen development has been taking place to a higher or lower degree, will facilitate more robust collaborations, fostering innovation and knowledge exchange across different sectors and regions. This connection is not only interesting for educational and training development but also to benefit and benefit from the current hydrogen valleys placed around the ENLIGHT Universities. Moreover, this wider consortium can access a wider array of funding sources and grants, ensuring the network's sustainability and growth.

How did the collaboration come together?

Different levels of collaboration existed among the partners. While some partners had prior connections, the overall consortium within the ETHYC project was brought together and facilitated specifically through this project.

What impact do you expect this project will have for the University of Groningen and the ENLIGHT network?

The development of the ETHYC network will strengthen European efforts regarding hydrogen education and research via connecting relevant stakeholders, benefiting from the highly developed hydrogen regions that are currently part of the ENLIGHT Initiative, and working on education system improvements to face challenges like the Credit Transfer Between Universities and the multitude of skills required in the hydrogen value-chain and job market.

What's next?

All the effort within ETHYC is directed at developing a strong link between these institutions and participants to link the hydrogen valleys and, more importantly, develop long-term joint activities that use ETHYC as seed funding to prepare strong and cohesive proposals for future funding in Erasmus programmes, Horizon calls and Doctoral Networks led by ETHYC partners.

The team at the UG:

• Prof. Evrim Ursavas, Professor of Energy Logistics, Faculty of Economics and Business
• Dr. Lorenzo Squintani, Professor of Energy Law, Director of Energy and Climate School
• MSc. Patricia Poppendick

We are happy for the ETHYC team and are excited for the outcomes of this project!