A Norwegian regional cluster for energy intensive industry is looking for partners in a RoK-project

The Agder region composed of ten highly competitive and research intensive industrial companies, a university, two research institutes and public authorities are looking for suitable partners in the latest Regions of knowledge call.

Activity:Regions-2012-2013: Transnational cooperation between regional research driven clusters

Topic: Development ofknowledge, technologies and services relevant for the implementation of “a resource efficient Europe”

Funding: Coordination actions

Project

The objective of the project is, through transnational cooperation, to strengthen the research potential of the participating regions. Thematically, the project will focus on how energy intensive industry could become more competitive through more efficient use of both resources and energy. A special focus will be put on strategic measures aimed at fostering the capacity for investing in, and conducting research and technological development (RTD) activities on, resource and energy efficiency across regional industries.

Tentative aspects foreseen in the project include:

  • Identify and analyze the major international challenges as well as driving forces facing energy-intensive industries.
  • Find appropriate ways to tackle existing bottlenecks in regional and national research and innovation systems, such as improving the formal and informal linkages between regional authorities, research entities and industry (‘triple-helix’) as well as to enhance the development of the technological and knowledge-based infrastructures.
  • Explore the opportunities and maximize synergies emanating from transnational cooperation for example, in the form of joint technological and R&D activities.
  • Mobilize financial and other forms of support made available by local/regional /national authorities, private investments and supranational initiatives (EU-level).

Background

The European Union’s policy agenda (Europe 2020) putsa strong emphasis on simultaneously achievingsustainable growth and strengthening Europe’sglobal economic competitiveness. Smart growth through research driven innovation is seen as a major cornerstone of recent supranational policy efforts. In 2010, the Innovation Union Scoreboard revealed that theEU faces a significant ‘innovation gap’ compared with its main regional competitors, namely the USA and Japan. The EU’s Innovation Union flagship program (SEC, 2010: 1161) proposes over thirty initiatives to improve the region’s overall innovation capacity. European regions and their respective knowledge-intensive industry clusters are seen as importantengines for improving Europe’s innovation capacity and, consequently, its global economic competitiveness.

In the flagship initiative Resource efficient Europe (COM, 2011: 21) resource and energy efficiency are both seen asvital for sustainable growth in the near future as well as for reducing the current dependence on energy imports, curtaining greenhouse emissions and shrinking industry operational costs. However, trends show that the policy objective of reduced energy consumption across Europe by 20% by 2020will not be successfully achieved. As a response, the European Commission has recently proposed an energy efficiency plan (COM, 2011:109) and advanced a new directive on energy efficiency (COM, 2011: 370). According to the latter plan, one fifth of the EU's primary energy consumption is accounted for by industry. Notwithstanding this, the sector has made substantial progress in the last two decades, materialized around a 30 % improvement in energy intensity. Nevertheless, various analysts suggest that energy saving opportunities across the industrial sector remain unaddressed. A special emphasis is put on research and technology development (RTD) as a catalyst for cost-effective energy efficient solutions.

Thus, Europe 2020 and the importance attributed to fiercer global competition across various sectors of the economy, imply, amongst other things, that European regions should pay strategic attention toimprovingtheir RTD capacity with the ultimate aim of fostering the endogenous ability for developing and successfully marketing new innovations. Consequently, the proposed project, through transnational cooperation on increasing the regions RTD-potential, strives to strengthen the energy intensive industries competiveness. Subsequently, the project is contributing for reaching the objectives set in the Europe 2020 and the flagship initiatives Innovation Union and Resource Efficient Europe.

Regional innovation “Triple-helix” in the Agder region

The regional innovation system in the Agder region was recently reviewed by the OECD. The regional innovation systemcan be defined as a systemic and long term cooperation between actors andagencies that promote learning and innovation. Key actors is the knowledgeexploring subsystem, where the regional government, university and R&D-institutes are central, andthe knowledge exploiting subsystem, constituted by firms often in regionalclusters. Hence, the region strives to strengthen central dimensions of the regional innovation system.

Who are we: Arena EYDE-cluster

More than a century ago, Samuel Eyde, a Norwegian entrepreneur based in the South of the country, laid down the foundation for the Arena Eyde-cluster.The Eyde is partner in ARENA - the national industry cluster programme. Today, the industrial clusterpossesses world-leading expertise contributing to efficient industrial solutions for environmental and climate-related challenges.Each and every one of the ten companies composing Arena Eyde has developed niche expertise within materials technology targeting emerging markets within the fast growing fields of environmental technology, renewable energy, and healthcare. More recently, and as a result oftight regional cooperation, the process industry located in the Agder region has successfully invested in technological advancement. This is particularly the case with respect to energy efficiency, thushelp strengthening the innovative capacity and value creation of the cluster as a whole. This substantial achievement was the outcomeof the continuous collaboration amongst leading industrial technologists and highly skilled operators throughout the Agder region. Although the Eyde-companies produce different products and compete on different markets (national and global), they face several common operational and strategic challenges. These include, but are not limited to, key aspects such as environmental, climate change, efficiency, and cost structures. Hence, Arena Eyde strives to foster continuous advancements with respect to energyefficiency,productivity, quality, staff recruitment, and R&D.

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