European Union provides funding for successive projects in various fields of the energy, by specifically supporting the research on renewable energies from biofuel to solar energy, from clean coal technologies to energy efficiency. The call for energy proposals was published on 29 April 2008. This call was opened by the Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) and will especially provide support to the projects highly include demonstration activities rather than research focused projects. In order to inform the European researches about the content of the call, rules and procedures of participation, and guide them in the project preparation, European Commission organized an Information Day on 20 June 2008 in Brussels. TAGES participated in the Energy Information Day and represented the Turkish FIRE SMEs in Brussels.
Energy Information Day gathered people from all sectors working on energy in Brussels to make cooperation on energy projects. There were participants from universities, research centers, SMEs and big enterprises as well as from public organisations. The conference was organized in two sessions where in the first the European Commission officers made informative speeches on the DG TREN energy policy, FP7 submission and evaluation procedures and rules for participation, 2008 call priorities with specific presentations on renewable electricity generation, renewable fuel production, renewables for heating and cooling, energy efficiency and savings, clean coal technologies, smart energy networks.
In the second session the participants who are planning to prepare energy projects to be submitted in this call, had the opportunity to have informal meetings with the Commission’s staff. Therefore, they could discuss on the eligibility of their project ideas and they were guided with regard to the content of their projects.
TAGES participated in the information day and disseminate the FIRE project through which TAGES assists renewable energy SMEs in Turkey in participating in the FP7 energy projects with support of the European Commission. TAGES introduced the FIRE SMEs and built collaboration 
opportunities with the European stakeholders.
FP7-ENERGY-2008-TREN-1 call for energy projects will be closed on October 2008. Therefore, the information day seemed to be very pleasing by both giving information on FP7 project submission rules and procedures, 2008 call priorities and by giving opportunities to the participants to meet with each other for cooperation and networking and to meet with European Commission staff to have comments and guiding on their project ideas before the deadline of the project submission.
You can reach the presentations given on the FP7 Energy Information Day on 20 June 2008 in Brussels from the following website:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/rtd/fp7/infoday_en.htm
