Christmas is rapidly approaching, but many researchers at UiO have just received early gifts both from the Research Council of Norway and from Horizon2020. The influx of new projects at UiO related to sustainable energy and the energy transition over the last couple of weeks has been incredible. Partly out of fear of having missed granted projects, we’ll just highlight a few of these. More detailed descriptions of the various research activities will follow in 2019.
The green shift
The need for a green shift is part of the rationale behind the recent call for centers focusing on the transition of Norwegian industries and innovation policies. We congratulate the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) on their new research centre INTRANSIT. The centre is highly interdisciplinary and involve partners from the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, SINTEF Digital and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Through the NCE Energy Technology/Subsea Valley cluster there is a strong industry backing for this innovative research centre.
Internationalization
UiO has a strong focus on internationalization and on building strong collaborations with excellent institutions abroad. The INTPART program represents a great tool for funding such cooperations. As usual, UiO had great success in getting projects funded, and at least a couple of the projects are directly linked to sustainable energy.
Solving global challenges atom by atom
The Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN) have been granted two EU-projects under the Societal Challenge 3: Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy, Circular Economy and Innovation actions. One coordinator project and one partner project on Carbon Capture and Usage/Utilization (CCU), means that we can proudly report that UiO now also has success in the Societal Challenge Energy pillar of Horizon2020.
SMN also had spectacular success in the recent NANO2021-round (coordinating three projects, partner in four additional projects) after the final round where a couple of waiting list projects also were funded. In addition, they received the only two Young Research Talent awards under the Energy label of FRINATEK. All of these projects are in various ways related to sustainable energy.
More to come...
UiO has also been awarded with a number of other projects that are relevant for sustainable energy under the programs of FRIPRO and KLIMAFORSK. Furthermore, granted research projects under ENERGIX are expected to be announced in January 2019.
In 2019, eyes will be turned to Oslo as the European Green Capital, see separate newsletter item. This is a great opportunity to interact closely with Oslo Municipality, build partnerships in the region and also showcase some of the great work being done at UiO!
Best wishes for a sustainable 2019 from the UiO:Energy team!
