The mission of hunting emissions
More than 100 researchers and manufacturers from the automotive industry gathered in Rueil Malmaison near Paris on 12 and 13 February in order to discuss the car of the future. 'The mission is hunting the emissions,' said German MEP Bernd Lange, although the challenge of reducing fuel consumption was recognised as equally important at the meeting. Researchers reported on past and present projects, supported by the European Commission, which are seeking to meet these objectives. Over 40 such projects, worth around 200 million euro were represented at the workshop. All projects are being carried out under the PREMTECH thematic network, initiated in 1997 to identify linkages between projects dealing with the development of clean, efficient and intelligent internal combustion engines running on conventional or cleaner fuels. Head of the European Commission's Unit for inland transport and marine technology Christos Tokamanis referred to PREMTECH, as a 'flavour of the European Research Area (ERA)'. Indeed, the network facilitates project integration, thus improving synergy and facilitating technology transfer, and accelerates result dissemination and analysis. For the first time, representatives from the EU's Member States were also invited to attend the workshop. This was part of the Commission's plan to widen the audience so that when the next call comes, only the best projects are put forward. The next call will open on 15 June 2001, and will have a budget of around 90 million euro. In the past, 40 per cent of the available budget has been awarded to road transport projects, 40 per cent to marine projects and 20 per cent to rail transport projects. It is envisaged by the European Commission that around 20 road transport projects will receive funding following the next call, half of which are likely to deal with manufacturing methods and half with power trains. Daniel Chiron from the Commission's inland transport and marine technology unit reminded prospective tenderers of what makes a successful tender, saying it is not sufficient to be innovative, you must also describe very well the socio-economic aspects of the project. Concluding the conference, Mr Chiron emphasised that much effort is still needed in power train research in order to meet the objectives set out for land transport and marine technologies in the Growth Programme of the Commission's Fifth Framework programme and to develop zero or near zero emission power trains.