CIC energiGUNE, the Basque research center of reference in battery storage, thermal energy solutions, and hydrogen, and member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance-BRTA, has approved the Strategic Plan 2021-2024, which will define the general guidelines of research for the next years, and which includes the launch of an Area of Hydrogen Technologies, that will join to the ones of Electrochemical Storage and Thermal energy Solutions. In line with the center’s strategy, the area of thermal storage changes its name to “Thermal energy Solutions”.
“The time has come to take a decisive step in the project that was launched a little over 10 years ago”, has assured General Manager Nuria Gisbert. “We have reached a level of excellency and maturity that we need to take advantage of in order to face the current challenges of the industry linked to the energetic transition, society is moving towards a sustainable mobility based on factors that we know well, such as the solid-state battery, and on others that will take up a very relevant space in the near future, such as clean Hydrogen”.
The development of the Strategic Plan of CIC energiGUNE has been coordinated by the Financial Manager of the center, Sara Ortiz. “We have carried out a wide participatory process, in which we have counted on the contributions of a Delegate Advisory Committee, formed by members of the Board and members of the Scientific Committee, as well as an specific work group from the center and from the Managerial Committee itself. That level of participation has allowed us to generate a long-distance tool of an enormous potential, that is why we want to publicly manifest our gratitude to all the participating people”.
In this sense, the Plan outlines three main lines of action, which will determine the roadmap to follow from now on. In the first place, CIC energiGUNE will intensify its work to generate a direct impact on the Basque industry through research on energy. In second place, it will continue with the development of first-level research consolidating its international reference position, in which maintaining the top-level research team combining the best international talent with the development of local talent, will also be a key element. And, finally, it will continue developing strategic collaborations that will allow for a fast progress in the lines of research.
At a budgetary level, the center considers a policy focused on sustainability in the medium term, with a capacity to tend to the current challenges and be able to give flexible answers to the future challenges, as well as to guarantee the necessary tools that will allow the development of high-value projects, maximizing the impact on the Basque industry and creating new companies with a technological basis.
After its approval by the Board, now a continuous work process in different projects established in the Plan opens up ahead, for which specific Work Groups in the center will be created.
