The EPNOE was established in May 2005 as a “Network of Excellence (NoE)” with funding from the European Commission (EC) under the FP6-NMP program Grant Agreement (ID: 500375). The NoE instrument was designed to reduce fragmentation and strengthen competitiveness by assembling a critical mass of resources and expertise centered on individual fields of science and technology (in our case, polysaccharides).
The ambition was for such networks to be “Durable Integration Structures with the momentum to survive and grow on a long-term basis.”
To fulfill that, the EPNOE was registered as a non-profit association in December 2007, and continued its activities after the end of EC funding in October 2009.
The initial focus of EPNOE was on promoting the use of polysaccharides as industry feedstock for the manufacturing of advanced, multifunctional materials. In March 2012, it received further funding from the EC for three years under the FP7-NMP program Grant Agreement (ID: 290486) to expand activities towards health- and food-related materials and products and increase industrial participation and innovation.
The EPNOE has continued after the end of the second period of EC funding in February 2015 and now sustains its activities from membership fees.
Research and Industry events
Organization of networking events between research and industry for building project proposals
Providing Knowledge
Acting as a source of expert technical knowledge for industry and civil society.
Organize Conferences
Organization of international conferences once a year, alternating between a full conference and one for junior scientists (PhD students and early postdocs)
ORganize Workshops
Organization of student/researcher training through exchange programs (e.g. Erasmus), workshops and training courses
President
Department of Chemical Engineering
KU Leuven, Belgium
Vice-President Conferences
and Workshops
Department of Chemistry
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Vice-President Membership and Awards
ETH Zurich
Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, Switzerland
Vice-President Administration & Marketing
Centre of Materials
IMT Mines Alès, France
Vice-President Education
Aalto University, Finland
Vice-President Innovation
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,
Espoo, Finland
Petru Poni (Romania)
University of Toulouse (France)
Spanish Council for Scientific Research (Spain)
Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands)
Institute for Mediterranean and Subtropical Horticulture La Mayora (Spain)
Chalmers University of Technology
EPNOE Founding Coordinator
Research Director in CNRS
Researcher
