The project kick-off meeting was held from 28 June to 1 July as a four-day online event. The kickoff was structured in two parts: the first day was staged as a semi-public event, attended not only by members of the project consortium, but also by invited stakeholders and peers, by officials from the European Commission and representatives of the four “sibling projects”, Horizon projects funded under the same call.

To this end, the first day featured a panel discussion on the issue of “#FitForNetZero? Roadblocks on the path to climate neutrality”, with Damien Meadows (DG Clima) as keynote speaker, and inputs from several members of the project consortium and the Executive Advisory Board. Furthermore, in the afternoon a session was devoted to presentations of and discussions with the four projects that receive funding under the Call LC-CLA-10-2020 (NDC Aspects, FULFILL, EU 1.5 Lifestyles, CAMPAIGNers), including a “project fair” for in-depth question and answers. Subsequent days of the kick-off were reserved for discussion among the project consortium (with some participation by Executive Advisory Board members, who had also been invited to attend). Over the following days, the kick-off covered

• an in-depth discussion on the concept of the 4i’s (innovation, investment, infrastructure & integration) and their role for structuring the project;
• a tour through the seven Work Packages of 4i-TRACTION, with particular focus on the WPs in which work started in the first six months of the project (WPs 1, 2 and 3, as well as 6 & 7);
• a discussion of the administrative and technical implementation of the project, such as the provisions on reporting, the different project bodies and their roles, and the communication and project management roles.

In addition, the Executive Advisory Board for the project has been established, and was actively involved in the project kick-off meeting. It is comprised of the following individuals: Ms Florie GONSOLIN (CEFIC), Mr Wendel TRIO (CAN-Europe), Ms Sharon TURNER (University of Sussex), Mr Andreas LÖSCHEL (University of Bochum), Mr Andrew JORDAN (University of East Anglia) and Mr Damien MEADOWS (European Commission, DG Climate).