The purpose of EERA is to strengthen and expand Europe’s capabilities in sustainable energy research by connecting and joining European energy research activities. EERA’s efforts take place in the context of and contribute to the targets formulated in the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan. The core activity of EERA is the operation of the EERA Joint Programmes. EERA currently runs 17 Joint Programmes. The EERA Joint Programmes are strategic platforms for cooperation and joint programming between major research organisations on common research agendas. Active in diverse areas such as wind energy, smart grids, advanced materials and energy storage, the Joint Programmes represent today an important part of Europe’s energy research backbone. Through the Joint Programmes, EERA support Member States in their efforts to coordinate their long-term energy research activities. Serving as the research arm of the SET-Plan, the EERA Joint Programmes are developing into a sort of “Virtual European Institute on Energy Research”, working in open collaboration with innovation and industrial initiatives and stakeholders. In order to provide support to the different EERA bodies (Executive Committee, Joint Programmes) and ensure efficient operations, the EERA Secretariat was established in 2010. The main objective of the EERA Secretariat is to support EERA as key actor in the implementation of the integrated SET Plan by:• Accelerated EU delivering on the SET-Plan priorities • Ensure a more transparent and better functioning EERA• Strengthen EERA structuring effects on the energy research community