'UpWind' - The largest ever EU-funded wind energy research project gets under way
April 2006
Over 100 wind energy specialists gathered in Brussels to kick off the largest ever long-term wind energy research project to receive funding from the EU. UpWind is an "Integrated Project" - a type of financing instrument introduced under the Sixth Framework Programme for R&D (FP6) - which involves some forty manufacturers, service providers, universities, research organisations and other professional organisations, who will together endeavour to explore and resolve design limits for very large wind turbines to be built after 2010.
With a budget of over €22million and EC funding of over €14 million, UpWind is the flagship of European collaborative research into wind turbine development, and is the result of a two year proposal process. It will last five years. Smart Fibres' key role in the project is to develop and demonstrate its cost effective instrumentation based on FBGs for condition monitoring and control, for the requirements of next generation wind turbines of up to 20 MW. More information about this project and the partners is available via our Upwind page.