With European Union funding, VTT launches research openings and a postdoc programme supporting sustainable growth in Finland and invests in clean energy infrastructure.
The EU aims to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy. To take concrete actions, the EU has launched the REPowerEU plan, which is part of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). VTT has just launched three strategic research openings and a postdoc programme as part of the implementation of the REPowerEU chapter of Finland's Recovery and Resilience Plan.
One of the objectives of Finland is to support research and development activities focusing on clean energy solutions. VTT's first research opening focuses on electricity storage and accelerating clean energy production, the second on improving industrial energy efficiency and the third on renewable hydrogen economy solutions. VTT has been granted EUR 22.8 million to develop clean energy solutions.
"The research projects of EUR 17.8 million just launched will not only aim at significant reductions of emissions and improvements in energy efficiency, but also create opportunities for new types of business and business models. The aim is to develop solutions for both domestic use and export," says Jussi Manninen, Executive Vice President of VTT's Carbon Neutral Solutions business area.
Increasing in production of clean energy goes hand in hand with a fundamental change in heavy industry. Improvements are required in both energy and material efficiency and decarbonisation of processes as such. This is why the research themes are cross-cutting and cover value chains.
"For example, carbon capture and industrial reuse are linked to the hydrogen economy, which in turn is linked to energy storages. The production of raw materials for renewable plastics or fuels requires hydrogen with carbon. Hydrogen, on the other hand, can be produced emission-free using renewable energy," says Tua Huomo, Executive Vice President of VTT's Sustainable Products and Services business area.
Postdoc programme recruits top experts in energy sector
VTT has already carried out pioneering research and development to promote renewable energy solutions. The aim is now to increase expertise and develop solutions to address bottlenecks related to the green transition, such as the adequacy of electricity storage capacity, availability of critical materials and safety challenges in the use of hydrogen. This requires new expertise, which is why the research openings include an extensive postdoc programme. The programme is used to hire top experts from both Finland and abroad, and EUR 3.4 million has been reserved for this purpose.
"With REPowerEU funding, we deepen our cutting-edge energy research and develop solutions that accelerate the commercial adoption of key clean energy technologies in Finland. The postdoc programme also helps us to attract top foreign researchers to Finland," Jussi Manninen says.
VTT invests in clean energy pilot infrastructure and builds process development facilities in Bioruukki as well as research and product development services. The EUR 5 million granted from the REPowerEU envelope to extend the pilot infrastructure is part of VTT's total investment (EUR 21.3 million) in Bioruukki. The REPowerEU funding covers part of the hydrogen and emission-free transport infrastructure and research equipment. The clean energy testing and piloting infrastructure will be used for research and development projects important to industry, such as hydrogen technologies, reducing industrial carbon footprint, transport and energy storage.
The three strategic research openings launched: Electricity storage and accelerating clean energy, industrial energy efficiency and low-carbonisation, as well as renewable hydrogen economy, the postdoc programme and the development of the Bioruukki piloting infrastructure are part of the additional chapter of the REPowerEU investment and reform programme for sustainable growth in Finland prepared by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, for which Finland has reserved EUR 127 million in total. From the RePowerEU funding allocated to research institutes, a total of EUR 22.8 million has been allocated to VTT's research openings. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment acts as the ministry responsible for the project towards the European Commission.
