The University of Oviedo will coordinate a new Tempus programme which has just been approved by the European Union to develop a project about renewal energy in Egypt. Three European universities, led by the University of Oviedo, and four Egyptian universities, apart from non-university partners take part in this programme. The overall budget will be 855.000 Euros, whose purpose will be the creation of a laboratory for the study of the energy coming from waves and tides in Alexandria (Egypt).

The programme that has recently received the approval of the Executive Agency in the Educational, Audiovisual and Cultural sphere (EACEA), a body belonging to the European Committee, is entitled "Clean Energy and Research in Environmental Studies (CERES)" and it is managed from the University of Oviedo by the Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (Campus of Gijón). The project is one of the 63 which have been selected all around Europe.

The University of Oviedo heads the consortium in which the European universities of Hochschule Karlsruhe Technik und Wirtschaft (Germany) and Staffordshire University (United Kingdom) and the Egyptian Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) (Alexandria), Nile University, Helwan University, and Ain Shames University (El Cairo). The programme also counts with Egyptian non-academic partners: New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs and "6th of October Investors" Association.

On behalf of the Asturian academic institution, there are some teachers involved: Juan Ángel Martínez Esteban (coordinator), Manuel Rico Secades, Jorge Loredo Pérez, Juan Díaz González, Constantina Álvarez Peña and Alberto Martín Pernía.

Purposes

• To establish a master's degree in the field of clean energies and environment in the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST), in Alexandria, which will be opened to all the students in the world.
• Implementation of the first lab in Egypt for energy studies through the use of waves and tides in Alexandria and the use of photovoltaic and solar applications.
• Creation of an excellent centre to control the environment and the pollution in AAST in collaboration with the European partners.
• To aware the audience and the energy sector about the existing problems in which it is referred to limited supply of energy, management, improvement of facilities and staff's skills.
• Signature of double degree courses agreements between partners and the adaptation of courses performed in Europe to the Egyptian partners.

The achievement of this Tempus programme is very important for the University of Oviedo, as it is the coordinator in a project in which the Egyptian universities are trying to be modernized. It also means a new boost to the Asturian academic institution in the field of internationalization, one of the main axes of the Campus of International Excellence.

The funds which have been raised to this project will be used on teachers and the laboratory equipment in Egypt. It will have an execution period of three years and the participating European institutions will support the development of the project and collaborate with the teaching staff.