The CEI Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology is taking place in Trieste on 19 September 2012, followed by a Ministerial Conference on Next Generation Biofuels on 20 September 2012.
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and State Secretaries together with High-level Ministerial Representatives as well as Directors of the DG Research of the European Commission will attend the CEI Ministerial Meeting, which will focus on the follow-up of the “Trieste Declaration”, unanimously adopted by the Science and Technology Ministerial Meeting held in Trieste in October 2011. The “Trieste Declaration” officially mandated the CEI to continue pursuing its activities in the field of Next Generation Biofuels, in cooperation with the European Commission and other prime European players.
Ministers will also discuss the establishment of a Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium - C-ERIC, according to the new EU legislation to develop the European Research Area. The idea is to use the two state-of-the-art facilities based in Trieste - the Sincrotron Radiation Laboratory “Elettra” and the free Electron Laser Laboratory “Fermi” – and to facilitate their access in favour of the scientists and scientific communities in the CEI Member Countries. The Italian Minister of Science, Prof. Francesco Profumo, will formally announce that the Statute of the C-ERIC Consortium has already been submitted to the European Commission for a final approval. Back to back with the Ministerial Meeting, a Conference “Renewable Energy in a Bio-Based Economy - The Option of Next Generation Biofuels” will take place on 20 September at the Headquarters of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) of UNESCO and IAEA. Given a multi-disciplinary aspect of the topic of Next Generation Biofuels, the Ministers and Ministerial representatives from Ministers of Energy, Science and Technology, Environment, Agriculture and Economy will participate, as well as European Commission and industry representatives. The strategic challenge of Next Generation Biofuels (NGB) will be analysed from different perspectives in two working sessions: the state-of-the-art in research/technology and contribution of NGB to rural development and to economic development. The background to the discussions is offered by the recent Report commissioned by the CEI to the Bloomberg/New Energy Finance about the Perspectives of Next Generation Biofuels for the CEI Region (available at: www.cei.int/Bloomberg). Documents: