For the first time the European research initiative EUREKA will be represented with its own stand at the trade fair Research & Technology at the Hall 2 of the HANNOVER MESSE 2010 (19-23 April). This presentation underlines the strategic importance of the Innovations Market for Research and Development.

As the Luuk Borg, Director of EUREKA’s ESE Office said, EUREKA’s participation emphasizes its contribution as a central European platform with respect to the international networking of industrial research, technological progress and innovation. HANNOVER MESSE affords an ideal setting due to its huge high-tech diversity and international scope, not least the exhibitors and visitors from numerous countries. No other single event offers us such a convincing combination of important factors - Hannover is uniquely suited as a showcase for our initiative.

EUREKA network will be represented by a number of top flight speakers, experts and projects. A matchmaking event involving a number of EUREKA experts sharing their experience will also take place at the EUREKA stand during the whole duration of the fair. Read more here!

This first Norwegian-French-British 4-year project, labeled by EUROGIA+ and being funded by both Gassnova and French DGCIS cumulated more than 11 Million Euros.  This is a major success which was all done within 9 months. If the Hurum site is found to be suitable, the project will go forward into its implementation phase (2010 – 2013) and the site could become a green laboratory next year: a unique tool for scientists who are developing the technology needed for secure underground storage of captured CO₂.

The Hurum project is part of the efforts of scientists, industry and the authorities in several countries to develop technology capable of capturing and storing the greenhouse gas CO₂ emitted by coal- and gas-fuelled power stations and by other industrial plants. Efficient CO₂ capture and its subsequent underground storage in porous rocks is regarded as one of a number of important measures that need to be taken to combat global warming. In comparison with the size of such storage sites, only extremely modest amounts of CO₂ will be pumped into the ground beneath Hurum. The idea is to test current methods for monitoring how the CO₂ behaves deep below the surface at different storage sites, and thereby contribute to the development of regulations and procedures for CO₂ storage monitoring.

With SINTEF acting as project manager, Norwegian, French and British scientists from both academia and industry are launching a geological pilot study that will determine whether the Hurum site is suitable for experiments of this sort, and whether implementing the plans for a laboratory is justifiable in environmental and safety terms. According to SINTEF, no other field laboratory anywhere in the world will simultaneously test so many monitoring methods at such depths as here.

The project at Hurum has been successfully submitted to EUROGIA+, the R&D programme for Low Carbon Energy Technologies sitting within the intergovernmental EUREKA procedure

Pilot studies have been carried out at several other locations, but Svelvik Ridge has emerged as the most suitable site in Norway for testing for CO₂ monitoring systems.

MaxCaps Research Project has been launched as a project within the European Medea+ (a EUREKA cluster) research programme. The research project aims at developing methods to integrate capacitors on silicon chips, thereby cutting the number of discrete capacitors at present mounted on printed circuit boards (PCB) by nearly 30 per cent.

Designers can, by integrating capacitors on to the silicon die, omit discrete capacitors, thus cutting the number of components and soldered connections. This helps them shrink PCB sizes and also improve the reliability.

It is a generally known fact that soldered connections are one of the most common causes of defects. To integrate the capacitors, the research group will search for alternatives to the silicon-dioxide and silicon-nitride materials used at present as dielectrics in the production of semiconductors.

The MaxCaps Research Project aims at developing new isolating materials with a dielectric constant of 50 and above. The production processes needed to handle these materials are also being researched. Most major semiconductor manufacturers of Europe are participating in the project. They include: Chipmakers NXP and STMicroelectronics and Analog Devices, equipment vendors ASMI and Aixtron, in addition to research institutes CEA-LETI and IMEC as well as many universities.

Infineon is coordinating the activities of the research project. The European Union (EU) is partially funding the MaxCaps Research Project, with €2.75 million (around $ 4 million). The results of the project are expected in 2011.

This year’s Eurostars Funding Agencies Conference took place on Thursday 1 October in Brussels. Over 55 participants representing many of the Eurostars participating countries, funding agencies and representatives from the European Commission were present. Future cooperation of funding agencies, synchronisation and further involvement at a regional level were the main topics on the agenda.

Luuk Borg, who heads the EUREKA Secretariat (ESE) and responsible for the Eurostars Programme, opened the conference. “This is the beginning of a long and fruitful way of collaboration between member states and funding agencies,” he said, adding that funding agencies are greatly involved in EUREKA activities. The aim of the conference was to convince, challenge and bring the right questions to the participants in order to make the Eurostars Programme even better. “The Eurostars Programme works well and has attracted a number of other initiatives like ERA-Net, Cornet and EraSME,” Borg added in his conclusion of the first session.

Michel Vanavermaete, IT and Projects manager (ESE), with Peter Chisnall, Eurostars Scientific and Technical Advisor spoke of the technical aspects and the funding availability of Eurostars. They explained the different stages of the evaluation process as well as the application procedures. The process, set-up and management structure of the Programme were further explained.

David Garlot, EUREKA’s R&D and Trends Analyst, presented the results of the previous Eurostars Programme application cut-offs and the most important trends. Most interesting to note is that 80% of applicants are R&D-performing SMEs, suggesting that Eurostars is reaching its main target. The main technological areas, representing more than 80% of applications come from ICT, biotechnology and industrial technologies.

Veerle Notaert, Administration and Chair Support manager (ESE), explained the bilateral agreements between ESE and the national funding agencies and their legal background.

The afternoon session of the conference was dedicated to a lively debate on ‘The potential regional dimension of the Eurostars Programme’ and ‘Future Cooperation of the National Funding Bodies within Eurostars’.

Advantages and disadvantages of developing the regional dimension of Eurostars; increasing Eurostars funding through the regions or through the increase of national committed budget; and where the Eurostars programme is doing well in terms of synchronisation were some of the questions answered by members of the panel.

The fourth Eurostars Programme application cut-off date is Thursday 25th February 2010.

Luuk Borg, Head of the ESE and Theodosius Lennon, of Directorate T at DG Research at the Secretariat’s Brussels office

The EUREKA Secretariat (ESE) and the Research Directorate-General of the European Commission have officially signed a delegation agreement, enabling the ESE to manage the EU participation in the Eurostars Programme. This agreement was signed by Luuk Borg, Head of the ESE and Theodosius Lennon, of Directorate T at DG Research at the Secretariat’s Brussels office on 21 August 2009.

The EU is participating in Eurostars with a contribution of 100 million euro for the period 2008 – 2013.

This was taken from the Israel Catalonia Chamber of Commerce:

Israel belongs to the Asian continent, but when it comes to research and development the US and Europe seem closer to home. And like most countries operating in today’s global village, Israel relies on cooperation with industrial partners from the European Union and the US to propel its high-tech and biotech products into the world market.

As evidence of its leading role in research and development, Israel has been chosen to head the largest R&D network in the world, the “EUREKA initiative”, a pan-European, inter-governmental initiative that supports European innovation and sees investments of 1.5 billion euro every year.

Since joining the program in 2000, Israel, the only non-European member country, has been among the most active of the 40 members.

In 1985, EUREKA was set up as a legal framework within which European companies could collaborate and receive government funding. Thanks to a political push from France and Germany, Israel was granted permission to join Eureka as a full member.

“It’s a very unique occasion,” Israel Shamay, Israel’s national project coordinator for EUREKA, from ” the Israeli Industry Center for R&D (MATIMOP) “, tells ISRAEL21c. However, Shamay believes that the vote that led to an Israeli representative being chosen to chair the network was an obvious choice, after Israel proved itself among the member countries.

“In the last three years, Israel became one of the five most active members in EUREKA and had the same number of projects compared to [EU] countries, which are much bigger. Out of nearly 300 new projects initiated by EUREKA, in 2008, we had 40 with Israeli companies participating in them.”

Read more here

Annette Schavan, minister at the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research) today officially launched the German EUREKA Chairmanship year at the ‘World-Class Innovation through International Cooperation’ Conference in Dresden, attended by some 300 representatives of government, industry, academia and trade associations.

“In these times of economic crisis, now is the moment for researchers and innovators in Europe to exploit the international cooperation promoted by EUREKA and strengthen cross-border ties,” she said. “Both the stability of the EU Seventh Framework Programme and the flexibility of EUREKA should be better utilised to
mobilise Europe’s innovative potential.”

Read more here.

At the 2009 Innovation Days event in Lisbon, Blogactiv was able to speak to Jerzy Tokarski. Jerzy works for EUREKA NPC in Poland and displayed and explained some of the new products and innovations on the EUREKA stands.

At the EUREKA Innovation Days event in Lisbon, Blogactiv was able to speak to Heinz Bruggemann. Mr Bruggemann is Director of Celtic Telecommunication Solutions in Heidelberg, Germany. He spoke to us about Eureka and the impact they have.