EIR 0-1 Editorial

The Eco Innovation Review aims:

• To advance the understanding of, and alleviate the barriers to, eco-innovation processes.
• To foster the debate around eco-innovation, environmental technology and related governance issues.
  
• To help disseminate eco-innovation R&D, and fill a perceived gap.
• To report on EI's network activities with respect to the above objectives.

This first issue (EIR 0) aims to introduce Eco Innovation as well as to test the effectiveness of its online media. We welcome any feedback on this effectiveness: please report any bugs, errors, or technical and editorial problems.

We also invite your contribution for future issues: news, events, research pieces or reviews, commentaries, photos, websites, references or ideas.

Please submit any feedback and contribution via this webform or an email to the Editor.

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EIR 0-2 News from EI

2006 OVERVIEW

by Frédéric Morand, Eco Innovation Secretary

Dear Eco Innovation Community Member,

2006 was a transition year for EI, firstly as an organisation, and secondly as an organisation involved in research.

ORGANISATION
Just one year ago new interns resumed the stimulating work of their 2005 predecessors and helped us take our young organisation to its next steps. One of these steps included the conception of a logo, mostly internally and finally with the input of a graphical designer. Please let us know if this should be our final logo!

Another step was the substantial develoment of our Business Plan with a financial section being validated by an independent auditor. This document is now ready to be adapted to the latest circumstances and communicated. One of its core features is its orientation toward e-learning - on which more to come in EIR 1.

A third step was the development of our collaborative platform, initiated in 2005. Drupal is an open source content management platform that we have used to create our online information system in a very customised way. We expect to use it in the future to further develop the interactive features of our platform (e.g., podcast, chatroom, videoconference, multimedia such as video, Flash).

On the logistical side, our secretariat has moved to Belgium in September 2006, due to professional opportunities opened at the Free University of Brussels. At least for the time being, Eco Innovation will remain registered in Ireland, where we have fulfilled all our tax and other legal obligations, and where our webmaster and two of our directors are located.

RESEARCH
On the research side, 2006 has seen the publication of research from past projects, the conclusion of one FP5 project and the related generation of a first series of working papers around the integration of institutions. EI completed an Irish exploratory project in mountain farming systems with promising perspectives in agri-environment policy research (see future EIR issues for details). An EU-funded project of much larger scope (Network of Excellence) has unofficially started in the last months of the year, with exciting ambitions in the area of durable pest control strategies.

We have ended the year with a substantial portfolio of research proposals submitted to FP6, COST and others sources. In a nutshell, these proposals focus on eco-innovation as a governance tool (EMBED), the generation and/or marketing of eco-innovation in specific sectors (agro-tourism and agro-biodiversity: GEL, sport turf: GRASSROOT) or geographic areas (mountain range: Burren-tender; drylands GRASS). Two interns have also contributed to our preliminary steps in pig research (on which more to come in future EIR issues).

Besides our dissemination of research outputs with a increasing focus on e-learning, social learning and multimedia approaches, 2007 should see further transitions such as the consolidation of our Business Plan, the resubmission of promising proposals, the development of our collaborative platform, the enlargement and engagement of our network.

Should you feel interested in Eco Innovation's endeavours, we would welcome your participation in our development. Feel free to send back any suggestions regarding any aspects of Eco Innovation.

Yours,
Frédéric Morand
26 January 2007

EIR 0-3 Focus

The focus of this edition is one of Eco Innovation's directors, Marjolein Visser, and her two strands of research: restoring desertified drylands, and aspects of the European agri-environment.

Marjolein Visser is an agro-ecologist who initiated her first research strand in native seed production for arid lands in 1992. Her work includes collecting, evaluating and selecting native perennial grasses , and to a lesser degree legumes, in South-Tunisia. Her interest lies in applying results from her work (knowledge and seed material) in a participatory way among arid land users to combat ecological degradation. Marjolein currently holds a lecturership in Farming Systems at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole Interfacultaire de Bio-ingénieurs (Free University of Brussels, Belgium).

In her second research strand, Marjolein has explored the relationship between agriculture and conservation in Western Ireland, thanks to a Marie Curie post-doc research scholarship at the NUI, Galway. This research focused on turloughs , which are summer-grazed, winter-flooded karstic wetlands unique to Ireland. They have high nature conservation value and are designated as Natura 2000 Priority Habitats for protection.

In Issue 1 of the Eco Innovation Review, we feature an interview with Marjolein covering her research on turloughs and her plans for the future. This interview touches on the importance of social issues in turlough management, as these high-value habitats need to be farmed in order to be conserved. Marjolein's research has focused on how farmers graze turloughs, and the links between the way they graze them and the way they take their decisions and perceive their land within the framework of the EU agri-environment policy. Read more in Eco Innovation Review 1!

EIR 0-4 Discussion

Is eco-innovation just environmentally-friendly innovation, or is there more at stake?

Defining eco-innovation, ten years on: a thought-provoking summary of some ideas on eco-innovations, with the opportunity to contribute your own thoughts in this online forum.

EIR 0-5 Policy

A significant development in recent European research policy is the commencement of the European Union's Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and the release of the first round of calls for proposals. For an outline of FP7, see the FP7 in brief page on this website. A few key points:

• Framework Programmes (FPs) have been the financial tools used by the European Union since 1984 in order to support research and development activities across a range of scientific disciplines. Until this point, FPs have run for 5 years but FP7 has been proposed to run for 7 years (2007-2013). It aims to further the creation of the European Research Area, and to develop the knowledge economy and society in Europe.
• There are four main Specific Programmes under FP7, reflecting four basic priority components of European research for the time being. These are Co-operation, Ideas, People and Capacities. The majority of the funding for research activities will be through the Co-operation program, under the sub-programme of Collaborative Research.
• There are nine major themes highlighted under the Co-operation programme of FP7 (as well as two themes in the Euratom Program) and the most relevant of these for issues related to eco-innovations are: Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology; Environment; and Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities. The Science in Society theme under the Ideas Programme is also related to the concept of eco-innovations.
• The first FP7 calls for proposals were published on December 22nd, 2006. Calls will continue to be published on the EU website Cordis throughout the Framework Programme, from 2007 to 2013. The first FP7 projects will begin later in 2007.
• The overall budget for FP7 is €50, 521, 000
  

Issue 1 of EIR will disclose a few tips learned from the Proposers' Day event held in Brussels on Monday 22 January 2007. Beyond the obvious financial opportunities offered to the global research community at large, EIR 1 will address other, perhaps less well known aspects that make FP7 even more seducing to eco-innovation researchers. Among others: the Science in Society dear to Research Commissioner Potocnik, and the ever-increasing commitment of the European Commission to research for sustainable development. Stay tuned...

EIR 0-6 Featured Websites

In this issue we feature two websites with relevance to the topic of eco-innovations: the SustainAbility website and the official Cordis FP7 website.

SustainAbility http://www.sustainability.com

Established in 1987, SustainAbility advises clients on the risks and opportunities associated with corporate responsibility and sustainable development. They also host a think tank working on various issues related to sustainability, as well as a forum, a bimonthly newsletter and periodic roundtables on relevant issues.
This website is highly relevant to Eco Innovation as they work at the interface between market forces and societal expectations, to seek solutions to social and environmental challenges that deliver long term value. Current highlights of the website include an overview of sustainable development in India, work on social entrepreneurship and a searchable database of leading environmental journalism.

Cordis FP7 Website http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7

With the commencement of the European Union's Framework Programme 7 on January 1st 2007, and the recent release of the first round of calls for proposals (See the Policy section of this newsletter), the official FP7 website is currently is an important resource. The site is a comprehensive collection of information on FP7: what is FP7, how it works, current open calls for proposals and guidelines for application. For a summary of FP7, see the Eco Innovation FP7 in brief page.

EIR 0-7 Events

This page highlight two upcoming events related to the theme of eco-innovation - for more events and conferences see the Events section of our website.

Biofach - World Organic Trade Fair (Nuremberg, February 2007)

http://www.biofach.de/main/d3zq3jg8/page.html

BioFach, the World Organic Trade Fair, is distinguished by its vigour, internationality and innovative power. It brings together approximately 2,100 exhibitors - two thirds from abroad - and more than 37,000 trade visitors from over 110 countries of the world to Nuremberg every year in February. Visitors at the world's get-together for the organic industry find tomorrow's innovations and successful products - in a setting of exciting special shows, tasting sessions and small breaks for enjoyment in the catering areas. There are also Biofach events in Japan, USA, South Africa and China every year.

ESEE 2007: Integrating Natural and Social Sciences for Sustainability (Leipzig, Germany, June 2007)

http://www.esee2007.org/

The European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE), in co-operation with the German associations for ecological economics, invite you to meet in Leipzig for the 7th international conference. The conference will explore contemporary scientific approaches for putting the concept of Sustainable Development into research and into practice, and it will focus on bridging natural and social sciences. It will address sustainability topics such as loss of biodiversity, human vulnerability to global change and water problems on all geographical and institutional levels. The conference aims to contribute to a better understanding of societal and natural processes and their interaction by integrating scientific methodologies to overcome the shortcomings of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches. Impediments to inter- and transdisciplinary research will be examined and new research concepts for sustainability identified.

EIR 0-8 Help Needed

Eco Innovation invites expressions of interest from potential collaborators with Flash experience. Find out more here.