The Enterprise Europe Network helped an Italian firm land EU funding for groundbreaking research designed to replicate the light from the sun indoors.

Creating artificial light that replicates sunlight seems like science fiction. But that is just what the Enterprise Europe Network and the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) are helping to achieve.

Network member APRE, the Rome-based Agency for the Promotion of European research, helped link an Italian client to a Europe-wide network of companies and researchers in order to exploit the latest advances in nanotechnology.

The goal is to incorporate nano-composite materials into lighting, creating all the colour varieties of direct sunlight, including the diffused ’blue tinge’.

Italian company Light in Light needed extra funding to push the boundaries of existing research. APRE consultant Christin Pfeiffer and her colleagues helped the firm assemble the right group of partners, both private sector companies and researchers, and advised them on the best ways to access EU funds.

The potential applications for artificial daylight are enormous. “There are tests that show that in schools where there is real natural light the efficiency of the students is better than in schools using artificial light,” says Professor Paolo Di Trapani of the University of Insubria in Italy, one of the project partners. “There are also expanding needs in the entertainment industry such as cinemas, and shopping centres that are located underground for energy saving reasons. The quality of light is an increasingly important issue. We are working on making light healthy.”

Putting together a successful FP7 proposal is not straightforward. In addition to the requirement that there be at least three partners from at least three EU Member States and two research performers, applicants have to show a willingness to create a network and share knowledge. “If they don’t want to share then they’re not right for the proposal,” says Pfeiffer.

The Network also advises companies on how to prepare their applications. “Preparing the ’impact’ chapter where the expected results from the research project need to be described in detail is not easy,” explains Pfeiffer. Encouraging cooperation between academia and industry – two very different worlds – is another challenge the Network is experienced at tackling. The result for Light in Light was a resounding success: the consortium was awarded FP7 funding of €1.2 million.

The Network has helped more than 1 500 companies find research partners for FP7 applications. “We are helping to create transnational teams and increasing the participation of small and medium enterprises in the programme,” says Anastasia Constantinou, coordinator of the Network’s working group on collaboration with FP7 National Contact Points.