Environment and sustainable development: 165 research projects win funding
The European Commission has now approved the first batch of projects to be funded under the Environment and Sustainable Development sub programme of the Energy Environment and Sustainable Development (EESD) component of the Fifth RTD Framework Programme. The 165 approved projects will receive 207 million euro of EU funds from the EESD programme's total budget of 2125 million euro. The projects focus on the areas of the EESD work programme opened up by the first call for proposals. These were: sustainable management and quality of water; global change; climate and biodiversity; sustainable marine ecosystems and the city of tomorrow and cultural heritage. 'The projects selected show that the problem-solving and integrated approach of the Fifth Framework Programme, involving all stakeholders such as policy makers and end-users, has been grasped by the proposers', commented Mr Philippe Busquin, the European Commissioner for Research. The Commission received a total of 951 valid proposals, involving almost 8000 partners, in response to its first call in this area. The successful projects were picked following evaluation by independent experts, who prepared a shortlist of the projects they recommended for funding under FP5. The majority of proposals reflected widely held opinion that only integrated or multidisciplinary approaches can lead to sustainability in the long run, according to the Research Directorate-General. In the Key Action 'Sustainable management and quality of water', for example, the Commission says: 'The FIRMA project will apply modelling tools to integrate the hydrological, social and economic aspects of water resource management. The resulting models will improve current assessment methodologies by representing customers, suppliers and policy-makers concerned with issues such as waste water, water scarcity and integrated catchment planning.' Major clusters have also been established in all main areas of the Environment and Sustainable development sub-programme. The ongoing Eloise cluster (European land-ocean interaction studies), for example, is now complemented with six new projects from two different Key Actions (sustainable management and quality of water and sustainable marine ecosystems). Eloise is now the largest coastal research initiative in the world, with 35 projects involving partners from 24 countries, including Eastern Europe and North Africa. The projects will focus on new tools for integrated coastal zone management. The newly selected projects demonstrate a stronger socio-economic dimension and policy relevance than in former Framework Programmes, reports the Commission. This, it says, is linked to the requirement to focus on research activities that can make a valuable contribution to tackling problems of socio-economic interest with relevance to European citizens. The LUTR cluster project selected under the Key Action for the 'city of tomorrow and cultural heritage', for example, aims to reduce urban pollution and congestion - both threats to sustainability. The LUTR cluster aims to develop strategic approaches to reduce the long-term demands on urban transport systems. It links five different projects looking to reduce people's dependency on cars by promoting coherent and efficient transport and land-use policies in cities. Projects funded under the Key Action for 'sustainable management and quality of water' reflected how more research in the field of water management is regulation driven: 'Most of the selected projects will deliver inputs for current European regulation or future policy actions', says the Research DG. 'The PURE project illustrates this well, It aims to prevent contamination of groundwater by pollutants from industrial sites. The project will improve the knowledge base in the areas of soil pollution, where there is as yet no European policy'. Research within the 'generic activities' section of the Environment and Sustainable development sub-programme also appears to be driven by the need to lead to positive socio-economic impacts, according the Commission. It cites the newly selected DEEP project, which aims to develop 'effective and efficient product information schemes as important means to progress towards sustainable development. There has also been a strong push towards new topics. The Commission has highlighted the 'Demeter' project (for the development of a European multi-model ensemble for seasonal to interannual prediction) as an example of an important new topic under the Key Action for 'global change, climate and biodiversity'. The project is aimed at developing and testing an advanced forecast system for seasonal climate prediction over three to six-month periods. The project, says the Commission, could benefit workers in the health, agriculture and insurance industries. Additionally, with user feedback, the Demeter project is hoped to produce a quantitative assessment of the forecast system's economic value and its possible impacts on EU policies. Other areas of research now receiving funds from the EESD programme include studies of the socio-economic aspects of sustainable management of water ecosystems and reducing the effects of anthropogenic activities on the marine environment and recovering degraded marine systems. The Key Action for the 'city of tomorrow and cultural heritage' is also covering new ground, taking a novel approach by integrating different approaches to urban sustainability, cultural heritage, the built environment and transport within a single programme. For example, a cluster of seven projects is being supported in the area of 'urban governance'. It is hoped to lead to a more comprehensive overview of how best to achieve sustainable development in urban areas. More detailed information about the response to the first round of calls for proposals for the Environment and Sustainable development component of the EESD programme will shortly be available on-line at the Research Directorate-General's web site at: URL: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research