![[BioMatNet Database - FP5 Quality of Life Programme]](../images/FP5.gif) |
QLK5-2000-30100
BioMatNet: Dissemination of results concerning the integrated production and exploitation of biological materials for non-food uses |
During the first 24 months of this project (see Progress Report), the activities of BioMatNet have been presented at exhibitions associated with the following conferences and scientific meetings:
Summary
This Accompanying Measure has continued to disseminate results of non-food research projects funded by the EU RTD Framework Programmes during the second year of activity. The project has continued to concentrate on building a database of interested people (registrants) and adding information in the form of ITEMs to the Biomatnet website (http://www.biomatnet.org) as well as producing 4 issues of the electronic newsletter and three CD-ROMs which were posted to registrants requesting copies. In addition the activity was presented at a number of meetings and workshops
The underlying database and redesigned/updated website (see first annual report) continued to function well and were not changed in year two. In the second year the rate of growth of additions to the database more than doubled with well over 3000 further names added. Around 2300 were people interested in 'non-food' activities registering using the online registration form, with another 1000 coming from meeting contacts, or being added as participants in FP5 projects. These, together with around 2700 existing registrants means that now over 6000 individuals reveive notification each time an edition of the electronic newllketter is added to the website. As in year 1, four editions of the electronic 'BioMatNet Newsletter' were produced. These newsletters contained details of the ongoing additions to the website. The total number of items now exceed 1600 in number. These include over 290 items covering results of QLK5.2 projects, as well as related EU and National activities. The additional items covered some biomass energy and materials projects from FP4 and FP5, as well as other areas of QLK5, including somee food projects and some from the 'cell factory' and 'forestry' sections. Links to other websites (including relevant information from EUROPA and CORDIS), details of publications, meetings and other 'non-food' events continued to be added. Weekly logs have been produced covering website use statistics. These indicate a continued steady growth in the number of visitors to the site. The number of individual users now aaverage over 8000 per week, with a peak of over 10,000. Emails requesting further information continue to be received and were responded to on a more or less daily basis. Further statstics were prepared covering the country of origin, type of organisation worked at, and job function of registrants.
The master CD-ROM (reference CD4) produced from the website (June 2002) was replicated and 900 copies were distributed in response to direct requests received by email or at exhibitions, with an further 100 copies supplied to the EC. The results of a review of non-food activities under AIR (QLK5-2000-30141) was published with the summary report printed (1000 copies) as a 32 page full colour brochure as well as being included on a CD-ROM (2000 copies) that also carried the full report plus summary reports covering each of the AIR projects investigated. By the end of year 2, 100 copies of book and CD had been supplied to nthe EC, with a further 100 supplied to the OECD for distribution at their 'Biomass and Agriculture workshop' to be held in Vienna (Austria) in June 2003. Around 350 copies of the printed report and around 1200 copies of the CD-ROM had been distributed by post to individuals requesting copies. A further Biomatnet CD-ROM (reference CD5) was produced (1000 copies) in April 2003. Fifty copies were suplied to the EC and 100 copies to the OECD, while around 450 have so far been disseminated in response to requests from registrants. Requests for the AIR report and Biomatnet CD5 continue to be received at a rate of 40 to 50 a week.
Data covering the country of origin, type of organisation and job position have been analysed, both for registrants and for requests made for CD-ROMs. These indicate that while many registrations and requests come from academia and research institutes, almost half now come from commercial organisations. The main changes that have been seen in year 2, in addition to the general increased interest in Biomatnet, relate to the accession countries where numbers registering and requesting information have shown an even higher level of increase. The number of individuals, as well as the number of people that do not give an organisation description has also increased. However, in many cases the people concerned are registering or requesting information from one of the applicant countries and may not be able to translate their job/organisation into English (especially those countries where the language includes non-standard characters).
The screen show, information card and various posters, prepared for meetings and exhibitions in year 1, continued to be used for meetings etc. These included the World Renewables Conference in Germany in July 2002 and a meeting on Pyrolysis and Gasification in France in November 2002..
At the World Renewable Energy Expo, we were fortunate to have space within the stand funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry. This enabled a joint presentation of both the BioMatnet activity (DG Research) and the managEnergy initiative (DG Transport and Energy).
The combined conference and exhibition attracted over 700 registered participants, as well as a steady stream of visitors to the exhibition. Another exhibitor, that has participated in a number of 'Non-Food' EU projects was the Building Research Establishment (UK). As far as the conference (which covered all aspects of renewable energy) the section most relevant to BioMatNet was of course 'Biomass Energy'. The plenary overviews included talks by Ralph Overend (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA - well known in Europe through his contributions to the EU sponsored 'Biomass Energy Meetings' in the past) and the Minister of Environment, Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of the North Rhine-Westphalia government who spoke about 'Biomass Contributing to Future Energy Generation'. A combined talk from Keith Richards (TV Energy UK) and Ralph Sims (Centre for Energy, Massay University, New Zealand) covered Delivering Bioenergy - Triple bottom line to the global community. The former also being involved with an informal meeting of the IEA Bioenergy Task 29 group, held with those members attending the conference. Within the parallel presentations, nine technical sessions covered biomass, focusing on heat and electricity, liquid fuels, energy crops, the environment and socioeconomic aspects. Although representative of an open participation, since WREN is open to anyone irrespective of their affiliation, the balance reflected the emphasis of current EU funding, with over half the papers falling under the heading of Heat and Electricity, followed in popularity by Energy Crops and Liquid fuels. This included a presentation by Jim Coombs and Katy Hall on Chemicals and Polymers from Biomass, as well as Innovative synthetic fuels from biomass (N El Bassam) and New aspects of the production and utilisation of ethanol and ETBE (K-D Vorlop), both from the host country while a combined team from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Finland and the Netherlands presented a Review of progress made with growing energy crops in EU and selected Member States.
As is usual on these occasions, it was not all work. The programme included an organ recital in a local church as well as the conference banquet held aboard a boat on the Rhine, during which participants were entertained by a traditional jazz band. However, this was not just a social event, as a number of people received awards in recognition of their contributions within their fields of excellence. Within the biomass area such awards included a presentation to Nasir El Bassam, now Director of the Institute of Crop Science (FAL, Braunschweig, Germany).
SusCompNet 3 July 2002 (Swansea, Wales), hosted by Swansea Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Materials Engineering.attracted around 60 scientists. The Sustainable Composites Network, founded by the Warwick Manufacturing Group and the Biocomposites Centre, University of Wales in Bangor, was introduced by Nick Tucker and Mark Hughes, representing these organisations. Funded via a 3 year grant from the EPSRC (UK) and aided to a large extent by voluntary time and effort, members (over 350) range from farmers, through processors, to manufacturers and users with over 40% from industry. Although primarily British over 10% come from other European Countries. The network gathers and distributes information on all aspects of biocomposites, including examples of best practice and research results, through a websites (www.suscomp.net), a twice yearly seminar ( such as this one), a mailbase ( suscompner@jiscmail.ac.uk) and publicity material. It hopes to influence research efforts, get people talking to each other and promote essential indidisciplinary approaches. Following the introduction, subsequent presentations covered:
The Pyrolysis and
Gasification of Biomass and Waste - Expert Meeting, October 2002
(Strasbourg, France) was organised by Tony Bridgewater (University of Aston,
UK, PyNe Network Leader and thermonet c-ordinator), Harrie Knoef, (GasNet
Network leader) and Kyriakos Maniatis (EC DG TREN) with sponsorship from the
European Commission (Altener Programme), Cirad Foret (France) and CEA (France).
The meeting included keynote presentations by invited speakers (6 talks), case
studies (10 talks and over 70 posters covering Pyrolysis or Gasification) and
workshops (6, covering gasification, pyrolysis, waste conversion, syngas for
synfuels, powe generation by engines, turbines and fuel cells and finally
economics). The final session of the meeting consisted of summary reports from
these six workshops.
The main talks were as follows:
The full proceedings of the meeting have been published and are now available from the CPL Press Online Bookshop
© Copyright 2006 Policy Statements
Updated
by CPL Press:
03/07/2007
- biomatnet@biomatnet.org
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