The Eastern Lights project officially launched with a kick-off meeting on 11-12 September 2024, bringing together consortium partners to introduce their organisations and roles, and outline the project’s ambitious goals.
The meeting began with opening remarks from Rossen Papazov, CEO and Management Board member of Holcim Bulgaria and coordinator of the Eastern Lights project. He introduced Holcim’s mission and core values, emphasising the company’s global leadership in innovative and sustainable building solutions, with operations across three locations in Bulgaria.
Highlighting Holcim’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact, Mr. Papazov presented the company’s cement decarbonisation roadmap, which includes 17 active projects worldwide. As part of this initiative, Holcim Bulgaria recently established Holcim BeliNetZero Storage. He concluded with an overview of Holcim Bulgaria and Holcim Storage’s contributions to the Eastern Lights project.
Following this, each Eastern Lights partner delivered a short presentation introducing their organisation and their role in the consortium. Read more about all partners here.
The meeting also featured an intervention by the Project Officer from the granting authority, the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), who provided an overview of the EU Research & Innovation Framework (2021-2027).This included insights into the Horizon Europe programme, particularly Cluster 5, as well as key guidelines for grant compliance, reporting, and communication workflows.
The meeting concluded with detailed presentations from all Work Package leaders, outlining the planned activities and next steps for the coming months. After the meeting CSIC, CNRS and Fraunhofer visited Holcim Bulgaria’s HQ.
