The European Commission awarded the Tempus-Tacis JEP/Networking Project, No NP-22135-2001 to the Consortium of:

• Energy Technology Department, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece
• Institute of Energy and Automation Technology, Technical University of Berlin, Germany
• Institute of Electrothermal Processes, University of Hannover, Germany
• Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Padova, Italy
• Institute for Energy Saving and Energy Management, National Technical University of Ukraine, "Kiev Polytechnic Institute"
• Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Russian Federation
• Tashkent State Technical University, Energy Faculty, Uzbekistan
• Irkutsk State Institute of Transport Engineers, Russian Federation - Siberia
• Pavlodar University, Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyz - Uzbek State University, Kyrgyzstan
• LDK Consultants Engineers and Planners SA, Greece
• DELTA SINGULAR SA, Greece

The full project title is "Tempus Energy Networking towards Central Asia" - TEN

The long-term objective of the project is the creation of a sustainable networking mechanism among universities from EU, NIS and Central Asia and the promotion and support of higher education reform in the region of Central Asia. The objective of this networking project is to create a viable association among the energy departments of ten universities from the EU, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and to ensure the sustainability of this mechanism and its expansion towards additional countries of Central Asia. More specifically the Consortium consists of six higher education institutions from the EU, Russia and Ukraine, all with previous experience in Tempus projects, four universities from the region of Central Asia and two private firms. This specific combination is expected to secure the effective set up of an expanding networking scheme targeting to sustainable communication channelling and transfer of experience towards Central Asia.

The specific objectives of the projects are multiple:

• Promotion of regional co-operation and networking among higher education institutions and organisations in Central Asia;
• Dissemination of results of previous successful tempus - tacis projects in the energy and environmental sectors;
• Replication of administrative and management processes for restructuring of higher institutions of this region;
• Creation of a self sustainable energy information databank which will in future operate and maintain a comprehensive respective database to be used by Enterprises, Administration and Universities;
• Dissemination of information on new energy technologies;
• Promotion of research activities on innovative technologies in the field of energy;
• Promotion and marketing of products and equipment from West to East and vice versa;
• Creation of a fruitful environment to improve training and applications on energy saving and environmentally friendly technologies.

These ambitious objectives will be addressed by the partners during the project life of two years (up to May 2004).
The success of this project will be to retain sustainability after this time period and to expand the volume of information provided through the web as well as the members' list with new associated members.