- 10 Oct 2024
On 21 June 2024, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Seville successfully launched INCITE, the Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions. As part of the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive, INCITE is created to promote innovation in large agro-industrial EU installations, contributing to the objectives of reaching climate neutrality, increasing resource efficiency, and circular economy. The goal of this newly created centre hosted by the EU-BRITE Team (European Bureau for Research on Industrial Transformations and Emissions), located within the B5 Unit (Circular Economy and Sustainable Industry) of the JRC is to identify and analyse the most promising innovative technologies for decarbonisation, depollution, and the increase of resource efficiency and circularity. In doing so, INCITE, as a strategic tool and in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, greatly contributes to a more environmentally conscious and competitive European industry.
The launch event took place in the centre of Seville, in the iconic Exploraterra Space, a museum in Seville which tells the story of the explorers Fernando Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano and the first circumnavigation of the globe. As a hub of innovation, the museum was the perfect place for the launch of INCITE. Around 200 participants attended in person, while other 600 followed the web stream. Several high-ranking officials from the European Commission, the Spanish government, and the Andalusian and Seville regional and local governments took part in the event which was opened by Bernard Magenhann (Acting director general of the JRC). For instance, we counted with the participation in the panel discussions of Florika Fink-Hooijer (Director General of DG Environment), Maive Rute (Deputy Director-General of DG for Internal Market, Industry, Enterpreneurship and SMEs), and Maria Cristina Russo (Director for Prosperity of DG Research and Innovation). Jorge Paradela, (Andalusian Regional Minister for Industry, Energy and Mines) and Luis Colunga (Special Commissioner PERTE Decarbonisation at the Ministry of Industry and Tourism of Spain) respectively represented both the Andalusian and the Spanish government.
A very large participation from industry was achieved, with high-level representation from a number of industry associations in the energy intensive industry sectors, for example with Axel Eggert (director General of Eurofer) and Daniel Witthaut (executive Director for Innovation at CEFIC).
Besides government officials, several stakeholders coming from the academia, sustainable finance (e.g. European Investment Bank, Climate Bonds Initiative) and the private sector also joined us to launch together the important milestone that is INCITE, which comes after 20 years of dedicated work by JRC personnel developing environmental norms for the industrial sector through the Sevilla Process.
During the highly successful event, all participants joined forces with government officials, researchers and NGOs in order to highlight INCITE’s potential and the unique added value it brings at European and global level.
You can download the full agenda attached below.
You can watch the full video of the conference here: https://innovation-centre-for-industrial-transformation.ec.europa.eu/incite-launch-event.