In-depth dialogue at the Export Initiative Environmental Protection (EXI) annual online event
The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) recently hosted the annual online event for its ‘Export Initiative Environmental Protection’ (EXI) funding programme. The event gave delegates from the worlds of business and R&D as well as non-governmental organisations an opportunity for dialogue and networking.
Following a successful in-person event for EXI last year, the annual event was held online in 2023. An estimated 85 representatives of the green tech industry participated in the event on 7 September. Alongside speed meetings for virtual networking, the event agenda included industry presentations and the mutual sharing of experience from four best-practice projects.
Joint welcome from Federal Environment Ministry and ZUG gGmbH project management agency
In the official keynote for the event, Daniel Roos, Head of the International Environmental Technology and Green Economy Department at project management agency ZUG gGmbH, offered an overview of participating delegates and the event programme.
Nilgün Parker, Head of the Federal Environment Ministry’s G II 4 Division ‘Sustainable Financial Policy, Environment-Related Promotion of Foreign Trade and Investment’, noted the increasing importance of impact measurement for funding programmes and therefore recommended attending the corresponding talk. Parker also underlined the Ministry’s increasing focus on promoting foreign trade and investment:
“We’re all familiar with the tense situation for economic policy. As green tech companies, you are facing considerable challenges. Accordingly, we want to further improve our targeted policy support here, also in relation to promoting foreign trade and investment, and work together more closely as departments.”
(Nilgün Parker, Head of the G II 4 Division at the Federal Environment Ministry)
ZUG passes on its first-hand expert knowledge
In the first industry presentation, Doreen Kubek, spokesperson for the Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Analysis Department at ZUG gGmbH, outlined EXI’s approach to systematic monitoring and impact analysis. This is based on the EXI monitoring strategy developed jointly by ZUG and the Federal Environment Ministry.
This was followed by a presentation from Daniel Roos on EXI funding practice. Information about the selection procedure, tips on submitting outlines and guides to the general formal conditions aimed at giving projects a useful set of ready tools that would increase their chances of being successful in future funding calls.
Best practice projects present challenges and achievements
After a short break, the dialogue-focused part of the event then got underway. Three ongoing projects (ReSoCart-ED, GH2GH and WasserWert) and one completed project (EcoTourism) from the EXI priority areas of circular economy, water and waste water management, green hydrogen and fuel cell technology plus cross-sectional technologies used four parallel break-out sessions to present the methods used to achieve their project goals while overcoming challenges and solving the problems encountered.
After the pitches, the participants could then join one of the project groups with the aim of sharing experience and taking discussions further in breakout sessions. One key topic was the cost-effective and ecologically efficient implementation of environmental protection measures in target countries. As one example, participants in the GH2GH project breakout session more particularly interested in the experience gained and establishing contact with the consortium, so as to be able to transfer these insights to their own projects.
Participants especially valued the discussions, the Q&A session and the in-depth experience shared on the various topics.
Bringing the event to a close, Nilgün Parker emphasised the importance of the funding programme and direct dialogue between the Ministry, the project management agency, the partner organisations and the projects. This overall picture was further confirmed by the positive feedback from delegates.
The event concluded while looking forward to the improved networking opportunities offered next year, once again to be held as an in-person session.