Consultation supports SPIRE Roadmap

The revised roadmap for the proposed Public Private Partnership (PPP) for Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) has been recently published on the SPIRE website. This document was the result of over 450 responses to the consultation on the draft roadmap and showed highly positive support for the initiative from a wide range of industry sectors, value chains and stakeholder communities.

The initial roadmap was first presented at the European Commission Info Days on 9 – 10 July and was widely disseminated with the official launch of the consultation on 27 July. The consultation period was open until 1st October 2012.

This public consultation allowed opportunities for submission of comments, requests for clarification and to suggest additional ideas not only from members of the process industry community but also from other bodies and actors across the European Research Area (ERA).

Positive feedback, high acceptance
More than 450 responses were received to the online questionnaire part of the consultation and showed a wide coverage along many different value chains (upstream industry included) as well as across the SPIRE core sectors and other organizations including SMEs, large industry, research and technology organizations, academia and NGOs.

Analysis of the responses from all the different sectors and communities showed high levels of acceptance of the SPIRE roadmap with particularly high scores for the contribution that SPIRE’s vision can make to tackling the challenges listed in the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy and its ability to address sustainability issues in the process industries. The responses also indicated that SPIRE will add value to sustainable innovation across the various sectors.

“Overall the consultation process showed an overarching positive feedback across many actors in the ERA,” commented A.SPIRE aisbl Executive Director Loredana Ghinea. A.SPIRE is the legal entity established to manage and implement the SPIRE PPP.

“The highly positive acceptance levels for the contents and structure of the SPIRE roadmap shown in the consultation demonstrates that it reflects the main challenges and interests of the process industry stakeholders,” she added.

More information
The revised post-consultation Roadmap is available to download now on the SPIRE website and will also be published on the European Commission PPP website. A period of validation will now take place until 15 December before formal submission to the European Commission.

For more information on the SPIRE initiative and how you can get involved please visit the SPIRE website or email the SPIRE secretariat.