ForWind participates in call for proposals from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research

ForWind, the Centre for Wind Energy Research at the Universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) and the wind energy agency WAB are once again taking part in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's (BMBF) cutting-edge cluster tender. In the third and, for the time being, final round of proposals from the Ministry of Research, up to five clusters will be funded with up to 40 million euros each over a period of five years. The recipients of this funding are the individual project consortia, whose applications are managed centrally by the respective cluster management.
"We have a wind cluster here in the region with an offshore focus that is unique in Germany," says Prof Dr Andreas Reuter, Head of IWES in Bremerhaven and coordinator of the application. The consortium will focus on topics in the fields of offshore wind energy, storage and grid integration.
Wind energy companies in the Bremen/Oldenburg metropolitan region in the north-west play a prominent role, emphasises Ronny Meier, Managing Director of WAB. This could be expanded and secured through the leading-edge cluster funding. Stephan Barth, Managing Director of ForWind, puts the research landscape in the north-west centre stage: "The region is not only top in terms of industry, but also in terms of research. With IWES and ForWind, the region has a research network in the field of wind energy that is important far beyond the region. With our numerous research projects, we already have an effective innovation chain".
The application procedure is a two-stage process. An initial jury decision is expected in June 2011 and the final decision in January 2012. The consortium's application is financially supported by the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony.