The UK government is considering extending the post-Brexit financial support promised for research projects funded by the European Union. Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Jo Johnson said that the government recognised the “high value” of the Horizon 2020 funding scheme and implied that the provisions were being made to ensure the UK’s continuing participation in such programmes, when giving evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee. Johnson told the committee: “Participations in Horizon 2020 by EU and UK researchers and institutions are still running at strong levels. “I think that shows that the underwrite that the Treasury put in place pretty promptly is working, and its doing the job that we needed to do. That’s not to say we’re not watching this extremely carefully and always assessing whether there aren’t further things that we need to be doing to ensure our institutions continue to bid successfully.” Despite a warning posted on the EU’s website that UK bids accepted after the Brexit date may be withdrawn without financial backing, researchers and institutions need not be confused, Johnson added, because the Treasury would protect their applications. After Tuesday (17 October), the Science and Technology Committee launched an inquiry into the science budget and industrial strategy. An industrial strategy White Paper is due to be published in the coming weeks. The post UK considers extending support for H2020 bids appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

A new evaluation of the EU-funded European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) concludes that the body is making progress in nudging forward research in climate change, energy and digital fields. The third review of the body in under two years offers a largely positive assessment on the state of the institute established to help transfer research and innovation from academia into commercial applications. The EIT has attracted much criticism recently, starting with a review by the European Court of Auditors, which criticised the body that has spent close to €3bn since 2008, for showing very little for its investment. A follow-up report by a special panel of experts convened by the European Commission confirmed many of the body’s serial shortcomings. The latest report by ICF and Technopolis looks at the EIT over the period 2011-2015 and recounts many of the problems faced by the institute and efforts to address them. It reiterates questions raised elsewhere about the long-term viability of the EIT’s many distributed innovation incubators. The report comes as the EU enters a debate over the future of its budget; while some argue for a rise in overall spending for research and innovation activities, others are expecting a cut. EIT operates through what it calls Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), these are groups of universities, research institutes and businesses working in specific fields. The future solvency of these KICs is the main problem identified by the review. The dependency on EIT funding is supposed to fall from close to 90% in 2016 to 27% in 2022, and then to 10% by 2025 – 15 years after the first-wave KICs were established. The evaluators said potential future sources of cash include equity positions in EIT-backed start-ups and royalties from EIT-supported projects, but also raised the fundamental question of whether financial sustainability for KICs will ever become feasible. The report also questioned whether such a goal is even desirable, given that the core purpose of the EIT is to invest in areas that would not have otherwise been pursued by the private sector. The post Report praises EIT reform appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

EU Science and Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas has urged UK grantees worried by uncertainties over Brexit to “keep collaborating”. As uncertainty over the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union grew, official statements from Brussels and Westminster tried to reassure participants in the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme that current projects won’t be interrupted. Moedas told UK researchers: “While you remain part of the European Union, the Horizon 2020 programme is fully open to you. Please keep taking part. Keep collaborating with your European partners. Keep welcoming researchers from other EU countries into your universities and research teams.” He added that UK opinions are also welcome on what the new EU research programme should look like, even though its proposed start would be two years after the planned Brexit date. The British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy also issued a statement reiterating that the UK has pledged to pay British grantees directly after March 2019, so that their projects don’t get interrupted by Brexit. Previously, news from the official Brexit talks was discouraging, with the latest round of negotations seeing the two sides reach a “deadlock”, according to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Statements in the past week have unsettled some Horizon 2020 grantees, including several UK universities reportedly dropped from prospective bidding groups since the referendum. The issues revolve around the fine print inside the Horizon 2020 grant agreements, which stipulated that eligibility criteria “must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant”. Researchers in the 27 other member states want to see the UK continue to participate in EU research projects. The post Commission seeks to reassure UK H2020 researchers appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

KM Rustfri has introduced a complete line of water hydraulic process valves onto the sanitary industry market to inspire a new development in sanitary plant designs, reduce manufacturing costs, and improve food safety and lower investments in the sanitary industry. The HYDRACT valves are powered and controlled by the patented HYDRACT actuator technology developed in co-operation with Carlsberg and with financial support from the European Union and the Danish Market Maturation Foundation since 2008. In addition to the new line of process valves, KM Rustfri also proposes the actuator technology as a retrofit solution offering all the advantages of water hydraulics to existing process valves including turning them into high precision regulating valves. The HYDRACT solution Where conventional process valves operate with compressed air and springs, the patented HYDRACT technology take advantage of the incompressibility of water. Air and springs are by nature compressible, and almost every valve in the sanitary process industry has been powered this way for decades. The problems with high energy losses because of leaking air systems, the unintentional opening of valves due to pressure transients and problems using pneumatic valves for regulation are well known to everyone in the food and beverage industry, as well as in the pharmaceutical and similar industries. The well-known consequences are higher production costs and concerns about product safety. Process valves powered with the HYDRACT technology perform the same operations as traditionally powered valves with the difference that they can both open and close as well as regulate which is not possible for pneumatic valves. HYDRACT valves or valves retrofitted with HYDRACT actuators have the precision of a CNC-machine and the power of a hydraulic machine while still being a clean technology due to the use of a closed sterilised water system. Challenge for the sanitary industry: There is no competition on valve technology The competition in the sanitary process industry has been negatively affected for decades because it has not been possible for the producers in the process industry to differentiate themselves in the way their plants are fundamentally designed and operated. The reason is that all valve manufacturers have designed their valves on the same technology and the limitations the traditional technology is imposing. Today process plants are designed based on the assumption that valves cannot always remain closed, which is leading to more pipework. Besides that, traditional pneumatic valves are only one-directional and regulating valves cannot keep closed so they must be supported by a separate on/off valve. By changing these assumptions so that all valves become bi-directional regulating valves with a safe closed position, a lot of advantages reveal themselves. Advantages for the customer With HYDRACT valves or with HYDRACT actuators retrofitted to existing valves, all the valves will become on/off valves with a safe closed position and with regulation capabilities better than any pneumatic regulating valve on the market. Due to numeric control, there will be full positioning and velocity control of the valve pistons and complete surveillance and monitoring via the bus system is available. Furthermore, all valves become bi-directional and, due to a new valve design, the HYDRACT process valve is modular and hygienic also when used as a bottom tank valve. The advantages of implementing the HYDRACT technology depend on the specific application, but savings on energy consumption and CO2 emissions can be expected to be between 65% and 90% compared with pneumatic valves. Besides that, the waste in production will be reduced significantly, because the valves are unable to open unintentionally, which prevents, e.g. beer and cleaning fluids from being mixed. Maintenance and repair costs will also reduce because pressure transients will not have any effect on the HYDRACT valves – in fact, water-hydraulic valves will prevent pressure transients from happening. The most significant potential advantages, however, arrive from the numeric control embedded in the HYDRACT technology. By using the unique regulation capabilities and because the actuator is unaffected by any pressure fluctuation in the process stream, it is possible to use the valves for controlling and mixing different fluids based on any input from sensor systems – pressure, flow, temperature, colour, density etc. The great advantage will be that in-line mixing of beer, soft drink, juice etc. is possible without using mixing tanks – mixing on demand becomes a reality! Implemented by Carlsberg The Carlsberg Group has supported the development of the HYDRACT technology since 2008 and is currently testing it in different applications. “HYDRACT is an exciting new technology that sets new standards for reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The actuator’s precision and reliability are remarkable and open the way for a completely new approach to process facilities in the brewing industry, leading to lower production costs, greater food safety and reduced investment in brewing facilities.” Michael Jakob, vice-president of group manufacturing and technology at Carlsberg Supply Company.   Carlsberg in Denmark has since Q1 2016 been using the HYDRACT technology on their main CIP system, and since April 2017 the alcohol percentage in beer has been regulated using a HYDRACT actuator retrofitted onto an existing mix-proof valve. Carlsberg has in 2017 embraced the HYDRACT technology and awarded KM Rustfri with orders worth k700€ for new valves and actuators for retrofitting. The post HYDRACT – Water hydraulics and hygiene appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.