bcb has participated in the IV Conference on the FP7 in Valenciadue to their Celtic programme work.
The Conference “The European Framework Programmes: From Economic Recovery to Sustainability (R2S)” has been the key public event in a series of new Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as cornerstone of the smart investments of the European Economic Recovery Plan:
* Factories of the Future (FoF).
* Energy Efficient Buildings (EeB).
* Green Cars (GCI).
* Future Internet (FI).
During the week, there have been several side events, as Celtic, NESSI summit, Spanish ICT Innovation Industry.
Factories of the Future
PPP consists of a research programme of € 1.2 billion to support the manufacturing industry in the development of new and sustainable technologies. The programme is financed jointly by industry and the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. The objective is to help EU manufacturing enterprises, in particular SMEs, to adapt to global competitive pressures by improving the technological base of EU manufacturing across a broad range of sectors.
Energy-efficient buildings
PPP consists of a financial envelope of € 1 billion to boost the construction sector, and aims at promoting green technologies and the development of energy efficient systems and materials in new and renovated buildings – this, with a view to radically reducing their energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The programme is financed jointly by industry and the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7).
The Green Cars
PPP has a foreseen envelope of €5 billion to boost to the automotive industry in a time of economic hardship, and support the development of new, sustainable forms of road transport. The scope of this initiative is really broad, and research is just one part of it. These financial support measures will be supplemented by demand-side measures, involving regulatory action by Member States and the EU, such as the reduction of car registration taxes on low CO2 cars to stimulate car purchase by citizens.
The Future Internet
PPP has been recently initiated and proposed by industry on the basis of collaborative work that has been ongoing since mid-2008. An essential characteristic of such a PPP should be to develop open, standardised, cross-sector service platforms. From a European policy perspective, sectors such as healthcare, mobility, environment and energy management are prime candidates to benefit from novel ‘smart’ – internet-empowered – infrastructures, which will facilitate the rapid take-up and adoption of services by millions of users and consumers.
