Successfully organized the 2^nd deep-dive Workshop

From 16^th to 19^th November 2017, Mission Innovation - Innovation Challenge 1 on Smart Grids (IC#1), whose activities are coordinated by China, India and Italy and with 19 participating countries (out of the 22 currently involved in Mission Innovation) together with the European Commission, successfully organized the second deep-dive workshop in New Delhi.
After the first IC # 1 event held in Beijing last June, organized as a side event of the eighth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8) and the second MI Ministerial (MI-2), the New Delhi event, organized by DST, IITR and IITD, with the support of IIE CAS and RSE, presented the developments of the actions shared and launched in Beijing, bringing together for the second time experts, policy makers and operators in the field of Smart Grids from around the world.

The workshop consisted in a two-day closed door meeting and a public event, with the presence of Ministers and representatives of the Indian Government and Chinese, Italian, English and American embassies, where the IC#1 Country Report 2017 was official released and the "New Delhi Declaration" shared.

Selected experts from the ELECTRA team and representative from EC actively contributed to the organization of this 3-day event and by providing the European view on Smart Grids under technical, business and policy points of view. A brainstorming session and four round tables relating to the four sub- IC#1 challenge (Regional Grid, Distribution Grid, Microgrids and Cross Innovation) were organized during the two days closed doors workshop, that actively involved representatives from the European Commission and 12 countries of Mission Innovation and members of Indian and international organizations as observers.
Starting from the elaboration of the responses received from IC#1 members to the Questionnaire developed in IC#1 for the identification of R&D priorities in the context of Smart Grids, 6 R&D tasks were identified to start cooperating and to be launched by early 2018, identifying co-leaders and countries interested in contributing to the tasks.
The "New Delhi Declaration", a document proving the commitment of IC#1 members to continue the cooperation activities started in Beijing and to stimulate the involvement of the private sector in the Challenge for the achievement of the Mission Innovation objectives, was agreed, signed and released, further consolidating the IC#1 Team.

A list of indicators to monitor the progress of the Challenge activities (KPI) was shared with the participants and a brainstorming on "Business and Investor Engagement" (BIE) was held, sharing possible ways of involving the private sector in IC#1.

The public event was opened by representatives of the "Ministry of Science and Technology" and "Ministry of Power" Indian ministries who expressed the strong support of the Indian Government to Mission Innovation and, together with representatives of Italian and Chinese embassies, recognized the excellent work done so far by IC#1.
During the public event Luciano Martini conducted, together with the IC#1 co- leaders, the official presentation of the Country Report 2017 of IC#1, a document that, with the contribution of 14 countries, collects information about strategies, trends, projects and ongoing actions in the field of Smart Grids worldwide. The public event has provided the opportunity to formalize and share the "New Delhi Declaration" and to announce, in the collaboration spirit among different countries driven by IC#1.
The workshop confirmed how IC#1 activities are fully aligned with the International Cooperation strategically carried out in ELECTRA, strongly increasing the possibility of their implementation.