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>> Offers Energy Wave turbines get wind knowledge << The combined impact that wind and wave forces generate on offshore turbines is not going to be the same as the forces impacting onshore turbines. However, with the growing demand for renewable energy sources, offshore turbine manufacture is going to require established, tested and workable standards in order to be form a viable alternative. The contemporary onshore knowledge base leaves a lot of room for uncertainty as far as offshore turbine design is concerned. The need to develop design standards covering offshore turbines is therefore imperative. Given the growing need for clean energy sources, the social impact of such design standards could be enormous. Since design consideration for offshore turbines is inefficient, researchers had to turn to the already existing knowledge source that of onshore wind turbines. A major focus was to combine onshore wind turbine engineering practices with that of offshore engineering procedures. In order to deliver a state-of-the-art knowledge base for offshore turbine design, certain critical elements where investigated utilising prior knowledge sources. Load bearing, probabilistic methods for new models for decision making on load cases, structural integrity, safety performance, maintenance etc were just some of these criteria. Currently, the EU-funded project has met with success. It has established guidelines for more effective and efficient manufacturing processes, also resulting in the development of recommendations for good practice. Furthermore it has established proposals for safety factors in fatigue and extreme load events, maintenance safety and turbine performance. The project members will distribute the results in the hopes of firstly establishing industry standards compliant with the European CENELEC criteria. The project is looking for further research and development support and offers the emerging expertise for consultancy. Information Source: Result from the EU funded EESD programme Collaboration Sought: Further research or development support; Financial support; Available for consultancy Date: 2005-12-19 Contact Details BULDER, Bernard (Mr.) ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE OF THE NETHERLANDS, UNIT WIND ENERGY Engineer P.O. Box 1 1755 ZG Petten NETHERLANDS Tel: +31-224-564102 Fax: +31-224-568214 Email: Contact URL: http://www.ecn.nl/wind date: 2006-01-11 17:51:45
>> One hundred biotech technology offers showcased in new brochure << One hundred technology offers resulting from EU funded biotechnology projects are profiled in a new brochure published by the European Commission. As highlighted by Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik in his preface, 'Europe has a reputation for being very strong in research but weak in exploiting research results.' He believes that showcasing the offers in this fashion will encourage European researchers to pursue the exploitation of their own research results. The offers are listed under six headings: biopharmaceuticals; food biotechnology; technology; plant biotechnology; biomedical technology - therapy; and biomedical technology - diagnostic. One example is a rapid test system for microorganisms in food, beverages and the environment. The new technology has been named FastScan, and is based on an enzyme-linked hybridisation assay with an electrical signal read-out. Its designers believe that its use will be advantageous as it is highly sensitive, flexible and considerably less time-consuming than previous technologies - analysis is reduced from several days to a few hours. The brochure also discusses Europe's weakness in terms of exploiting results. Much of it can be explained by a low participation by industry, it says, which often has the knowledge and experience of managing intellectual property that is lacking in some academic institutions. The brochure also notes that several different exploitation paths were discovered during the preparation of the publication. The path taken depends on a number of factors, including the entrepreneur, their personal background and knowledge, the types of organisation that they have previously worked for, country of origin, and regional policies on start-ups. To access the brochure online, please click here: ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/lifescihealth/docs/booklet_100_off.pdf Category: Publication Data Source Provider: European Commission Document Reference: Gest�tzt auf die Brosch�re "100 Technology Offers stemming from EU Biotechnology RTD Results" Programme or Service Acronym: FP6-LIFESCIHEALTH; FRAMEWORK 6C; FP6-INTEGRATING; FRAMEWORK 5C; LIFE QUALITY Subject Index : Biotechnology; Innovation, Technology Transfer RCN: 24935 date: 2006-01-11 17:39:52
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