Victoria Palau welcomes Valencian Pioneers selected in 2013 edition to fight against Climate change and to create a Low-Carbon economy - Fundación CV

En el acto de bienvenida participaron Victoria Palau, Directora General de Relaciones con la Unión Europea y Amparo Chiralt, Vicerrectora de Investigación de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación (Valencia), 16 and 17 April 2013.

After the closing of 2013 European Pioneers into Practice Programme, in the context of the Climate-KIC initiative, the selected pioneers, representatives from research, education, business and administration fields were brought together in some working introductory days to carry out their activities in this 2013 edition.

Ms. Victoria Palau, Director General for Relations with the European Union and Ms. Amparo Chiralt, Vice-Rector for Research of Universidad Politécnica de Valencia both took part in the welcoming event.

Ms. Victoria Palau highlighted the high level of Valencian pioneers in terms of preparation and training and the one of the organisations where they come from.
Likewise, she pointed out that, not only this would be an opportunity to promote visibility of the Valencian Region within the European Union, but also it would help to promote its organisations and human capital for its innovation capacity, entrepreneurship and internationalisation.
These initiatives enable an escape mechanism and make up a suitable framework to implement the objectives of the Valencian Region to come out of the crisis.

More than 60 people took part in this introductory workshop. They represented both hosts from the Valencian Region and pioneers selected among 130 applications received for this 2013 edition.
The profile of the selected pioneers is that of researchers, high-level technicians, engineers from different specialities, architects, entrepreneurs and specialist in climate change.

This year Fundación Comunidad Valenciana-Región Europea (FCVRE) coordinates the institutions collaborating in 2013 PIP Programme and which make up the Management Team. These are: IVACE, leading the RIC-CV, Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación (IVE) coordinating Innovation Groups (IG), Universidad de Valencia (UV), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Instituto Tecnológico de la Energía (ITE) and Universidad CEU-Cardenal Herrera, providing Regional Coaches together with Ayuntamiento de Castellón, INGENIO (CSIC - UPV), FEVEC and the company EDINN.
 
The program "Pioneers into Practice" is an interesting European Programme in its fourth edition aiming at creating a new generation of high-level specialists, entrepreneurs and lawmakers to achieve a low-carbon economy in Europe by increasing and sharing knowledge to implement projects contributing to fight against climate change.

The partner regions of the PIP Programme are Central Hungary (Hungary), Emilia Romagna (Italy), Hessen (Germany), Lower Silesia (Poland), West Midlands (United Kingdom) and Valencian Region (Spain) taking part through Regional Innovation and Implementation Communities (RICs).

As part of this programme, a practical learning environment will be created so that participants can develop and exchange knowledge and experiences on the dynamics of innovation in low carbon technologies.

Participants must give an intersectoral approach to multidisciplinary activities

 

PIP Programme and Climate KIC

KICs are Knowledge and Innovation Communities whose stakeholders, coming from multidisciplinary sectors from companies, universities, research centres and technological institutes, implement innovation and knowledge transfer activities.

These Communities are promoted by the European Innovation and Technology Institute (EIT) and supported by the European Commission in response to the existing fragmentation of research and upper training systems in the European Union through easiness in effective innovation marketing, promotion of entrepreneurship and search for excellence within our organisations and companies and their human capital.

The EIT Governing Board selected the first working themes for KICs, in accordance with EU regulation and its strategy to boost economy and employment through innovation. These themes focus on areas posing at present challenges and opportunities for the European Union:

• Climate Change: Climate ¿ KIC
• Renewable Energy: KIC InnoEnergy
• Information and Communication Technology Generations: EIT ICT Labs:

In April 2009 the first call of these three first KICs was published. The EIT Governing Board will decide on enlarging, reducing or modifying the selected themes through the strategic agenda, effective from December 2013.

The Climate-KIC is a pioneer initiative in Europe aiming at fighting against climate change through the sharing of knowledge and training concerning mitigation and  adaptation of CO2  emissions among  the six participant regions, five excellence centres in Europe and some companies.

The Climate-KIC has headquarters in London (United Kingdom), Potsdam (Germany), Utrecht (The Netherlands), Paris (France) and Zurich (Switzerland) through excellence centres grouped in the so-called co-location centres.

Besides the Valencian Region, at regional level, the partners of the PIP Programme are: Central Hungary (Hungary), Emilia Romagna (Italy), Hessen (Germany), Lower Silesia (Poland), West Midlands (United Kingdom) and Valencian Region (Spain) taking part through Regional Innovation and Implementation Communities (RICs).

In the framework of this initiative, the Pioneers into Practice Programme, in its fourth call, is placed and this REGIONAL INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP has been the first training activity for pioneers and hosts before the first regional mobility action takes place in which pioneers will have to stay for 4 weeks within the Valencian Region but in an institution different from the one where they come from.

This workshop, referred to as Regional Introductory Workshop, aimed at making pioneers familiar with the philosophy, activities and expectations that the 2013 Pip Programme has set as a challenge, providing a general view of regional strategies and relevant initiatives of the Programme.

In this regard, pioneers got to know each other during these two days. At the same time, they met the coordinators, regional coaches and the whole team of 2013 PiP Programme team in the Valencian Region.

Likewise, an important part of the sessions was focused on presenting pioneers success stories and on discussing the so-called "transition thinking" and on the main stakeholders involved in this change.

After this regional exchange, next meetings will be in another two-day workshop (called Crucible I) in Universidad de Valencia in which the experiences of first regional mobility actions will be shared and in which the preparation of 4-week international host will take place.

Then, International Workshop and Innovation Festival in Poland and two-day Crucible II will take place, within international environmental fairs in Feria Valencia, in order to present results and conclusions.