For the first time, an NTNU professor has been selected as a member of an EU strategic partnership that will contribute to define the research topics for which researchers can apply for funding.
This summer, the EU launched 11 new European partnerships. The goal is big: to make Europe the first climate-neutral economy.
The partnerships will be awarded more than EUR 8 billion from Horizon Europe, the new EU research and innovation programme for 2021-2027.
Including commitments from private partners and Member States, the total amount available for research awards is EUR 22 billion.
Building the team
“Our continuous strategic efforts over time are the key to this success”, says Tor Grande, NTNU’s Pro-Rector for Research. Photo: Thor Nielsen/NTNU
One of the partnerships is called Built4people
Professor Rolf André Bohne has been selected as NTNU’s representative in the partnership Built4people, which focuses on how to accelerate the transition to the sustainable cities, infrastructure and communities of the future.
“I am very pleased with how our work with the EU has developed. Our continuous strategic efforts over time are the key to this success, and more than justify NTNU’s decision to play an active role in Brussels,” says Tor Grande, NTNU’s Pro-Rector for Research.
The EU describes the vision behind the partnership as enabling “high quality, low carbon, energy and resource efficient built environments which drive the transition towards sustainability. The partnership brings together the whole value chain and it will develop sector-relevant innovation clusters across the EU.”
NTNU’s existing interdisciplinary team from NTNU, which has been built under the same model as NTNU’s Food Forum, has undertaken the strategic work needed to achieve this important positioning.
NTNU and Bohne in the top ranks of this partnership, meaning that they will initially define the topic for which other researchers can subsequently apply for funding.
NTNU as national portal
“This is a tribute to NTNUs way of organizing research into multidisciplinary teams to challenge big and complex research problems”, says Rolf André Bohne, NTNUs representative in Built4people.
“This gives us the opportunity to sow the grass on the football pitch and later play on it,” says Massimo Busuoli, head of NTNU’s Brussels office.
The NTNU Built4People forum is coordinated by Bohne and includes Arild Gustavsen, Lizhen Huang, Inge Hoff and Rao Martand Singh. The group will have the opportunity to determine how the funding landscape will be structured, and at the same time get information at an early stage.
“I expect to see NTNU becoming a national portal for many opportunities in Europe though engagement with SINTEF and other relevant players, such as the Norwegian construction industry,” said Olav Bolland, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
If you are interested in participating in this effort, contact massimo.busuoli@ntnu.no or rolf.bohne@ntnu.no.
