Developing the next generation of renewable energy technologies: an overview of low-TRL EU-funded research projects

A cluster of eleven research and innovation projects, funded under the same call of the EU’s H2020 programme, are developing breakthrough and game-changing renewable energy technologies that will form the backbone of the energy system by 2030 and 2050 are, at present, at an early stage of development. These projects have joined forces at a collaborative workshop, entitled ‘ Low-TRL Renewable Energy Technologies’, at the 10th Sustainable Places Conference (SP2022), to share their insights, present their projects’ progress and achievements to date, and expose their approach for exploitation and market uptake of their solutions

Observing culture: Differences in U.S.-American and German team meeting behaviors

Although previous research has theorized about team interaction differences between the German and U.S. cultures (e.g., Hofstede, 2001), actual behavioral observations of such differences are sparse. This study explores team meetings as a context for examining intercultural differences, analyzing a total of 5188 meeting behaviors in German and U.S. student teams. All teams discussed the same task to consensus. Results from behavioral process analyses showed that Germans focused significantly more on problem analysis, whereas U.S. students focused more on solution production. Moreover, U.S. teams showed significantly more positive socioemotional meeting behavior than German teams. Finally, German teams showed significantly more counteractive behavior such as complaining than U.S. teams. Theoretical and pragmatic implications for understanding these observable differences and for improving interaction in intercultural teams are discussed

The role of a firm's absorptive capacity and the technology transfer process in clusters: How effective are technology centres in low-tech clusters?

This paper analyses how the internal resources of small- and medium-sized enterprises determine access (learning processes) to technology centres (TCs) or industrial research institutes (innovation infrastructure) in traditional low-tech clusters. These interactions basically represent traded (market-based) transactions, which constitute important sources of knowledge in clusters. The paper addresses the role of TCs in low-tech clusters, and uses semi-structured interviews with 80 firms in a manufacturing cluster. The results point out that producer–user interactions are the most frequent; thus, the higher the sector knowledge-intensive base, the more likely the utilization of the available research infrastructure becomes. Conversely, the sectors with less knowledge-intensive structures, i.e. less absorptive capacity (AC), present weak linkages to TCs, as they frequently prefer to interact with suppliers, who act as transceivers of knowledge. Therefore, not all the firms in a cluster can fully exploit the available research infrastructure, and their AC moderates this engagement. In addition, the existence of TCs is not sufficient since the active role of a firm's search strategies to undertake interactions and conduct openness to available sources of knowledge is also needed. The study has implications for policymakers and academia

A Implementation Plan for the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture

Nebraska\u27s Rainwater Basin (RWB) wetland area is identified by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) as a waterfowl habitat area of major concern in North America. The Rainwater Basin area is recognized as the focal point of a spring migration corridor used by millions of ducks and geese annually (Figure 1). This migration corridor is shaped like an hourglass, with the Rainwater Basin and Central Platte River located at the constriction