European energy research alliance formed to back strategic plan

28 Oct 2008 | News
Leading research institutes have joined forces to expand Europe’s energy research capabilities through sharing national facilities and merging of research programmes.


Leading research institutes have joined forces in the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), set up to expand and optimise Europe’s energy research capabilities through the sharing of national facilities and the merging of  national- and European-sponsored research programmes.

As such the Alliance will also act as a test case for moves to create the single European Research Area, across every field of research.

EU Commissioners for Research and Energy, Janez Potočnik and Andris Piebalgs welcomed the formation of the Alliance as both a key component of the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and of moves to develop new low carbon energy technologies.

EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik said setting up EERA to coordinate national and European energy research programmes is a crucial step forwards. “This test case of joint programming will enable us [make] a more efficient use of national and European resources and compete successfully on the international level.”

The Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs agreed saying, “The SET-Plan offers a blueprint for Europe to develop a world-class portfolio of affordable, clean, efficient and low emission energy technologies.”

Europe’s triple challenge of energy security, climate change and competitiveness calls for the scaling up and better coordination of all available resources to develop new energy technologies.

The European Commission launched the SET-Plan in November 2007 in a bid to combine the research capacities of major European institutes and universities with European industry.  EERA has been formed as the research pillar of SET- Plan.

The SET Plan also includes a series of European industrial initiatives focusing on the development of technologies for which working at Community level will add most value.

Initiatives in preparation focus on carbon capture and storage, bio-energy, wind and solar energy, the European smart grid and sustainable fission.

Current members of the EERA are: Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, France; Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologica, Spain; Centre for renewable energy sources, Greece; Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands; Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente, Italy; Forschungszentrum Jülich; Germany; Instituto Nacional de Engenharia, Tecnologia e Inovação, Portugal; Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Denmark; Energy Research Centre, UK; Technical Research Centre of Finland; European University Association; and European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCS).

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