ERA-NET ACENET event in Lisbon
10 December 2007 - 11 December 2007
Netherlands
ACENET Event within the Frame of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union Council
Since 2004, the ERA-NET “ACENET” has been bringing together ministries and national funding agencies from various EU member states in order to foster collaboration and cooperation between national research programmes funding projects in Applied Catalysis. As part of these activities and in collaboration with one of its constitute bodies, Portugal’s Science and Technology Foundation FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), ACENET will be holding a strategic discussion meeting with high-level stakeholders from national and regional governments, the European Commission, science, industry and other networks in order to underline the role of Applied Catalysis for sustainable development and prosperity and to identify how ACENET can contribute to this in the future. The meeting will take place in Lisbon on the 10th and 11th December 2007 and is scheduled to be opened by Professor José Mariano Gago, Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education. Other contributors will include Professor Ioannis Tsoukalas, Secretary General of the Greek Council for Research and Technology and Professor Rodney Townsend, Director of Science of the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry and, as of the 1st January 2008, Chairman of the Board of SusChem, the European technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry.
Applied Catalysis is a highly interdisciplinary science encompassing chemistry, chemical engineering, bioscience and materials and engineering science as well as other fields. It also has a large potential to address many areas of socio-economic activity as well as key European challenges, such as those of sustainability, energy and climate protection. The OECD for example, estimates that 30% to 40% of the gross national products of developed economies, such as those of the EU Member States, depend on catalysts and catalysis-based technologies. As such, Applied Catalysis therefore, has a large impact on world-wide economic and social prosperity and is thus a vital enabling technology for Europe.
Recognising the need for improving the coordination of national research activities in the various European States, the European Commission created the “ERA-NET” scheme within its Sixth Framework Programme of which ACENET, the Applied Catalysis European NETwork, is a prime example.
Co-ordinated by ACTS, the platform for Advanced Chemical Technologies for Sustainability of the Netherlands’ Organisation for Scientific Research NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek), ministries and agencies from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have come together within ACENET in order to strengthen the activities of the European Research Area (ERA) in this technology. Indeed, eight of these countries launched the first transnational European research call in Applied Catalysis in May of this year which was entitled “Innovative, Sustainable Catalytic Processes with Improved Energy and Carbon Efficiency”. The call has received much attention from the catalysis community and various international project consortia have been invited to tend full proposals following the evaluation of project pre-proposals in September. Successful projects are expected to start during the summer of 2008.
For further information about the Lisbon meeting or ACENET see www.acenet.net (under Public Events) or please contact:
ACENET Coordination and Secretariat
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Dr. Louis Vertegaal (Director NWO-CW, -EW and ACTS)
Dr. Arlette Werner
51, Anna van Saksenlaan
P.O. Box 93223
NL-2509 AE The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)70 3440835
Fax: +31 (0)70 3440787
E-mail: werner@nwo.nl
The Hague / Lisbon, 29th November 2007
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to ACENET. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of ACENET and could cause these results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press communiqué. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this disclaimer. Results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press communiqué and readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release.Logo's of ACENET and the EU Portuguese Presidency are available on request.
Since 2004, the ERA-NET “ACENET” has been bringing together ministries and national funding agencies from various EU member states in order to foster collaboration and cooperation between national research programmes funding projects in Applied Catalysis. As part of these activities and in collaboration with one of its constitute bodies, Portugal’s Science and Technology Foundation FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), ACENET will be holding a strategic discussion meeting with high-level stakeholders from national and regional governments, the European Commission, science, industry and other networks in order to underline the role of Applied Catalysis for sustainable development and prosperity and to identify how ACENET can contribute to this in the future. The meeting will take place in Lisbon on the 10th and 11th December 2007 and is scheduled to be opened by Professor José Mariano Gago, Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education. Other contributors will include Professor Ioannis Tsoukalas, Secretary General of the Greek Council for Research and Technology and Professor Rodney Townsend, Director of Science of the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry and, as of the 1st January 2008, Chairman of the Board of SusChem, the European technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry.
Applied Catalysis is a highly interdisciplinary science encompassing chemistry, chemical engineering, bioscience and materials and engineering science as well as other fields. It also has a large potential to address many areas of socio-economic activity as well as key European challenges, such as those of sustainability, energy and climate protection. The OECD for example, estimates that 30% to 40% of the gross national products of developed economies, such as those of the EU Member States, depend on catalysts and catalysis-based technologies. As such, Applied Catalysis therefore, has a large impact on world-wide economic and social prosperity and is thus a vital enabling technology for Europe.
Recognising the need for improving the coordination of national research activities in the various European States, the European Commission created the “ERA-NET” scheme within its Sixth Framework Programme of which ACENET, the Applied Catalysis European NETwork, is a prime example.
Co-ordinated by ACTS, the platform for Advanced Chemical Technologies for Sustainability of the Netherlands’ Organisation for Scientific Research NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek), ministries and agencies from France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have come together within ACENET in order to strengthen the activities of the European Research Area (ERA) in this technology. Indeed, eight of these countries launched the first transnational European research call in Applied Catalysis in May of this year which was entitled “Innovative, Sustainable Catalytic Processes with Improved Energy and Carbon Efficiency”. The call has received much attention from the catalysis community and various international project consortia have been invited to tend full proposals following the evaluation of project pre-proposals in September. Successful projects are expected to start during the summer of 2008.
For further information about the Lisbon meeting or ACENET see www.acenet.net (under Public Events) or please contact:
ACENET Coordination and Secretariat
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
Dr. Louis Vertegaal (Director NWO-CW, -EW and ACTS)
Dr. Arlette Werner
51, Anna van Saksenlaan
P.O. Box 93223
NL-2509 AE The Hague
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)70 3440835
Fax: +31 (0)70 3440787
E-mail: werner@nwo.nl
The Hague / Lisbon, 29th November 2007
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to ACENET. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of ACENET and could cause these results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press communiqué. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this disclaimer. Results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press communiqué and readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release.Logo's of ACENET and the EU Portuguese Presidency are available on request.