Sustainable energy
The Academy's four-year SusEn programme will be funded during 2008–2011. The Academy Board has allocated nine million euros for the programme. The Academy's all four Research Councils were involved in the planning of the programme. Other possible funding partners include the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation, Fortum Oyj, Neste Oil Oyj and UPM-Kymmene Oyj.
OBJECTIVES
The objective of the research programme is to strengthen basic research in the energy field as well as to harmonise research on environmentally friendly energy production with economic factors even at the early stages of research. The aim is also to deepen active, basic research-oriented dialogue between researchers and industrial actors and at the same time create mechanisms for rapid and effective utilisation of new knowledge. The programme aims to support doctoral studies in fields relevant from the energy industry's point of view as well as to increase international networking and national multidisciplinary cooperation among researchers.
PROGRAMME CONTENT AND THEMATIC AREAS
The programme will focus on researching and developing raw materials, technologies and processes relating to energy production and energy use, and to analyse the socio-economic and political systems used to manage these. New opportunities offered by new technology in energy research include decentralised energy systems and large-scale production units. A number of methods are needed to effectively limit greenhouse gas emissions, and a key goal of the programme is to study, compare and harmonise these methods.
The general themes of the Sustainable Energy Research Programme are environmental and health issues. The programme themes are divided into three categories:
New technology for energy production
An effective energy system
Energy use efficiency
FUNDING COLLABORATION
The SusEn programme is intended to involve national programme cooperation mainly with Tekes' technology programmes and the Academy's Power in Finland programme.
International cooperation will be carried out with the Nordic Innovative Energy Research Programme. The programme's call will be opened on 1 March 2007. Besides the Academy, also the Research Council of Norway (RCN), Nordic Energy Research (NER) and most likely also the Swedish Energy Agency (STEM) will be involved in the programme. The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation has also shown interest in participating in the programme. The thematic area is innovative and visionary ideas for new sustainable energy technologies and systems.
MATERA ERA-NET; a small-scale pilot call will probably be launched in 2007 with the theme "Materials for sustainable use in renewable energy".
The Academy's international calls also involve a joint call with the National Natural Science Foundation of Chine (NSFC) in the field of environment-related ecology and environment-related energy research. The deadline for submitting applications is 15 February 2007.
The Academy is also having talks on possible international funding cooperation to be implemented at a later stage with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Technológico, CNPq) and Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research, CONICYT. The Academy Board is prepared to later allocate money for this cooperation, with an amount to be decided at a later stage.