The University of Birmingham is set to host the first European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) Conference since its establishment on 24 - 25 November 2016.
The conference, organised by EERA, and sponsored by the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA), Energy Systems Catapult and Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), will be a forum for over 200 researchers in academic, industry and policy, representing more than 175 research organisations, to discuss low-carbon research.
The European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) contributes to coordinate a vast public research effort to develop more efficient and cheaper low carbon energy technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels, building a ‘smart’ electricity grid, harnessing energy from oceans and underground heat sources, as well as finding new ways to store and use energy instead of wasting it.
EERA is the public research pillar of the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). This strategy aims at accelerating the development and market uptake of key low carbon technologies.
The goal is to provide the opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas between joint programmes to discuss topics of common interest, and to input into the objectives of the SET-Plan and EU policy priorities in energy research.
A key objective of EERA is to accelerate the development of new energy technologies by conceiving and implementing Joint Research Programmes in support of Strategic Energy Technologies (SET) plan by pooling and integrating activities and resources, combining national and community sources of funding, and maximising complementary initiatives.
Professor Martin Freer, Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute said:
‘We look forward to welcoming delegates to our lively campus and the city of Birmingham in 2016. With a critical mass of strategic investments, and triple-helix collaborations between industry, academia and the local authority, Birmingham is fast gaining a reputation as Britain’s ‘Energy Capital’.’
Dr Nick Eyre, UKERC Co-Director & Jackson Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, said:
‘We expect the conference to become a platform for the many researchers active in EERA to exchange ideas about ongoing research, we well as how to develop our joint programmes. It is part of creating a vibrant European-wide community of energy researchers.’