Recent and Upcoming Events

Zentrum für Telematik wins prestigious European Research Council prize
24 October, 2018, Würzburg, Bavaria

​The interdisciplinary German-Israeli project "CloudCT", with Prof. Klaus Schilling, has won a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant, endowed with a maximum funding of €14 million. A formation of 10 microsatellites will record the composition of clouds using computer tomography methods. It is important that about 10 satellites simultaneously capture the  target area from different directions in order to generate a corresponding 3D image. This will provide atmospheric physicists with data to improve cloud modelling and enable better climate predictions. An error of about 1% in cloud properties contributes to deviations in climate predictions at about the same order of magnitude as all greenhouse gases from human activities.

The award winners Ilan Koren (atmospheric physics), Yoav Schechner (computer tomography) and Klaus Schilling (formations from microsatellites) in front of the precision motion simulator of the Center for Telematics in Würzburg, where this research work is being prepared. Photo Credit: Zentrüm für Telematik e.V, 2018

In 2012, Prof. Schilling was awarded the ERC Advanced Grant "NetSat" in the amount of €2.5 million to demonstrate for the first time control techniques for a self-organizing, three-dimensional formation of satellites in orbit. Funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, this capability is already being used innovatively for Earth observation in the 3 smallest satellites of "TOM - Telematics earth Observation Mission". Within the framework of the Regional Leaders Summit (RLS), a further 9 satellites will be contributed to TIM by the partners as part of the RLS-Small Satellites project.
 
Read more here. (German)
Visit the Zentrum für Telematik website here. 
Visit the RLS-Small Satellites website here.

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Young Energy Researchers Conference
27-28 February, 2019, Wels, Austria

The Young Energy Researchers Conference is part of the World Sustainable Energy Days. With ­over 650 participants from over 50 countries each ­year, the World ­Sustainable Energy Days are one of Europe's largest annual conferences on sustainable energy. The conference has two tracks: energy efficiency and biomass. Young researchers (born before 1983) are invited to submit contributions here before 10 October, 2018. 

Review the conference flyer here. 
Find further information, register, or submit contributions here. 

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9th Regional Leaders Summit

From 17 to 18 May, 2018, the Regional Leaders Summit met in Québec. This was the ninth meeting of the Regional Leaders Summit, and marks the second time the summit was held in Québec. The theme of the conference was ''Energy Transition: Towards a low carbon economy''. Surrounding and during the conference, RLS-Sciences and partners held events for each of the four R&D themes. Review a summary of these activities here. 

Review the Final Declaration on the energy transition here. 
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RLS-Sciences Activities for 9th RLS Conference

• 9-18 May: Inaugural RLS-Energy Network Summer School
• 10-11 May: 2nd Annual Global Aerospace Campus Summer Summit
• 16 May: Journée de recherche ‘’Digital Day’’
• 17 May: Small Satellites project meeting
• 17 May: Energy Network presentation to RLS Heads of Government
• 18 May: RLS-Sciences presentations at the 9th RLS Conference

Each meeting produced interesting contents, which are available for review on the thematic pages.

On 17th May, 2018, Dr. Sebastian Goers presented the RLS-Energy Network to the RLS Heads of Government. Review his presentation here.

Cristina Cavalcanti, a student from São Paulo who's participation in RLS-Sciences was funded by FAPESP, presented her summer school team's work on the Cape Town water crisis to the Heads of Government. Please find a copy of the student team presentation here. Explanations about the summer school team’s works can be found here. For context on the water situation in Cape Town,  please refer to information from our partner GreenCape on the water outlook and industry here, as well as additional information here and here.
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On Friday, 18 May, 2018, each of the four RLS-Sciences themes were presented to the conference. To review the presentations, simply select the topic of interest below. Additionally, two students from the RLS-Energy Network Summer School presented the results of the group project proposals which were developed over ten days in Shawinigan and Québec.

Energy
Global Aerospace Campus

Small Satellites
Digitization

Student Presentation: ALU Green
Student Presentation: RLSynergy

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RLS-Energy Network releases first Monitoring Report
17 May 2018

The Regional Renewables Alliance (RRA) has published its first Monitoring Report ahead of the 9th Regional Leaders Summit in Québec. The report gives a preliminary overview of the renewable energy capacities across the seven RLS partner regions, based on existing data. It also describes ongoing research and development activities in renewable energy, as well as socioeconomic and geographic contexts of the regions. The report was prepared under the coordination of the Energieinstitut at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz.

Review the Monitoring Report here.

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Previous Events

RLS-Energy Network announces inaugural international summer school
​Shawinigan & Québec City, Québec, 9-18 May, 2018

The RLS-Energy Network is pleased to announce the inaugural international summer school on renewable energy from May 9 to 18, 2018, in Shawinigan City and Québec City (QC, Canada). The Summer School is jointly organized by the RLS-Energy Network, the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) and the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). Researchers and coordinators from each RLS region are invited to nominate students to attend.

​Find more information here, or on the Summer School page from FRQNT here. ​​

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FAPESP and EU to fund research in sustainable water resources management
São Pãulo, São Pãulo, 28 March, 2018

FAPESP announced its second call for proposals to fund research in sustainable management of water resources, under the H2020 agreement with the EU. There are three themes: a) enabling sustainable management of water resources, b) strengthening socio-economic approaches to water management, and c) supporting tools for sustainable integrated management of water resources. The call is organized into two phases. The pre-proposal phase deadline ends 24 April, 2018. 

Read more here. 

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Global Aerospace Campus launches own website and informational video
​Ottobrunn, Bavaria, December, 2017

Global Aerospace Campus has launched their own website! The new webpage includes an overview of the virtual campus for the RLS-Aerospace Network, details about the network's activities, and planned developments. Additional information about partners and courses can also be found on the website. The project has also released an informational video. Produced by lead partner Munich Aerospace, the video takes viewers through visual representations of the RLS-Aerospace Network, while explaining the goals and activities of the project.

​Watch the video here and visit the Global Aerospace Campus website here. 

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New degree programme “Satellite Technology” at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
​Würzburg, Bavaria, 15 December, 2017

The new degree programme “Satellite Technology – Advanced Space Systems” will start in winter 2018 at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Bavaria. Focused on small satellites, telecommunication, earth observation, and digitalisation, this programme will expand the well-established programme “Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Space Science and Technology – SpaceMaster”. Special lectures and excursions will be organised by different partners in Bavaria, such as Zentrum für Telematik, TUM, University of the Bundeswehr, and DLR. Prof. Dr. Klaus Schilling, lead partner of RLS-Small Satellites,  is head of the new programme.

​Read more about the new degree programme here (German/Deutsch) or about RLS-Small Satellites here.

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GPPS Montréal 2018 Announced
​Montréal, Québec, 7-9 May, 2018

The Global Power and Propulsion Society (GPPS) will host the GPPS Conference for North America in Montreal, Québec, on May 7-9, 2018. The event offers the opportunity to meet international actors from academia and industry and exchange on a broad spectrum of topics including turbomachinery, combustors and combustion, heat transfer, materials and manufacturing, and acoustics.

Read more here.

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1st Upper Austrian Stakeholder Workshop of the RLS Energy Network at Forum Econogy 2017
Linz, Upper Austria, 6 December, 2017

​On 6th December 2017, the Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Upper Austria, hosted its Forum Econogy. This year´s topic was “Lösungen in stürmischen Zeiten”. Experts presented lighthouse projects towards a transition of the energy sector. The aim of the RLS Energy Network workshop was to incorporate the expectations of Upper Austrian stakeholders from science, policy and industry and to identify and evaluate future research and innovation projects. Current activities of the network’s roadmap, the monitoring of the renewable energy status quo and potentials were presented. Scientists from Upper Austria and Bavaria introduced their research activities on Power-to-X, energy systems, energy storage and ICT ecosystems for energy savings on the household level to the stakeholders.
 
Find the agenda of the RLS Energy Networks workshop here.

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RLS Energy Network at WindAc Africa 2017
​Cape Town, Western Cape, 15 November, 2017

​The paper “The regional roles and benefits of wind power – a monitoring process for the partner regions Bavaria, Georgia, Upper Austria, Québec, São Paulo, Shandong and Western Cape” was presented at the wind power conference WindAc Africa 2017 in the session “Global Outlook”. The report was generated in cooperation with RLS scientists from different institutions from Shandong (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shandong University), Upper Austria (Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University Linz) and the Western Cape (Stellenbosch University) and presents wind power highlights, objectives, statistics, trends and research activities of selected RLS regions compiled during a monitoring process of the RLS Energy Network’s roadmap.
 
Review the presentation here.

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RLS-Sciences at IAUP 2017
​Vienna, Austria, 7 July, 2017

Members of RLS-Sciences presented the network and projects of RLS-Sciences in the context of innovation in education at the IAUP Triennial Conference 2017 in Vienna, Austria. The presentation was titled, ''New University Models - Innovation in Education - RLS-Sciences: A multilateral and multilevel approach'', and was authored by Sebastian Goers, Florence Gauzy, and Laurine Platzky on behalf of all RLS-Sciences members. 
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Review the presentation here.

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Global Aerospace Campus Summer Summit 2017 hosted by Munich Aerospace
​Taufkirchen, Bavaria, 26-28 June, 2017

The Munich Aerospace Summer Summit 2017 was held in Taufkirchen, Bavaria, from 26 June to 28 June. This year's theme was "Green Aerospace". For the second time, PhD candidates from across the seven RLS regions participated. This marked the second large-scale event of of the RLS-Global Aerospace Campus, and built on the success of the first summer school in 2016. Over 120 participants from academia and industry were in attendance, and researchers from Bavaria, Georgia, Québec, and São Paulo presented. 

​Read more about the 2017 Summer Summit here, or review the programme here.

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Prof. Broy on Industry 4.0 at Printemps numérique event
​Montréal, Québec, 6 June, 2017

​On 6 June, 2017, Prof. Manfred Broy, founding president of the Zentrum für Digitalisierung Bayern (ZD.B) presented on Industry 4.0 at the invitation of Printemps numérique. The presentation was part of Printemps numérique’s #intersections VOL. 5: Industry 4.0 event, held at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montréal.

Photo Credit: Printemps numérique 2017

​Read more here, or learn more about the RLS-Digitalisation Dialogue here. 

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Zentrum für Telematik wins INNOSpace Masters Airbus Defence & Space Challenge 2017
​​Bavaria, 18 May, 2017

On 18 May, 2017, the Zentrum für Telematik e.V. (ZfT) was announced as the winner of the INNOSpace Master Competition Airbus Defence and Space Challenge 2017. This year, the INNOSpace Master Competition theme was: "Space 4.0: Ideas for the next space generation". The ZfT proposal to use advanced manufacturing methods in the production of satellites for advanced space applications ranked first out of 66 proposals submitted. According to Prof. Dr. Klaus Schilling, CEO of ZfT, the application of advanced manufacturing methods is more important now that greater numbers of small satellites will be in demand. The proposal includes joint human-robot processes in manufacturing, and seeks to decrease both production costs and innovation cycle implementation times. Zentrum für Telematik e.V. is the lead partner in the RLS-Small Satellites project.
Further information about the proposal from Zentrum für Telematik e.V. can be found here. (German only)

​Visit the Zentrum für Telematik e.V. website here. 
Learn more about the InnoSpace Masters Competition here. 

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RLS-Small Satellites presented in Western Cape during Bavarian delegation visit
Cape Town, Western Cape, 12 April, 2017

​During the visit of the Bavarian delegation of Minister of Economics Ilse Aigner to South Africa, a small satellite symposium was held at CPUT in Capetown. It focused on the joint “Telematics International Mission (TIM)” addressing a pico-satellite formation for Earth observation with applications in agriculture, as well as in volcano and in marine monitoring. 

Learn more about TIM here.

Photo: Prof. Herman Steyn (Stellenbosch University) explains the South African pico-satellites to Minister Ilse Aigner and Prof. Klaus Schilling (Source: RLS-Small Satellites, 2017)

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RLS-Energy Network meets in Montréal
​Montréal, Québec, 9-10 April, 2017

The RLS-Energy network met in Montréal from 9-10 April, 2017. Researchers and representatives from each RLS region were in attendance, and new members were welcomed. On 10 April, Québec Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Pierre Arcand, was in attendance and spoke to the group. 

To review the programme, please click here. ​

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RLS-Small Satellites meets in Würzburg
Würzburg, Bavaria, 24-25 March, 2017

The RLS-Small Satellites group met from 24 March to 25 March at the Zentrum für Telematik in Würzburg, Bavaria. Updates from each RLS region were provided. The group discussed the specifics of a series of key aspects for the project over the two days, and set out the next steps to move forward. With the success of this meeting, the group continues to move towards launch.

​To learn more about the project, please visit the RLS-Small Satellites website here.

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8th Regional Leaders Summit

From 14 to 15 July, 2016, the Regional Leaders Summit met in Munich. This was the eighth meeting of the Regional Leaders Summit, and marks the second time the summit was held in Munich, where the inaugural Regional Leaders Summit took place in 2002. Surrounding and during the conference, RLS-Sciences and partners held events for each of the four R&D topics. Review a summary of these activities here. 

Learn more about the conference by reading the Final Declaration.
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RLS-Sciences Activities for 8th RLS Conference

• 12 July: RLS-Energy Network Panel at iSEneC 2016
  
• 13 July: Expert Dialogue on Digitization at Zentrum Digitalisierung Bayern
• 14 July: Campus Aerospace Tour and Brainstorming Session
• 15 July: RLS-Small Satellites Kick-Off Meeting

On 14th July, 2016, Prof. Dr. Klaus Schilling presented the RLS-Small Satellites project to the RLS heads of government.

The four Bavarian project coordinators presented to the 8th RLS Conference on Friday, 15 July 2016. To review their presentations, simply select the topic of interest below.

Energy
Campus Aerospace

Small Satellites
Digitalisation

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RLS-Small Satellites meeting followed by website launch
Würzburg, Bavaria, 21 July, 2016

On 15 July, 2016, the RLS-Small Satellites group met in Munich for their project kick-off. Researchers from all seven RLS regions attended, and constructive next steps for the future project were decided. Following the kick-off meeting, the RLS-Small Satellites project has launched its website. It will feature information about the project and the partners, as well as updates on the progress of the project. Visit them at: https://rls-smallsatellites.org. 

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Global Aerospace Campus Holds Site Tour and Brainstorming Session at Ludwig-Bölkow Campus
Ottobrunn, Bavaria, 14 July, 2016

​Following the success of the Munich Aerospace Summer School 2016 on "Autonomous Flight", the Campus Aerospace group met at the Ludwig-Bölkow Campus in Ottobrunn for presentations, followed by a tour of the facilities on site. The group then had a networking lunch, followed by a productive brainstorming session on how to develop future learning programmes for the next generation of aerospace researchers across the RLS regions. Nearly 30 RLS researchers from all seven regions were part of the event.

​Read more here (English) and here (Deutsch). 

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Expert Dialogue on Digitization at Zentrum Digitalisierung Bayern
Garching, Bavaria, 13 July, 2016

On 13th July, 2016, experts from across the RLS regions came together for an expert dialogue on digitization and "Industrie 4.0" from their regional perspective. The dialogue offered an opportunity for the regions to share their competencies in the field, as well as best practices and lessons learned about the digital transition. The dialogue was hosted by Prof. Manfred Broy at the Zentrum für Digitalisierung Bayern, in Garching, Bavaria. 

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RLS-Energy Network Panel held at iSEneC 2016
Nuremberg, Bavaria, 12 July, 2016

The Integration of Sustainable Energy Conference was held from 11 to 12 July, 2016 in Nuremberg, Germany. As part of the conference, the RLS- Energy Network held a panel from 14:00 - 16:00 on 12 July. Senior researchers from across the RLS regions offered presentations on innovative renewable energy research and regional perspectives on energy policy.

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RLS-Sciences Participants at Munich Aerospace Summer School 2016
Herrsching, Bavaria, 22-24 June, 2016

The Munich Aerospace Summer School 2016 was held in Herrsching, Bavaria, from 22 June to 24 June. This year's theme was "Autonomous Flight". For the first time, PhD candidates from across the RLS regions participated, for a total of nine RLS-Sciences participants.

​Read more here, and review the programme here.

RLS-Sciences Participants at the Munich Aerospace Summer School 2016. From left to right: Bernd Kolar (Upper Austria), Aldo André Diaz Salazar (São Paulo), Paola Gonzalez Ramos (São Paulo), Wang Shu (Shandong), Jean-Sébastien Dick(Québec), Mingshan Chi (Shandong), and Ugo Chouinard (Québec). Not pictured: Greg Busch (Georgia), Jason Corman (Georgia). (Photo Credit: Aldo André Diaz Salazar).

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RLS-Sciences Meeting in Munich
Munich, Bavaria, 26 January, 2016

A preparatory meeting was held with representatives from the RLS regions in Munich in order to begin preparations for the scientific events associated with the 8th Regional Leaders Summit to be held in Munich in July 2016.

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Energy Network Meeting in Québec
Montréal, Québec, 23 November, 2015

Members of the Energy Network met in Montréal to discuss the development of the network. Topics discussed included network management, network structure, and the next steps to be taken.

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Energy Network Meeting in Upper Austria
Linz, Upper Austria, 23 June, 2015

Members of the Energy Network were invited to participate in an internal workshop on, ”Economic and technological challenges of energy-system research in Upper Austria.”

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Energy Network Second Generation Biofuels Workshop in Western Cape
Cape Town, Western Cape, 12 March, 2014

Members of the Energy Network met in Western Cape for a workshop on second generation biofuels and exploring the technical cooperation amongst the RLS member states on the topic.

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Renewable Energy Symposium in Western Cape
Cape Town, Western Cape, 10-11 March, 2014

Bringing together experts from across Western Cape and the Partner Regions, the Renewable Energy Symposium provided a forum for presentations from policy makers, researchers, and industry experts to discuss renewable energy research.

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RLS International Seminar on Biomass, Biogas and Energy Efficiency in São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil, 3-5 April, 2013

The RLS International Seminar on Biomass, Biogas and Energy Efficiency was organized and hosted by the Government of São Paulo from 3-5 April, 2013. The final report includes copies of the fifteen papers which were presented during the conference.

Read the final report here.