HYSAFE: The European Network of Excellence on Hydrogen Safety

Introduction and commercialisation of hydrogen as an energy carrier of the future make great demands on all aspects of safety. Safety is a critical issue for innovations as it influences the economic attractiveness and public acceptance of any new idea or product.However, research and safety expertise related to hydrogen is quite fragmented in Europe. The vision of a significant increased use of hydrogen as an energy carrier in Europe could not go ahead without strengthening and merging this expertise. This was the reason for the European Commission to support the launch on the first of March 2004 of a so-called Network of Excellence (NoE) on hydrogen safety: HySafe [9].