13th of August - Oslo

Meeting : Study visit of Romanian Partners in Norway – ECOM –project coordinator
Date: 13.08.2009
Location: NIVA – Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalleen 21, Oslo, Norway

Participants:

1. Association For The Protection of Human Being and Environment for Sustainable Development – ECOM Constanta 
- Maria Nastac – President and Project coordinator
- Alina Resteanu – Legal and Financial advisor
- Andreea Balta – Administrative Responsible
- Daniela Ivan - Communication Responsible
- Daniel Baba – IT Consultant

2. Norwegian Institute for Water Research - NIVA
- Merete Johannessen Ulstein – research director
- Zuliang Liao – Research Scientist

The discussion has gone through the following topics:

• introduction of the participants
• short presentation of NIVA’s history – Mrs. Merete Johannessen Ulstein
• discussions about the role of the project in agriculture and economy –Mr. Zuliang Liao and Mrs. Maria Nastac
• presentation of the project history and the work already done until the funds were obtained – Mrs. Maria Nastac and Alina Resteanu
• Discussion about the implementation plan: there have been agreed over three visits of the Norwegian Partners in Romania (study visit of Norwegian partners in Romania in September 2009, participation to the seminary in stage 2 and participation to the final workshop); discussion about the partnership agreement that must be modified due to some administrative changes in NIVA team and discussions, finalized with an agreement over NIVA’s role in the project. – Mrs. Maria Nastac, Mrs. Alina Resteanu, Mrs. Daniela Ivan;
• Presentation of the research activities scheme : Alina Resteanu and Daniela Ivan
• Discussion about project proposal under FP 7 program: the call on waste treatment has the deadline in January 2010; for this objective there must be created a strong consortium formed by strong partners ( great research institutes from EU)  and at least one industrial partner  - Mrs. Maria Nastac, Mr. Zuliang Liao and Mrs. Alina Resteanu
•  Suggestion about a new topic for a future project: fish waste from the Black Sea and food waste: bio energy topic
  
  

  Friday,  24th of  July 2009,Millenium Business Center-Constanta - ECOM – Association of Protection of the  Human  Being and the Environment for a Sustainable Development in the World 

  organized the press conference for launching the project – “Wastewater treatment sludge and marine biomass from Romanian Black Sea Coast as innovative bio solid composite” supported by “Norwegian Cooperation Programme for Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in Bulgaria and Romania”.
  
  • As we all know the competitions for European funds were started for a while, funds that seem very hard to reach by the Romanian authorities or important research centres; still, the experience proves us that there is human potential and enthusiastic people who, through tough and consequent  work  managed to obtain the funding on a European cooperation programme. In this respect, ECOM, nongovernmental association, with valuable partners from research fields, manages to transform a scientific hypothesis, with a start point from a high necessity of coast region, into a project of 440.000 Euros value. With this opportunity we respect the initiative and the efforts that are made with the hope that they will be an example for other organizations and institutions, but especially for the local authorities which could act more in their citizens’ benefits with these grants.
  • The project comes in a greenhouse effect context and a more accentuated pollution, things that transform the concept of sustainable development from a concept into a real objective, as there exists more and more interest in finding practical solutions to reach it. For this purpose numerous funds offered through funding programmes of European organizations and institutions have become very attractive for the nongovernmental organizations specialized on this type of issues.
  • ECOM – Association of Protection of the  Human Being and the Environment for a  Sustainable Development in the  World  - the only nongovernmental organization from Constanta specialized in scientific research projects on environmental and sustainable development  - with financial support from Innovation Norway through “Norwegian  Cooperation Programme for Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in Bulgaria and Romania” will start the project with title “Wastewater treatment sludge and marine biomass from Romanian Black Sea Coast  as innovative bio solid composite”.
  • The Norwegian Co-operation Programme with Romania aims to stimulate the economic growth and sustainable development and to strengthen the bilateral relations. The Norwegian Government made available EUR 48 million for co-financing of projects to contribute to innovation and technology exchange and business development between Romania and Norway for the period January 2007 – April 2009

  • The project’s objective is to perform a fundamental research with applicative proposals over some scientific hypotheses regarding marine biomass and wastewater sludge for a two years period.
  • At the end of the project it will result a project proposal for FP7 Programme of European Union, the European scientific programme of the highest level, on Environmental Protection segment.
  • The coordination of the project will be assured by ECOM organization and the partners are the following:
  • NIVA is an internationally oriented competence centre for water-related research and development activities on environment and resources, such as monitoring, feasibility studies and integrated water resources management, provides information regarding water-related issues at the national and international levels to authorities, the private sector and the public.
  • "Ovidius" University of Constanta is a public university with 16 faculty, over17.000 students, over 1300 didactic personnel, professors international recognized specialists and young researchers specialized for physical-chemical and microbiological determinations for environment.
  • National Consultancy Centre for Environmental Protection –a nongovernmental, non – profit, self – finance unit founded in "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, under the frame of UE Tempus Program. Members are researchers specialized for consultancy, training for environmental problems and physical-chemical analysis on water and soil.
  • Also, the project will be implemented in the best conditions of international collaboration through the support offered by Norway Embassy in Romania.
  • As a result of the study and the scientific research developed during the project there are predicted major benefits for environment protection through the usage and the reutilisation of the natural resources