European Commission Framework Programme 7 (FP7) – Renewable Energy Projects

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

The use of renewable energy sources in Europe will increase, leading to a more sustainable energy mix, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a lower dependency from oil. In pursuit of the Kyoto protocol and the revised Lisbon strategy the European Union has set itself the ambitious goal to derive 12% of its total energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2010.
The Framework Programmes for Research and Development (FP) of the European Union have contributed from their beginning to the development of renewable energy technologies. These Community actions have a proven European added value in terms of building critical mass, strengthening excellence and exercising a catalytic effect on national activities. In combination with national activities, working atEuropean level with an adequate combination of innovation and regulatory measures has produced
substantial results.

For example technological progress has enabled a ten-fold increase in the sizes of wind turbines, from 50 kW units to 5 MW, in 25 years and a cost reduction of more than 50% over the last 15 years. In consequence, the installed capacity has increased 16 times in the last ten years to reach 40 GW in Europe. In 2005, the world production of photovoltaic modules was 1760 MW compared to 90 MW in 1996. Over the same period, the average module price has decreased from about 10 €/W (1996) to about 3 €/W (2005).The average annual growth rate of about 35% in the past decade makes photovoltaics one of the fastest growing energy industries.

The European technology platforms (ETPs) established in the energy field (hydrogen and fuel cells, photovoltaics, biofuels, solar thermal technologies, wind energy, smart grids, zero-emission fossil fuels power plant) have demonstrated the readiness of the research community and industry, together with other important stakeholders, such as civil society organisations, to develop a common vision and establish specific roadmaps to achieve it. These technology platforms are already having an influence on the European and national programmes. The platforms themselves are calling for action at European level and a framework for the elaboration of large-scale integrated initiatives needs to be developed for this to happen.

Amongst the 64 projects presented by the EC last month, the photovoltaics and biomass were the most important sectors, supported with 66.5 M€ and 82.5 M€ respectively, while for the other sources of renewable energy such as wind, geothermal, solar concentrating and ocean energy 45.5 M€ were spent in total. The socio-economic aspects of renewable energy were also studied in projects funded to the level of 20 M€.

European Commission is now supporting Renewable Energy projects using the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). If you have a project concept and looking for funding, please get in touch using the feedback form below.

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The Emerging Technologies – Augmented Reality

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

What is Augmented Reality or AR? Well, the simplest way to explain it is the new way of displaying a computer generated content over a live view of the world by using a technology device. It is a new way of enhancing the reality around us. Currently, AR is mostly used in television especially in sports review ad analysis. More and more mobile devices are now catching on the Augmented Reality idea and you can now download over 50 Iphone and Android apps just for AR.

For example, if you’re looking for a restaurant, you can hold up your phone in front of your face and the Yelp app will put restaurant names and logos on your screen based on which real direction they are in. Even if you move your phone, the restaurant logos will appear to remain stationary, just like when you move your head in real life.

The European Commission is currently funding several AR projects through FP7 funding. Project ARtSENSE tackles a very important problem in the modern usage of ICT in cultural heritage domain: bridging the gap between the digital world with the physical in a highly flexible way in order to enable a novel, adaptive cultural experience. ARtSENSE aims to develop an active assistants which looks over the user’s shoulder (physcal world) and react on any change in a visitor’s state of interests (user’s world) by adapting the guide (digital world) accordingly.

Besides introducing novel wearable technologies for sensing continuously and non-intrusively the user’s context (visual eye-tracking, audio, physiological biosensing) in order to determine the user’s current interest (mental engagement), ARtSENSE will revolutionize the way how adaptive assistance will be realized: using cutting-edge technology (low weight bidirectional see-through displays) that enables overlaying reality with digital information transparently, including gaze-and gesture-controlled interaction, so that visitors have the feeling that physical objects are directly responding to them. In that way artworks become active artefacts that react on users’ attention and emotions and provide more information about them! This leads to the new generation of mobile museum guides based on the novel concept we call Adaptive Augmented Reality (AR).

Another project using AR is ManuVAR project. The objective of ManuVAR is to develop an innovative technology platform and a framework to support high value manual work throughout the product lifecycle. ManuVAR will cover ergonomics, safety, work assistance, and training. It includes various people from designers to factory workers, operators, maintenance personnel, and end-users. The aims of ManuVAR are to:
– increase productivity and quality, reducing the cost of high value manual work at every stage of the lifecycle;
– facilitate adaptation to product customization and changes;
– support efficient knowledge and skill management;
– improve EU industry competitiveness via knowledge-based business models.

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Understanding Marie Curie Funding – Key Facts

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

1. What type of Marie Curie Projects are there in Framework 7?

There are a number of differing types of Marie Curie Actions in FP7. In addition to the straightforward Intra European Fellowships, there are a variety of different schemes which are detailed below.  Generally Marie Curie actions can be divided into 2 main types:

Host Driven Actions – researchers may apply to an institution that has been selected by the EC for a host driven action. These include:

  • Initial Training Networks (ITNs)
  • Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPPs)

Individual Driven Actions – researchers may prepare a project together with host institutions and submit these to the EC. These include:

  • Intra-European Fellowships(IEFs)
  • International Incoming Fellowships (IIFs)
  • International Outgoing Fellowships (IOFs)
  • European Reintegration Grants (ERGs)
  • International Reintegration Actions (Reint)

In addition there are two one-off Specific Actions – Marie Curie Awards (prize award) and Researcher’s Nights (public open evenings).

2. EC Budgets and the UFS

Each type of Marie Curie award has differing eligible expenditure and reporting requirements. Please select your type of award below for details on the calculation of your EC budget and how this appears in the University Financial System (UFS) budget. Please note that the UFS set up has significantly changed from FP6.

  • Cooperation Programme
  • Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN)
  • Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (IEF)
  • Marie Curie Industry Academia Partnership Pathways (IAPP)
  • Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowships & International Outgoing Fellowships (IIF/IOF)
  • Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant & International Reintegration Grant (ERG/IRG)

3. Payments from the EC

The EC shall make an initial pre-financing payment. Interim payments of the Community financial contribution shall be made corresponding to the amount accepted for each financial management reporting period. The total amount of pre-financing shall not exceed 90% of the maximum Community financial contribution so the full budget will not be received until the end of the project.

4. Timesheets

The completion of timesheets is necessary on all FP7 projects. Please refer to the Timesheets & Framework 7 page. FP7 allows the charging of permanent staff to EC projects for the first time. Any audit of an FP7 grant will require the verification of hours worked, even if 100% of time is to be spent on the project (NB confirmation being sought from UKRO, further information will follow). Monthly timesheets must therefore be completed for all staff employed or charged to an FP7 grant.

5. VAT

VAT continues to be an ineligible cost on FP7 grants and as such, cannot be claimed from the EC. However this VAT is no longer reclaimable from HM Revenue and Customs. This means that VAT incurred on FP7 grants is an additional cost which departments will need to fund from their share of departmental overheads earned.

6. Reporting

The Marie Curie Reporting Guide for FP7 has not yet been published by the EC. Further details on reporting will be issued once the guidelines have been published. Reports must be submitted within strict deadlines at the end of each reporting period (normally 1 month after period ends). These reports include a publishable summary of the project, an explanation of the use of resources and a financial statement (Form C as in FP6).

7. Audit

Your financial statement (Form C) may require an audit in order to obtain a certificate on the financial statement. This replaces the audit certificate in FP6. The requirements for audit have significantly changed in FP7. A certificate on the financial statement is only ever required once expenditure exceeds €375,000 so projects where the EC contribution is less than this will not be audited, even at the project end. For grants of 2 years or less then only one audit is required at the end of the project (even if €400,000 is spent in the 1st period no audit is required until the end of the project).

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FP7 Funding – ICT 8 Call – Cooperative Systems for energy efficient and sustainable mobility

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

This call focuses on technologies for Cooperative Systems as well as a European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for services leveraging those cooperative systems.

Research proposals can be submitted in 2 areas, namely Cooperative Systems for low-carbon multi-modal mobility and the European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for cooperative system enabled services. In addition, budget is reserved for Coordination and Support Actions.

Cooperative Systems for low-carbon multi-modal mobility is covering cooperative applications and services for energy efficiency and eco-friendly mobility based on the harmonised European ITS Communications Architecture and bidirectional vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), road-to-vehicle (R2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies.

European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for cooperative system enabled services is aiming at providing to the drivers and other users a large variety of energy efficiency, mobility, comfort and safety related services.

The coordination and support actions address the- dissemination of results, user awareness campaigns, assessments of socio-economic impact and training.

Objective  ICT-2011.6.7  Cooperative  Systems  for  energy  efficient  and  sustainable mobility

Target Outcome
a)  Cooperative   Systems   for   low-carbon   multi-modal   mobility   covering  cooperative applications  and  services  for  energy  efficiency  and  eco-friendly  mobility  based  on  the harmonised European Communications Architecture 30  and bidirectional vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),   road-to-vehicle   (R2V)   and   vehicle-to-infrastructure   (V2I)   communication technologies:
–    Design,  development  and  testing  of  new  cooperative  and  pro-active  traffic  and  travel management and control strategies based on the availability of reliable real-time system-wide data, including handling of special events and recovery after incidents. 
–    Addressing  the  interaction  between  the  driver,  the  vehicle  and  the  infrastructure,  user acceptance and deployment of cooperative energy efficiency services, taking into account the needs of Fully Electric Vehicles such as integration with charging networks. Liability, privacy, reliability, security and Human Machine Interaction should be addressed as  well.  The  focus  should  be  on  road  transport,  as  this  sector  presents  the  largest challenges. Projects could also address all transport modes according to the principle of co-modality, and include smart urban mobility. 
b)  European  Wide  Service  Platform  (EWSP)  for  cooperative  system  enabled  services, aiming  at  providing  to  the  drivers  and  other  users  a  large  variety  of  energy  efficiency, mobility, comfort and safety related services: 
–    Intelligent combination of wireless communication technologies, development of network and transport communication protocols and security and control mechanisms, and support to their standardisation. 
–    Development  of  the  necessary  EWSP  subsystems  for  service  development,  discovery, provision and administrative operations 
–    Development of interoperable innovative services for the EWSP, based on Future Internet technologies  and  in  coordination  with  activities  under  the  Future  Internet  PPP  of Challenge 1.
c)  Coordination and support actions
–    Dissemination  of  results,  user  awareness  campaigns,  assessments  of  socio-economic impact and training. 
–    In accordance with the specific cooperation agreements with Japan and the USA: active exchange of information and results, and international standardisation and harmonisation. 
The coordination and support actions should include relevant stakeholders in the domain.
Expected Impact
•  Decarbonisation   of   transport.   Significant   improvements   in   energy   efficiency   and environmental friendliness of transport and mobility in Europe – Baseline European ITS communications architecture for cooperative systems developed under the EU funded specific support action COMeSafety, see http://www.comesafety.org/

•  Improving the competitiveness of the European transport industry as a whole, and enabling them  to  continue  to  address  global  markets  successfully.  World  leadership  of  Europe’s automotive industry in the area of Cooperative Systems. 
•  Opening  new  markets  for  mobility,  safety,  energy  efficiency  and  comfort  services  in Europe. Ensuring market leadership by Europe’s industry in green products and services.

Funding Schemes
a) and b): IPs, STREPs; c): CSA

Call
FP7-ICT-2011-8

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ICT-2011.6.3 FP7 ICT 8 Call for efficient water resources management

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

The effective management of water is becoming more and more important as the world’s supply of clean, fresh water is steadily decreasing. ICTs are an important enabler to help improve the management of this valuable natural resource.

They could do so through advanced metering technologies which would for example allow for real-time communication of consumption patterns or through innovative demand forecasting technologies to name just a few examples.
The ICT Programme will fund research and demonstration projects under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) in the near future (2011-2012) as well as a thematic network to bring together the ICT and Water constituencies through the ICT Policy Support Programme of the Competitiveness and Innovation (CIP) . On a broader level, the FP7 is addressing the water challenge through the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WssTP) which brings together key players to promote research and technology in the water sector. The platform developed a common vision for water, including a strategic research agenda, towards integrated water resources management.

Objective ICT-2011.6.3 ICT for efficient water resources management
Water  management  enabled  by  ICT  is  a  new  and  promising  area  with  the objective  to integrate real-time knowledge on demand and supply across water distribution networks and water sources. The work to be done calls for partnerships between ICT equipment providers, software companies and water authorities.

Targeted outcomes:
ICT-enabled solutions for integrated water resources management (IWRM), involving as key building blocks: innovative demand management systems, decision support systems and data management technologies. 

The proposed ICT solutions shall involve robust and proven technologies permitting a holistic approach towards IWRM, and possibly include new data management technologies with real-time predictive capability demand forecasting, advanced metering, real-time communication of  consumption  patterns,  adaptive  pricing,  and/or  combined  energy  and  water  management schemes.
Projects  should  cover:

(i)  research  and  innovative  integration  of  solutions, 

(ii)  substantial validation  of  these  in  at  least  two  real-life  operational  environments  in  collaboration  with responsible  water  authorities  and  utilities,

(iii)  evaluation  of  their  anticipated  cost  and benefits and market prospects.

Consortia must be compact with partners each making substantial contributions.

Expected impact:
–   New  partnerships  between  European  water  distributors,  water  management  equipment suppliers and the ICT sector.
–   Enhanced  supervision  of  water  networks  leading  to  better  management  of  supply  and flows, and quantifiable water consumption reduction.

Funding schemes:
STREPs 
 
Indicative budget distribution

EUR 25 million

Call
FP7-ICT-2011-8

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UK is investing in Technology & Innovation Centres (announced by the TSB)

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

Following last week’s announcement by Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, that the next technology and innovation centre will be in offshore renewable energy. The technology Strategy Board (TSB) has already published a list of ten further candidate areas.

Three out of the ten candidate areas, which are named in the Board’s strategy and implementation plan for the centres, will be the focus of new centres designed to make the UK a world leader in their fields.

The purpose of technology and innovation centres is to promote the UK’s economic development and the centres are expected to help generate billions of pounds for British companies and the economy.

According to Business Secretary Vince Cable, technology and innovation centres are a new approach to linking research with the practical needs of the business world.  Once operational, the centres will produce innovations which could help to make the UK a world leader in a range of markets.

A technology and innovation centre is a physical, business-focused centre where world-leading technologies and research capabilities are available to businesses to help them solve their commercialisation challenges and produce innovations which can be developed commercially, with the potential to create multi-billion pound global business opportunities.

The offshore renewable energy technology and innovation centre announced last week is the third to be launched, joining high value manufacturing and cell therapy as areas already given approval to go ahead.

The next three centres will be selected from:

  • Complex systems
  • Digital media/creative industries
  • Future cities
  • Future internet systems
  • Photonics
  • Resource efficiency
  • Sensor systems
  • Smart grids and distribution
  • Space
  • Transport systems and integration

It is very likely that TSB Technology funding “themes” for this year and next year will be also chosen from the list above.

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What is Innovation according to the European Commission?

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

It is one of those questions that if you ask 100 people, you will probably get 100 different answers. According to Oxford Dictionary, Innovation is a new method, idea, product. But is that so?

For me, innovation in its simplest form is exploiting new ideas and concepts according to the NEED. This need can be a technological need and/or a societal need. Most successful European Commission projects will focus on a NEED and they will have an IDEA to solve this NEED, a technology to realise this IDEA. This is simply called the NIT (Need/Idea/Technology) Analysis. All European Commission funded projects and proposals has to have a solid NIT to support them.

The European Commission also uses another very important analysis to rate potential projects. The PESTLES:

Political – Political drivers behind the concept

Environmental - Environmental factors to be considered

Social – Societal and social aspects of the concepts

Technological – Technology viability and innovation

Legal - Legislative and legal drivers that support the concept

Economical - Economical viability of the product and service and impact on EU

Scale – Scalability of the product/service

Your project concept must tick most of the PESTLES boxes above. To discuss the best way to convert your technology concept to a EC funded project, please feel free to contact me using the form below.

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Framework Programme 7 (FP7) ICT Call 8 – Cooperative Systems for energy efficient and sustainable mobility

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

This call focuses on technologies for Cooperative Systems as well as a European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for services leveraging those cooperative systems.

Research proposals can be submitted in 2 areas, namely Cooperative Systems for low-carbon multi-modal mobility and the European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for cooperative system enabled services. In addition, budget is reserved for Coordination and Support Actions.

Cooperative Systems for low-carbon multi-modal mobility is covering cooperative applications and services for energy efficiency and eco-friendly mobility based on the harmonised European ITS Communications Architecture and bidirectional vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), road-to-vehicle (R2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies.

European Wide Service Platform (EWSP) for cooperative system enabled services is aiming at providing to the drivers and other users a large variety of energy efficiency, mobility, comfort and safety related services.

The coordination and support actions address the- dissemination of results, user awareness campaigns, assessments of socio-economic impact and training.

Expected impact

  • Decarbonisation of transport. Significant improvements in energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of transport and mobility in Europe
  • Improving the competitiveness of the European transport industry as a whole, and enabling them to continue to address global markets successfully. World leadership of Europe’s automotive industry in the area of Cooperative Systems.
  • Opening new markets for mobility, safety, energy efficiency and comfort services in Europe.
  • Ensuring market leadership by Europe’s industry in green products and services.

Call

FP7-ICT-2011-8, closing 17 Jan 2012

If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a reply using the form below.

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Framework Programme 7 (FP7) ICT Call 8 – Cloud Computing, Internet of Services and Advanced Software Engineering

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

This call focuses on technologies for the networked, distributed dimension of software and access to services and data. It will support long-term research that enables software developers to easily create interoperable services based on open standards, with sufficient flexibility and at a reasonable cost.

Research proposals can be submitted in 3 areas, namely Cloud Computing, Internet of Services, and Advanced Software Engineering. In addition, budget is reserved for Coordination and Support Actions.

Cloud Computing provides on-demand resources, e.g. servers, storage, networking, software and information; customers can scale up or down and pay for what they use. It is expected that the Cloud Computing trend will change the market and the structure of the IT and telecommunications industries. However, a report by a group of experts highlighted open research issues, for instance related to scalability, interoperability, mobility, energy efficiency, etc. (see link below). These research issues should be addressed in Objective 1.2.

The Internet of Services vision foresees many, many connected IT services, which are offered, bought, sold, used, and composed by service providers, consumers, aggregators, and brokers. Anyone can develop new services and make them available for others to use or build upon. The result is a new way of offering, using, and organising IT supported functionality. This research stream builds upon the work done in previous Work Programmes, and focuses on research issues arising from dealing with a massive amount of services.

The Advanced Software Engineering goes to the core of the objective, namely software engineering. It targets software engineering techniques to cope with the challenges that are brought forward by the Future Internet and Internet-scale applications. In addition, research is welcomed in tools and methods for community-based software development.

Call

FP7-ICT-2011-8, closing 17 Jan 2012

If you have any questions or suggestions, just use the feedback form below.

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Framework Programme 7 (FP7) ICT 8 Calls – Smart Energy Grids

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Cagri Yilmaz

European Commission FP7 programme is the biggest public funding programme in Europe. It consists of thematic and non-thematic funding programmes. One of the current themes for funding is Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) funding in Smart Energy Grids. Information and Communication Technologies have a major role to play in increasing the efficiency, as well as managing and controlling the power grid. The role of the ICT sector in smart grids has been summarised in a report issued by the Commission in July 2009 entitled “ICT for a Low Carbon Economy. Smart Electricity Distribution Networks”.

Objective ICT-2011.6.1 Smart Energy Grids
The integration of local renewable energy sources represents a key technical challenge. The
successful combination of smart processes (e.g. demand side/response management, real-time consumption management) and smart technologies (e.g. smart meters, intelligent home energy management devices) will enable energy efficiency and savings to be achieved.

Targeted Outcome:
Intelligent systems and integrated communication infrastructure that can assist in the
management of the electricity distribution grids in an optimized, controlled and secure
manner.

Key research challenges to be addressed:
a) Strengthening the distribution grid by providing control systems, management and decision support tools that enable the integration of renewable energy sources, both large scalevproduction (e.g. wind and solar farms) and massively distributed production (e.g.
residential and tertiary buildings).
b) Advancing security and reliability, as well as protection of equipment, fault detection and alert, and self-healing through development of the necessary high power electronics.
c) Data management infrastructures to allow electricity production and consumption to be
measured, reported and controlled (and eventually credited or billed).
d) Home energy controlling hubs that will collect real-time or near real-time data on energy consumption data from smart household appliances and enable intelligent automation.
e) Building consensus on industry-driven open standards to ensure the interoperability of
smart grids control and management systems.
Projects should focus on one or a combination of the previous points.

Consortia must be compact with partners each making substantial contributions.In all cases, projects shall include an appropriate validation phase to draw conclusions for
future deployment.

Expected Impact:
• Connection and operation of distributed and intermittent generators of diverse
technologies enabled by ICT.
• Demand side and demand response management enabled by innovative decision support
systems.
• Producers and consumers allowed to play a novel role in the management of their energy
consumption.
• Quantifiable and significant reductions of energy consumption in the electricity
distribution grid, leading to reduction of the overall environmental impact of electricity
grids.
• Enhanced levels of reliability and security of electricity supply.
• For e), reinforced collaboration between the European electricity suppliers and
distributors, energy equipment manufacturers of all sizes, and the ICT sector.

Funding schemes
a), b), c) and d): STREP
e): CSA

Call
FP7-ICT-2011-8

If you are planning to apply for FP7 funding, please get in touch using the form below.

 

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