The proposed ERA-NET will deepen the cooperation of national program owners and administrators and thus be an enabler for the integration of national research and development agendas into a coherent European geothermal R&D program. Countries participating in the first instance in this ERA NET are chosen on the basis of their ambitions to include geothermal energy into their goals for 2020 and 2050 on the reduction of CO2 emissions. A cornerstone of the implementation will be the broadening of this ERA NET partnership by including additional European national program owners to ensure the appropriate geographic balance and complementarily.The Geothermal ERA-NET will focus on the utilization of geothermal energy, from direct heating use up to higher enthalpy resources and their corresponding use (e.g. power generation). To ensure appropriate linkages to related R&D activities (renewable heating and cooling via ground storage heat pumps, power distribution and transmission) the interface with related ERA-NETs such as ERACOBUILD or SmartGrids will be maintained to avoid overlap. The ERA NET will include technical and non-technical issues as long they can be considered to be exclusively applied to the support of geothermal energy utilization.A significant instrument will be the EERA Joint Programme on Geothermal Energy whose aim it is to contribute via research and development to the renewable energy targets for 2020 and beyond in member and associated states. Coordination activities will focus on implementation of commonly agreed objectives and joint activities and funding of joint transnational research actions