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1.2 billion people have no access to electricity, yet, in emergent nations renewable energy projects are rare, partly because the funding requirements of the electricity sector in these regions exceeds their already constrained public budgets. The Blockchain SPV team aims to mobilise finance for renewable power projects, such as solar or wind farms, from anyone globally.

Atmospheric density is difficult to forecast, which makes the movement of space debris difficult to predict and endangers operational satellites and atmospheric re-entry of spacecraft. The Space Sustainability team, a finalist of our Competition Best Idea 2021, is using AI to better model the dynamics of the thermospheric density field and help tackle congestion in space.

The Hyperloop concept has the potential to revolutionise transport by using passenger capsules that float almost silently at velocities close to the speed of sound. A student-led team founded at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has built a novel functional prototype with the aim of making the mobility of the future more sustainable.

Blue Engineering is an international and innovative workshop-style course provided by TU Berlin which focuses on ecological and social responsibility. Founded by a group of students in 2009, today the network spans across 15 universities with 20 members of faculty, over 30 student tutors and around 350 course participants each semester which form a network of over 3,000 alumni.

Discover the Second Hand Mobility team, finalists of our Competition Best Idea 2021. Led by Carlo Schmid from TU Berlin, they have developed a prototype conversion kit to electrify Germany's most produced motorcycle of all time: the iconic Simson. The team has founded a spin-off and anticipates launching their prototype conversion kit to the market by the end of 2021.

​Our association has joined forces with 15 other representative organisations of European research & innovation stakeholders to publish an open letter urging the EU institutions to include stakeholders in the co-creation and implementation of the governance of the European Research Area​.

An independent Evaluation Panel has selected five student-led teams as finalists of our Competition Best Idea 2021. The competition invited students and PhD candidates from our Members to submit their brilliant ideas for how science and technology can help revolutionise our society’s efforts towards sustainability.

At a joint conference with the Royal Academy of Engineering on 2 July, our President Rik Van de Walle shared how leaders in government, research funders and universities can assume responsibility around key technologies.

On 8 July, our President Rik Van de Walle gave an invited contribution to the GENDERACTION conference organised under the auspices of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

​The universities of tomorrow must collaborate across national borders to a far greater ex­tent than today, writes Per Michael Johansen (Rector of Aalborg University).