"We are committed to investing in the entrepreneurs of tomorrow in order to strengthen the innovation capacity of the EU so that we remain a match for the world's best", said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education in Brussels. Research Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn explained: "The KICs' integrated approach to education, research and innovation is exactly what is needed to tackle a problem as complex as climate change. The Climate KIC is bringing together researchers, industry and other stakeholders to help drive a radical transformation of how we produce and consume."
Climate-KIC (short for Knowledge and Innovation Community) is an organisation of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology. About one-fifth of the funds used by Climate-KIC and its partners flows to Germany. Climate-friendly products and processes offer huge market opportunities across Europe, and Germany is proving to be a technology leader once more.
"If Europe wants to succeed in the great transformation, it needs to accelerate innovation"
One of the Climate-KIC founders, and its current Chairman is Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He has helped to bring together leading European partners – on the one hand corporate entities such as Bayer Technology Services and Electricité de France, on the other hand world-class universities such as Imperial College London and ETH Zurich. "If Europe wants to succeed in the great transformation towards sustainability, it needs to accelerate innovation. This is precisely the task of Climate-KIC. It is still a young institution, but this new child of Europe has finished the teething phase - and is ready to bite into the task at hand", said Schellnhuber.
"The Climate-KIC is something really new: a European community advancing innovative business projects, promoting entrepreneurship and providing education programmes, whilst focusing on one goal: to limit global warming, reduce CO2, and bring products to the markets, in order to help keep our world livable", said Hans-Jürgen Cramer, Director of Climate-KIC Germany and former head of the energy company Vattenfall Europe. "We provide European funding, European networks, and contacts with the best European research facilities. In its simplicity and intensity, this is unmatched in the world."
For more information please contact:
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Jonas Viering, press relations
Tel: 0179 399 88 62/0331 288 25 07
Jonas.Viering@pik-potsdam.de
