On 14 and 15 October 2026, the COREu consortium gathered in Trieste, Italy, for its Annual Meeting, bringing together project partners, stakeholders, policymakers, researchers, and industry representatives for two days of exchange, collaboration, and innovation.

The event combined an open stakeholder conference with internal consortium discussions, reflecting COREu's commitment to advancing CCS through cooperation across sectors and national borders.

The first day centred on the open stakeholder event, "Accelerating CCUS Development by Connecting Policy, Industry, and Innovation", organised by project coordinator SINTEF with the support of the COREu consortium and sister project HERCCULES. The two projects address key challenges in decarbonisation, with COREu focusing on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and HERCCULES on carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).

The event brought together stakeholders from across the CCUS value chain to discuss the opportunities and challenges of deploying CCUS at scale in Europe. Through a series of political, institutional, and technical panel discussions, as well as lessons learnt from Norway, Italy, Greece and beyond, participants explored topics ranging from policy frameworks and cross-border cooperation to infrastructure development and industrial implementation.

The event opened with welcome remarks from Francesco Finotti, Research Director for Energy Transition at SINTEF and COREu project cordinator, as well as representatives from the two site visit hosts, Giovanni Massari, Head of Sonsub at Saipem and Stavros Niotis, Chief Sustainability Officer at Gas Vessel Production .

Participants then received an overview of the HERCCULES project and its stakeholder engagement activities from Chiara Artini, Research Engineer at LEAP, and Elisa Guasti, International Project Officer at Clust-ER Greentech. The programme also featured presentations from Christian Horn-Hanssen, Country Director Italy at Innovation Norway and Renata Meneguolo, ESG officer at Northern Lights JV, providing perspectives from organisations actively supporting and enabling the deployment of CCS in Europe.

The discussions then shifted from project and industry perspectives to the broader policy and regulatory framework needed to support CCUS deployment in Europe. A policy briefing by Tom Mikunda, Senior Advisor at Bellona Europa was followed by an institutional panel moderated by Michela Vellico, Executive Technologist at OGS, featuring Ezio Mesini, President of the Italian CCUS Committee, Christian Horn-Hanssen of Innovation Norway, and Giovanna Claudia Rosa Romano, Director of Energy and Green Transition of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Division at Emilia-Romagna Region.

The afternoon technical sessions explored challenges and opportunities across the CCUS value chain. Moderated by Valerio Cozzani, Head of Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering at University of Bologna and Cristina Marras, Solutions Manager, Geoscience and Environmental Surveillance at Saipem, the panels brought together experts from industry and research, including Maria Giovanna Abagnale, CCUS Technology Deployment Engineer at Eni, Federico Foschini, Business Development Manager at SNAM, Silvia Gentilucci, Technology Innovation Manager at Saipem, Paschalia Kiomourtzi, Prinos Subsurface Lead at Energean, Federico Foschini, Environmental Affairs Manager at Herambiente, Federico Bruni, Specialist System Engineer at Eniprogetti , and Piero Basini, Passive Seismic Leader at TotalEnergies.

Across the discussions, a key message emerged: accelerating CCUS deployment in Europe will require strong collaboration between industry, policymakers, researchers and technology providers.

Following the plenary sessions, participants visited two COREu partners in Trieste. At Saipem, attendees observed an underwater drone equipped with CO₂ sensors for monitoring , while at Gas Vessel Production (GVP) they learned about innovative high-pressure CO₂ cylinders designed for multimodal CO₂ transport.

The day concluded with a networking dinner, providing participants with further opportunities to exchange experiences and strengthen partnerships.

The second day of the Annual Meeting brought the focus back to the COREu project itself. With 43 partners involved across Europe, face-to-face meetings provide valuable opportunities to strengthen collaboration, exchange knowledge, and ensure alignment across the consortium. Throughout the day, partners reviewed progress across the project, highlighting recent achievements and discussing priorities for the coming months. These exchanges enabled partners to gain understanding of each other's work within COREu and identify opportunities for collaboration across the consortium.

A particular highlight of the day was the Innovation Sprint, an interactive session designed to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and generate ideas for future activities. Working in mixed groups, participants explored three key themes:

• CO₂ transport and routing
• CO₂ storage and subsurface systems
• Governance, social acceptance and policy

Drawing on the diverse expertise within the consortium, participants brainstormed new ideas for the remainder of the project and beyond. The session concluded with group pitches, showcasing a range of ideas aimed at supporting the continued advancement of CCS deployment in Europe. The enthusiasm and creativity displayed throughout the session highlighted the value of collaboration in developing integrated CCS solutions.

The day concluded with the COREu General Assembly, where consortium members discussed key strategic and organisational matters requiring decisions from across the project.