On 16 December, 2009, the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) announced the results of the contest within the framework of the Knowledge and Innovation Community whose aim was to create the first Colocation Centres of Knowledge and Innovation. This long-awaited decision is a great success for the Polish science.

Apart from the AGH University of Science and Technology, members of our consortium are: the Silesian University of Technology, the University of Silesia, the Jagiellonian University, the Wroclaw University of Technology, the Central Mining Institute, the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal, Tauron, ZAK Kedzierzyn, LOTOS, PGNiG, and many other business partners.

The consortium is of an international character and consists of six, the so-called, Colocation Centres (CC), which co-ordinate particular subject areas. The subject area of the Polish consortium will be the so-called "clean coal technologies". In the approved project, the Consortium forms the so-called the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC). The co-ordinating body of the entire project is the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), one of the eight flagship universities in Germany.

This long-standing (meant to last between 7 and 15 years) and extremely prestigious project is a great chance for all partners taking part in it to achieve high quality progress. The budget of 120 million euro per year will allow to introduce completely new standards in the development of scientific research, implementing innovative technologies and searching for alternative, clean sources of energy. It is worthwhile to emphasize the fact that in the history of the European Union it is probably first such a complex project embracing the collaboration of partners from science and academic centres, as well as from business and industry.

We cordially congratulate all those who have contributed to achieving this success! We will soon publish more information about further details regarding the Colocation Centre of Knowledge and Innovation called "InnoEnergy", and in the meantime we invite to visit the website eit.europa.eu