Spain and Norway, hand in hand in Europe
The Environmental and Climate Change-related Research and Technology Programme operated by CDTI and co-financed by EEA Grants has obtained excellent results, not only regarding the number of projects funded or their contribution to society but also the fact that the cooperation between companies from Spain and Norway will be extended to other European Open Calls.
24.11.2015
Spain and Norway, thanks to the EEA Grants, have found in applied research related to energy and environment the perfect field for working together. The objective now is to extend the cooperation developed under the EEA Grants to other European Union grant programmes.
For that reason, CDTI organized the seminar “European financing mechanisms for R&D within the energy and environment sector”, which brought together representatives from Spanish and Norwegian companies, over 130 people, aiming at assessing the opportunities that offer programmes such as Horizon2020, Eureka and Eurostar for the development of joint projects. And the prospects are excellent.
“Norway is proving to be a reliable partner for Spain in European Open Calls”, pointed out María Luisa Poncela, Chairman of CDTI, in the opening of the event. “We firmly believe in the value of cooperation with strong partners such as Spain”, highlighted the Norwegian Ambassador in Spain, Johan Vibe.
The excellent collaboration between CDTI and its donor programme partner, Innovation Norway, made it possible that 43 out of 164 projects developed within the programme had a Norwegian (40) or Icelandic partner (3). This programme received 18 million euros out of the total 46 million received by Spain in the period 2009-2014.
A good example of bilateral cooperation is Samer Project, developed by the Spanish company Técnicas Reunidas and the Norwegian Sintef –the Scandinavia’s largest independent research organization- as donor project partner. The project consists of the development of a zinc-air redox flow battery for grid-scale energy storage, low cost and environmentally-friendly.
Técnicas Reunidas provided their battery and zinc knowledge and Sintef their know-how in electrodes. The results is being extremely positive, a big jump in this kind of technology. However there is still a long road ahead which both partners want to continue walking together.
“It has been a very positive experience and I would stress the fluid communication and the complementary scientific competence and experience”, explained Luis César Colmenares, from Sintef. “We have found in Sintef the right partner to move forward with this technology”, added Manuel Pérez, from Técnicas Reunidas.