California and Denmark have responded to policymakers’ call for joint business, academia, and community efforts to place clean technology, renewable energy, and energy efficiency at the top of their research agenda. California is leading these efforts in the US. Following decades of a comprehensive national strategy of funding basic research in renewable energy sources, the Danish Government is now funding projects to commercialize breakthrough technologies.
The following organizations are major players in today’s global efforts toward making renewable energy a reality:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley — The Helios Project
California is home to some of the world’s leading researchers in renewable energy. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley are part of a consortium recently awarded a $500 million grant from BP to UC Berkeley to establish the Energy Biosciences Institute that will carry out part of the Helios Project. This institute targets the development of efficient processes to produce transportation fuel from biomass, and to develop transportation fuels of the future. The Helios Solar Energy Research Center, located at LBNL, is dedicated to the development of transportation fuels through artificial photosynthesis using advanced nanomaterials and catalysts. In the Joint BioEnergy Institute, LBNL Helios researchers and partners from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and three other universities are working to understand and engineer nature’s enzymatic processes for the conversion of cellulose and lignin for biofuel production.
Atomistix — Advanced Technology Foundation Research Project
The Danish company Atomistix is working on software for computer-aided atomistic design in chemistry, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Chemical and catalytic processes play an important role in the performance and cost of products in many industries such as life sciences, chemistry, and energy. Proper computational modeling of these processes can significantly shorten the time from idea to industry. Atomistix is looking to develop, validate, and integrate scientific computational methods so they can be used professionally by industrial users to design and develop nanostructures, and optimize production.
Center for Atomic-scale Materials Design
The Center for Atomic-scale Materials Design at the Technical University of Denmark aims to develop electronic structure theory to understand the properties of materials and use the insight to design new functional nanostructures.
Research areas of interest include catalysis, molecular electronics, nanostructured materials, electrochemistry and fuel cells, hydrogen storage, biomolecular structure, and enzyme function.
The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) – www.dasti.dk
DASTI is the Danish Government’s administrative authority on the Danish public Research and Innovation System and prepares and implements the Danish research and innovation policy on behalf of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The Agency's activities deal with, among other things:
- Public research funding.
- Researcher mobility.
- Dialogue on priorities in research and technology initiatives.
- Regionalisation of research and innovation.
- Commercialisation of research.
- Interaction between knowledge institutions and the business community.
- Innovation policy.
- EU research policy.
- International co-operation on research and innovation.
- Research dissemination, etc.
The Agency also functions as secretariat to the Danish Research Coordination Committee, the Danish Councils for Independent Research, the Danish Council for Strategic Research, the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation, the Danish Research Policy Council and the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty.
Innovation Center Denmark - Facilitate, connect, innovate! – www.innovationcenterdenmark.com
Innovation Center Denmark facilitates the entry of technology based Danish companies into Silicon Valley, connects research, capital and companies, innovates business models and market strategies and delivers inspiration that drives innovation. Innovation Center Denmark is a joint effort between The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and a new type of mission located in technological hot spots around the world. The latest Innovation Centers opened in Shanghai in September 2007 and the next will open in Munich early 2008.
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Last updated
01/22/2008
