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Aramco, KAUST to Form Consortium for Nonmetallics and Composites in Energy Applications

Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. (Reuters)
Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. (Reuters)
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Aramco, KAUST to Form Consortium for Nonmetallics and Composites in Energy Applications

Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. (Reuters)
Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. (Reuters)

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has signed an agreement with Aramco to establish a technology consortium focusing on performance and integrity management of nonmetallics and composites in energy applications (ENERCOMP), said KAUST in a statement.

Aramco has joined ENERCOMP as a founding member and first research sponsor to further advance nonmetallic materials in the energy sector.

"The five-year technology consortium represents a significant university-based R&D investment in nonmetallics and composites in the Kingdom, setting an example of bringing a new technology value chain together to strengthen the Kingdom’s position in the energy and materials transitions," said the statement.

The joint investment aims to support the Kingdom’s vision toward sustainability and diversification through the development of less energy-intensive and lower carbon-footprint materials.

Aramco will leverage its experience from relevant initiatives such as the Rice University Carbon Hub in the US and the Nonmetallic Innovation Center (NIC) in the UK to support ENERCOMP in transforming fundamental science into deployable integrity management solutions. This will increase industry confidence in the long-term role that nonmetallics and composites can play as an integral part of the materials transition.

Similar to the NIC model, the initiative will encourage other energy sector players to join the consortium and utilize KAUST’s cutting-edge research capabilities in engineering solutions, AI and material science.

Aramco Senior Vice President of Technology Oversight and Coordination Dr. Ali Al-Meshari said: "Through this collaboration, we aim to create an innovation hub for advanced composites in the Kingdom. By focusing on the development and integration of smart and cost-effective sensors in composite materials and applying emerging AI solutions, we can deploy novel integrity management technologies to the energy industry at large."

Director of ENERCOMP and KAUST Professor of Mechanical Engineering Prof. Gilles Lubineau highlighted the significance of this step, saying that ENERCOMP represents a new era of collaboration between KAUST and energy sector leaders.

The ambitious industry-focused partnership aims to establish a specialized team at KAUST to support engineering applications of nonmetallics and composites throughout the energy value chain. By supporting the Kingdom's nonmetallic and composite agenda, ENERCOMP will deliver innovative solutions crucial for a sustainable future, he added.

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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.