The HARMONI project coordinated by CIRCE brings together over 150 European experts in search of solutions to facilitate technology transfer in process industries

This event will discuss options that allow intensive industries to integrate and implement technological solutions more quickly and easily.

Technical barriers are certainly a substantial part of technological development. However, there are other non-technological challenges that hinder the application and integration of achieved technical advancements.

These challenges include the lack of regulation suited to technical developments, the transposition of European regulations into national conditions that are not always aligned, or the various legal frameworks that impact production plants both at the process and product levels. All these factors affect the transfer of technical solutions that are very close to the market.

Lastly, standards as a tool for information exchange, knowledge sharing, and as a facilitator of technological developments, are not sufficiently developed nor widely used by all actors in intensive industries.

The HARMONI project seeks solutions that help create an appropriate regulatory framework as well as a stable and transparent investment market, which reduces uncertainties and encourages investment in R&D&I in intensive industries.

The project results are primarily aimed at European public authorities, mainly the European Commission, which is responsible for developing and updating the legal texts applied by industries. Therefore, constant collaboration and dialogue with these bodies is critical.

All of this will ultimately benefit both the industries and the regulatory bodies. The meetings taking place over these two days bring together more than 150 participants, mostly companies represented by their researchers and plant managers from intensive sectors such as water, engineering, steel, cement, minerals, non-ferrous materials, chemicals, and ceramics.

In addition, a significant participation of high-level representatives from the European Commission, both as speakers and participants in the discussions, reinforces the exchange of opinions between the public and private sectors. The event is divided into six areas, the same ones that the HARMONI project has identified as the most urgent to address at the European level.

These areas are: the need to harmonize policies related to processes and products in intensive industries, access to public funding aligned with industry needs, circular economy, waste recycling, plastic recycling, and carbon dioxide valorization.

Each session includes questions for the speakers, working groups, and discussion panels. This allows for the evaluation of possible solutions that industries need, while giving a voice to European Commission representatives in an open and transparent dialogue.

The conclusions, practical examples, and priorities identified at the end of the event will help inform the recommendations of the HARMONI project. The project began at the end of August 2017 and will continue until the end of October 2019.

Among other possibilities, considerations include the best way to amend the Waste Framework Directive, how to facilitate the development of separation and treatment technologies for complex plastics, CO2 conversion technologies to produce high value-added carbon chains for various applications, and the best way to develop the standardization framework in coordinating the technical groups of CEN/CENELEC in the field of circular economy.

Finally, it is important to highlight the presence of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research as the main stakeholder in the HARMONI project. According to the Directorate-General, the project could play a very interesting role in the future of the Horizon Europe R&D program, advising on its design in areas such as the integration of best practices on regulation and standardization.

CIRCE, as the project coordinator and organizer of this event, is undertaking for the first time the organization of such a large-scale technical event with high-level experts in the framework of European intensive industries.