European Commission continues to support institutions in energy research. The EC has published 5 new project calls under the 7th Framework Programme in order to provide funding for new energy projects that includes research and development, and/or demonstration and coordination of research activities. Turkish institutions can also participate to the projects that are prepared with a consortium of European countries and can benefit from the EU funding opportunities.
European Com
mission has published 5 new calls to submit energy projects on the 3rd of September 2008. The first call, FP7-ENER
GY-2009-1, is open for the submission of projects with a high research component. The topics in which you can propose projects are:
- PHOTOVOLTAICS (Efficiency and material issues for thin film photovoltaics)
- GEOTHERMAL (Understanding and mitigation of induced seismicity associated with geothermal field development)
- CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER (Key components for Concentrated Solar Power)
- CROSS CUTTING ISSUES (Deep off-shore multi-purpose platforms for wind/ocean energy conversion, Coordination activities on offshore platforms)
- SECOND GENERATION FUEL FROM BIOMASS (Algal and other suitable non-food aquatic biomass feedstock for 2nd generation biofuel production, Biowaste as feedstock for 2nd generation)
- CO2 CAPTURE (Innovative capture techniques)
- CO2 STORAGE (Safe and reliable geological storage of CO2, Towards an infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage)
- SMART ENERGY NETWORKS (HTS Devices for Electricity Networks, High density /rapid release energy storage, Strategic impact of the roll-out of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on grid infrastructure)
The evaluation of the project submitted under FP7-ENERGY-2009-1 call will require a two-step procedure which means that the applicants will first submit the concept note of the proposal and after the first stage proposal evaluation; the applicants will submit the whole project proposal document. The deadline of the first stage application is 25th November 2009, whereas the second stage deadline is 1st April, 2009. The budget for this call is 83 million €.
Energy Demonstration has a great share in EU energy funds
The European Commission also calls for proposals with predominantly demonstration component rather than research under FP7-ENERGY-2009-2. The projects submitted for this call will be the demonstration projects whose impacts can be seen in a short or medium term. The topics to prepare projects for this call are:
- PHOTOVOLTAICS (Solar photovoltaics: manufacturing and product issues for thin-film photovoltaics)
- BIOMASS (Biomass to electricity from energy crops and recovered fuels)
- LOW/MEDIUM TEMPERATURE SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY (Low/medium temperature solar thermal systems for industrial Process Heat)
- CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES (Hybrid systems based on solar thermal heating/cooling, backed up by biomass or geothermal to compensate heat load intermittence)
- CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES FOR ZERO EMISSON POWER GENERATION (Efficiency increases in existing and new build pulverized coal power plants with a view to clean coal)
- DEVELOPMENT OF INTER-ACTIVE DISTRIBUTION ENERGY NETWORKS (Optimization of the electricity grid with large scale renewables and storage.
- EFFICIENT ENERGY USE IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY (Energy efficiency in energy intensive industry)
- SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT TO POLICY (European scientific multidisciplinary ‘think-thanks’ to support energy policy and to asses the potential impacts of its measures)
The deadline to submit demonstration projects in the topics mentioned below is 29th April, 2009. The total fund for projects is 100 million €.
Europe is going for Sustainable Biorefineries
Besides the research and demonstration projects, the EC provides funding for sector specific coordination and support actions underFP7-ENERGY-2009-3. The EC provide funding for the coordination of stakeholders’ activities in the field of Photovoltaic, Zero-emission Energy Production, and Smart Grids. Moreover, the EC will support the projects on European energy infrastructure networks and systems transition planning, Trans-national cooperation among National Contact Points. The deadline to submit coordination and support projects is 25th April, 2008. The total budget for coordination and support projects is 5.5 million € for 2009.
Other calls opened for the energy proposals are two calls on biorefinery, FP7-2009-BIOREFINERY-CP open to collaborative projects and FP7-2009-BIOREFINERY-CSA open to coordination actions. These calls will support biorefinery projects with a 57 million € budget. The topics for biorefinery projects are:
- Sustainable biorefineries
- Enhancing exchange of information, synergies and cross-fertilization between projects in the field of biorefineries
The submission of collaborative projects in the topic of ‘Sustainable biorefineries’ will be in two stages. The deadline for the first stage submission is the 2nd December, 2008 and after the first stage evaluation successful proposals will be submitted until 5th May, 2008. Coordination projects will be submitted in a single stage submission process, until 2nd December, 2008.
Project Proposers will attend the Energy Research Information Day on 24-25th, September 2008
Relevant industrial partners, along with research organizations, SMEs, end-users and civil society organizations may participate in the energy projects with a consortium of partners. You can also participate to the FP7 Energy Research Information Day organized by the EC in Brussels on the 24-25th September 2008 in order to meet with European stakeholders who will prepare energy projects and earn the details of the calls and have bilateral meetings with European Commission officers. TAGES will participate in the event in order to promote Turkish renewable energy SMEs supported under the FIRE (Facilitating Innovation in Renewable Energies) project to participate in European energy research projects.
You can access the details of the energy calls from the following adress:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7CallsPage
