FREED (Funding Resources for Innovation in Energy Enterprise Development) is a three year project funded under Interegg’s Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme. The project, which is led by the University of Oulu in Finland, is a collaborative partnership involving private investment firms, R&D institutions, colleges of education and public bodies from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Norway, The United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland.

FREED will support energy innovations in the NPA region, already in its tenth month the project has proceeded well and has already consulted with stakeholders both in the public and private sector in each region and carried out an NPA region review of energy innovations, together with a market and needs analysis of the types of energy innovations required in the partner regions.

In October 2016 the project partners held their third partner meeting in sunny Galway. Hosted by The Western Development Commission, project partners attended from The University of Oulu; Finland, South West College; Northern Ireland, European Institute for Innovation; Germany, Limerick Institute of Technology; Ireland, Green Angel Syndicate; Scotland, and Narvik Science Park; Norway. Meetings took place over the three days and the project partners presented on the status and implementation activities of the various work packages.

The findings of the review of Energy Innovation Needs carried out across the partner regions were analysed and common themes identified. A report on the findings of the Energy Innovation Needs Review will be published on the FREED website shortly and will be used to help FREED identify the types of energy innovations that are needed in each region.

A very informative thematic seminar was hosted by Green Angel Syndicate on the subject of ‘Innovation Programme Development’ and next steps of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) process. All the partners had identified the needs in their regions and the FREED project will implement one energy innovation solution from each region. The project aims to deliver 6 solutions and 30 technology transfers to other regions.

In addition to the project meetings, the partners visited The Marine Institute where Dr John Breslin gave a very informative presentation on the work of the Institute.  Dr Breslin, SmartBay Ireland’s General Manager is responsible for the overall management of the National Research, Test and Demonstration Platform for Wave Energy Devices, Marine Sensors, Equipment and ICT Solutions.

Finally, the partners finalised details of a thematic seminar which will be held in South West College in Enniskillen on December 8th.  The seminar is a pre-call for the Invitations to Tender which will open in early 2017 and will  present an overview of the planned innovation investments that the FREED project aims to implement.

Mary Keaveney, Western Development Commission: FREED Project Administrator

If you are an SME in the Northern Periphery Region, a stakeholder in the energy innovation sector or would just like to know more about FREED visit our website Website: https://about.freedproject.eu/ or connect with us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FREEDproject/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Freedproject  (#FREEDPROJECT)

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Subscribe to FREED Newsletter: https://about.freedproject.eu/freed-information/

Email: Contact details for each partner country are available on the contacts page

The partners gathered for FREED Partner meeting in Galway Ireland in October 2016.