The decision to issue a joint call for proposals was taken by officials of both involved directorates, the Directorate General for Science, Research and Development, DG XII, and the Directorate General for Energy, DG XVII, at meetings held October 17-18. Details of the requirements of the two RFPs were not available in mid October, but R&D projects can receive up to 50% support and up to 40% support is available for the eligible costs of demonstration projects.
Four calls for proposals will be made by Thermie during 1995-1998 in the fields of wind, solar, biomass, small hydro and geothermal; two or three calls will be made for Joule projects in the fields of biomoss, wind and photovoltaics.
Joule has a total four year budget of ECU 220 million, of which ECU 100 million is being made available in this first call for proposals. The Thermie budget is just ECU 134 million, but strenuous efforts are being made to launch an extra Thermie sub-programme under the EU's energy, rather than research, budget (see main story). If successful a further ECU 200 million would become available for projects aimed at dissemination, or replication, of technology advances throughout the EU member countries.
