Joint Brokerage Event 15 September 2009, Brussels

To help stakeholders to respond to the most recent FP7 calls published in July SusChem organised a joint brokerage event in Brussels on 15 September. A packed meeting at the Hotel Bloom! was briefed on the latest calls under the NMP, KBBE, Environment and Energy themes and the integrated calls under the EU 2010 Recovery Plan.

In addition to formal presentations on the calls during the morning, participants were encouraged to make short presentations during a series of afternoon workshops. To help with project initiation and networking there were also opportunities to engage in discussion with potential partners during poster sessions, add offers or ideas to topic “bill-boards” and complete a questionnaire to indicate each participant’s main research interests.

SusChem future
Opening the event, Cefic Innovation Manager Ger Spork gave a brief overview of SusChem’s current status and future plans. He stressed the continuing central role of SusChem’s RTD pillars to provide the driving force for the platform - such as the recently completed IAP update. An IAP update will now be a regular annual process to ensure that SusChem’s work remained relevant to society’s most pressing issues.

SusChem would also work to create more effective collaborative partnerships and stimulate chemical industry participation in projects. Efforts would be made to synchronise the activities of SusChem’s national platforms including a new approach via the reorganised Member State Mirror Group.

Ger also emphasised SusChem’s wish to work along the value chain to drive towards real solutions for society. This would involved more cross-platform work such as the recent agreement to collaborate with the Water Supply and Sanitation ETP (WSSP). SusChem is also working closely with the EUMAT technology platform on advanced materials and technologies, and initiating collaboration with the Dutch Polymer Institute on FP8 and innovation issues.

There would also be more support for open pre-competitive innovation activities including the new services offered by PNO Consultants in this area for consortium building.

FP7 calls
Current calls under the NMP theme were described by Frederic Gouarderes. He highlighted potential SusChem interest in organic-inorganic hybrids for electronics and photonics, the development of standard scaffolds for the rational design of bioactive materials in tissue regeneration, new materials for catalytic reactors, modelling of the degradation and reliability of crystalline materials, new industrial models for a sustainable and efficient production, and manufacturing systems for 3D- shaped, multilayered products based on flexible materials. He also noted new ERAnets proposed on nanotechnologies (including nanotoxicology), manufacturing and in catalysis. In addition to these calls Frederic outlined the joint calls proposed under the EC’s 2010 Recovery Plan.

In the Environment area Andrea Tilche noted some specific areas that could be productive for collaboration between SusChem and WSSP on water management and other areas of interest in the Environment & Health (Indoor air pollution, and human health and exposure to pharmaceutical products). Other areas include work to facilitate recycling or reuse of construction and demolition waste, novel ideas for minimising municipal waste management, brownfield site remediation or regeneration concepts, and very long-term / large-scale carbon sequestration technologies.

A range of SusChem opportunities were outline by Maria Fernandez Gutierrez in the KBBE areas. These included the novel use of marine organisms in industrial processes and products, innovative aquatic biosensors, biocatalysts and biotechnology for “greening” the chemical industry, biotechnology for soil and water treatment and bioremediation.

DeChema’s Alexis Bazzanella completed the survey of open calls with a review of the Energy theme. He highlighted calls for thin wafer-based photovoltaic (PV) materials, two co-ordinated calls with India for novel materials for thin-film PV applications, materials for large offshore wind turbines, concentrators for PV materials, the production of biofuels from algae (including a demonstration component), fuel production using direct bio-conversion of solar radiation, demonstration projects for advanced CO₂ capture concepts, and research to utilise low temperature “waste” process heat.

Follow-up
As a follow-up all participants at the brokerage will receive copies of the presentations on call topics, all information gathered on interests per call, a set of full contact details for participants, collated “bill-board” offers and ideas, and the workshop presentations made by participants. Participants were also reminded about the online SusChem Brokerage Database which could be used as a virtual brokerage event on a 24/7 basis.

For more information, please contact the SusChem secretariat. More information on open FP7 calls, application criteria and other relevant topics can be found at the Cordis FP7 home page.