Morocco, Spain pool efforts to support scientific research in energy sector
The financing agreements for the first projects to be selected under “INNO ESPAMAROC ENERGY,” were signed in Rabat this week to give substance to the initiative, launched in December 2018, by Morocco and Spain in a bid to strengthen co-innovation through promoting scientific and technological cooperation, and exchanging knowledge in renewable energies and green technologies.
The call for projects under the initiative would help develop products that can be marketed both in Morocco and internationally.
The move will mobilize a budget of MAD 43.5 million (around €4.13 million), with the participation of several universities, research institutes, and companies from both Morocco and Spain.
The call for projects concerns Moroccan and Spanish universities, schools, research centers, and companies wishing to develop innovative solutions in the fields of renewable energies and their integration into the electricity network.
The projects will also tackle the fields of energy efficiency, green buildings, sustainable transport, energy storage, smart grids, and smart cities.
“The themes of this program are of fundamental importance, in a context of very strong emergence of renewable energies,” said director of the Institute for Research in Solar Energy and New Energies (IRESEN), Badr Ikken, during the signing ceremony of the financing agreements.
The INNO ESPAMAROC ENERGY initiative illustrates the strategic cooperation between Morocco and Spain, and between Africa and Europe, in the fields of energy, innovation, technology, and scientific research, said on his part Minister of Energy & Mines, Aziz Rabbah, underlining that both Morocco and Spain grant special interest to scientific research.
The initiative illustrates the scale of their strategic cooperation in various sectors, including energy, innovation, technology and scientific research, he said.