ERA's first virtual institute launched
17 partners from maritime and business research organisations and industry in 11 European countries will begin combining their capabilities and expertise on 2 May as the EU's first virtual institute, the European Virtual Maritime Institute (Evimar) is launched. Such institutes are intended to link geographically scattered, complementary research and industrial elements so that research results may be transferred and implemented rapidly. 'Pooling excellence is one of the main ideas of the European Research Area [ERA], but that does not necessarily mean pooling excellence in one geographical spot,' said EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin. Once it is firmly established, a virtual institute should become an independent and self-financing legal entity, providing services and consultancy for European customers. The institute aims to help Europe's maritime industry meet the challenges that it has faced in recent years. With ever increasing globalisation, the marine industry urgently needs to embrace novel technical solutions and to adopt long term thinking. The virtual institute should support the rapid and efficient delivery of innovative tools and solutions to help the European maritime sector compete and achieve sustainability efficiency and safety and to reduce environmental impact. The institute will also provide the industry with a long term focus. Being the first such institute, Evimar still faces a number of challenges. A principal challenge will be creating an infrastructure that will both alleviate the drawbacks of working apart physically and support efficient internal and external communications. Partners must also succeed in convincing more conservative clients of the virtual institute's potential. The Commission proposes to create virtual institutes in other areas, including precision engineering and nanotechnology, laser technology, product-oriented simulation, industrial chemometrics and metrology and recycling and jewellery technology.