Enquirer

From: "Drusilla Riddell-Black"
Date: October 30th 1998
Organisation: Soil, Waste and Groundwater Group, WRc plc
Subject: BIORENEW Phytoremediation project - seeking collaborators/funds (£75 000 pa)

WRc has led a consortium of European partners in a successful bid to the European Commission DG XII Environment and Climate Programme for financial support of a project to develop a method for remediating heavy metal contaminated land using biomass fuel crops.

The EC has agreed to provide 50% funding, which is usual for successful bids, and balancing funds for UK participants now being sought in the UK.

The total value of the bid to the EU is 1.544 M over three years. WRc is currently seeking £75 000 per annum for 3 years to balance the EU contribution to UK participants. This may be derived from a single source or through several collaborators.

A group of four collaborators would each contribute £18 750 annually and five collaborators would contribute £15 000 annually. Partial funding has been agreed by the Environment Agency. Additional collaborators are sought.

Participation in EU supported projects through part-funding is a highly cost effective way into research and development. Co-funding organisations will have access to the outputs of the entire project at a cost of less than 2% of the total project value.

The project is approved under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, hence collaborators registered under this Scheme can reclaim 90% of their contribution to the project against landfill tax returns.

The participating countries in addition to the UK are Germany, Spain, Sweden and Austria. The headings below outline the key elements of the project.