About the organizers

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) is the public agency put in charge of promoting, developing, organising, conducting and coordinating research and development in line with the national targets of economical development and technical progress. TUBITAK acts as an advisory agency to the Turkish Government on science and research issues, and is the secretariat of the Supreme Council of Science and Technology, the highest S&T policy making body in Turkey. TUBITAK is the executing agency in deployment of international scientific and technological agreements. In this context, TUBITAK is the national coordinating body of EU's Framework Programmes.

Please see www.tubitak.gov.tr for more information.

ENEA is the name for the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. Pursuant to art. 37 of Law no. 99 of July 23rd, 2009, the Agency’s activities are targeted to research, innovation technology and advanced services in the fields of energy - especially nuclear. The Agency’s main research issues are as follows:

• Energy: Nuclear Fusion; Nuclear Fission; Renewable Energy Sources; Advanced Technologies for Energy and Industry
• Sustainable economic development: Environmental Characterization, Prevention and Recovery Environmental Technologies; Seismic Protection; Radiation Biology and Human Health; Sustainable Development and Innovation of the Agro-Industrial System
• New technologies: Radiation Applications; Material Technologies Energy and Environment Modelling; ICT

ENEA has set up several new projects aimed at addressing some of the major issues in the fields of energy and the environment:

• Clean energy: Distributed Energy, Clean Coal/Zero emission, Biofuels, Solar Thermodynamic Energy
• Technologies and Territory: Technologies and Methods for the assessment of Energy Settlements, The Kyoto Protocol and Climate Change Adaptation, Technologies for Sustainable Waste Management, Ecobuilding, Management and Safety of Technology and Energy Infrastructures, Logistics for Sustainable Mobility
• Emerging Technologies: New-generation Photovoltaics, New Materials for the Energy Sector, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, FT3 – The Italian Experiment for Nuclear Fusion, Superconductivity
• ENEA’s Technology Spin-offs: Technologies for Cultural Heritage, Health Protection, Food Quality and Safety

Please see http://www.enea.it/com/ingl/default.htm for more information.

The Helmholtz Association contributes to solving major challenges facing society, science and industry with top scientific achievements in six research areas: Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Transport and Space. With 30,000 employees in 17 research centers and an annual budget of approximately 3 billion euros, the Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organisation. Its work follows in the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).

Please see www.helmholtz.de/en for more information.  

DTU is a leading technical university in northern Europe and benchmarks with the best universities in the world. The number of publications in frequently cited scientific journals has increased in recent years, and 44% of the publications registered by the Science Citation Index of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in 2005 were prepared in collaboration with one or more researchers based outside Denmark. The internationalization of DTU also continued with more than one fifth of DTU's scientific staff being recruited from outside Denmark and with an increasing number of international students.

The special Scandinavian way pervades life at DTU. Students and teachers work more informally than at most other Universities. Education is largely based on the students' active participation and taking independent responsibility. Students learn to work individually and in groups. They also learn to ask questions, be innovative and to find and explore interrelationships.  Thus, they are trained to create new value.

DTU has elite researchers in all its fields of research. However, DTU is currently focusing on and investing an extraordinary amount of resources in a number of high-technological profile areas and will continue to do so in the future to be a clear leader in these fields. DTU´s current profile areas are:

Energy and environmental technology

• Nanotechnology
• Biotechnology
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
• Food science and medical technology
• Space and robotic technology

Please see www.dtu.dk/english.aspx for more information.

The CEA is the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives). It is a public body established in October 1945 by General de Gaulle. A leader in research, development and innovation, the CEA mission statement has two main objectives: To become the leading technological research organization in Europe and to ensure that the nuclear deterrent remains effective in the future.

The CEA is active in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defence and security, information technologies and health technologies. In each of these fields, the CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research.

In 2010, the total CEA workforce consisted of about 15 600 employees. Across the whole of the CEA (including both civilian and military research), there were 1,360 PhD students and 300 post-docs.

In 2010, the CEA had a budget of about 4 billion Euros. 

Please see http://www.cea.fr/english_portal for more information