SPIRE at European PPP InfoDays

October 21 saw a capacity crowd at the Charlemagne Centre for the European Commission’s PPP Info Day. The day saw presentations on the Horizon 2020 programme for contractual Public-Private-Partnerships (cPPPs): Factories of the Future (FoF), Energy efficient Buildings (EeB), the European Green Vehicles Initiative (EGVI) and, of course, Sustainable Process industries (SPIRE). Following plenary presentations separate project brokerage sessions for each cPPP were organised.

Jose –Lorenzo Valles of the European Commission (below) related the cPPP initiatives and their work to the priorities of the new Commission. He stated that the objectives of the cPPPs related directly to priorities one, two, three, four and nine in Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s ten point agenda for jobs and growth.

He highlighted Horizon 2020’s stronger emphasis on innovation and outlined the objectives of all the cPPPs – all represented industrial sectors that were essential for both competitiveness and sustainability. He described SPIRE as the “new kid on the block”.

SPIRE brokerage
The 2015 SPIRE call will receive €87.2 million of funding. After lunch the brokerage session was introduced by Andrea Gentili of the Commission (below). He outlined the objectives of the calls and gave some hints for preparing better proposals. “Relevance and excellence were important,” he said. “Good science proposals are needed - but are they relevant? Do they match the call text and PPP raison d’etre?”

Another area that needed consideration was the potential impact of your project including how it would stimulate collaboration at national, regional and EU level and – most importantly – how exploitation of the results was envisaged.

The state of play of the implementation of SPIRE’s Multi-annual Roadmap was described by the PPP’s technical leader Ignacio Calleja, TECNALIA (below).

He announced that SPIRE is not a closed club. “We now have  some 120 members in SPIRE and we are always open to new members,” he said. “And SPIRE calls are open to everyone – not only members.”

SPIRE is aligned with main EU vision on 2020 strategy and resource efficiency and its main objectives are to enable Europe to be more competitive and more sustainable – and provide more and better jobs for its citizens.

Calls and brokerage
A series of presentations were then made by Commission officers on the various SPIRE 2015 calls and other SPIRE relevant calls in areas such as Water and Energy Efficiency. You can access the joint presentation here.

Following the afternoon coffee break a session for one-to-one brokerage and networking commenced with delegates getting down to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of project formation (below). This was the third SPIRE brokerage session since the start of Horizon 2020.

For more details of the presentations made at the PPP Info days click here.

To access recordings of the sessions and presentations from the plenary and parallel sessions at the PPP Info Day, please click here.

To access a database of SPIRE relevant project presentations made on the day click here.

For more information on the SPIRE PPP and the SPIRE 2015 calls under Horizon 2020 contact the SPIRE secretariat.

Sustainable Buildings at Barcelona

Improving energy efficiency in buildings could reduce energy demand by at least 24% in housing and 27% in non-residential buildings with consequent reductions global emissions of some 23% compared to current values. These data set the context for the World Sustainable Building Conference, World SB14, taking place in Barcelona this week (28-30 October). And sustainable chemistry has a big role to play in achieving these objectives.

World SB14 will gather together nearly 2,000 experts in sustainable building technologies from all over the world to discuss the impact of the building sector on climate change and its consequences for the global population. And SusChem co-ordinator Jacques Kormonicki will be amongst them.

A set of chemistry-based proposals for increasing energy efficiency in buildings developed by SusChem was voted as one of the top three key innovations needed to transform European cities at the Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Annual Conference in Budapest in June 2013.

The SusChem proposals highlight five major chemistry-enabled solutions that have been tested and proven to significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings as well as contribute towards achieving the EU 20-20-20 targets.

Chemical winners
Key Chemistry-enabled Solutions are:

• High Reflectance Indoor Coatings
• High Reflectance and Durable Outdoor Coatings
• High Performance Insulation Foams 
• High Performance Vacuum Insulation Panels
• Phase Change Materials (PCM) 

Jacques Komornicki says: "Using these tested energy efficiency solutions can reduce energy use in buildings by up to 70%."

“These innovations are particularly suited to the renovation market and this market in turn has the potential to create growth and jobs in Smart Cities that adopt them whilst also contributing significantly to their emissions reduction goals - a double win!” he continues.

You can learn more about these Key Innovations for Smart Cities in the SusChem report: "Innovative chemistry for Energy efficiency of buildings in smart cities." For more information on SusChem materials innovation for energy efficiency in buildings, please contact Jacques Kormornicki at Cefic directly.

About World SB14 Barcelona
World SB14 Barcelona is a Conference organised by GBCe and promoted by CIB (Conseil International de Batîment), iiSBE (International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment), UNEP-SBCI (Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative) and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers), and counts on the collaboration of WGBC (World Green Building Council). The Sustainable Building Conference Series, of which World SB14 Barcelona is part, is the largest global meeting aimed at debating different aspects of sustainable building.

GBCe (GBC España)  is a non-profit association that unites representatives from the entire construction industry, to work together towards an energy and ecologically conscious approach to the design of the built environment. GBCe counts with the active participation and democratic representation from public institutions, academia, professional and business associations, among others.

Presenting the ICIS Innovation Awards 2014

Today (17 October 2014) the winners of this year’s ICIS Innovation Awards have been announced with Huntsman Textile Effects being chosen as the overall winner for 2014. The judging panel for the 2014 awards included SusChem board member Peter Nagler of Evonik and SusChem coordinator at Cefic: Jacques Kormonicki.

Huntsman’s AVITERA SE poly-reactive dyes for cotton and cotton blends were judged to be a significant scientific advance, and one that goes a long way to answering the textile industry’s sustainability challenge in terms of water, energy and waste reductions. The process cuts water and energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 50% and salt consumption by 25%.

The Huntsman entry also won the category for Innovation with the Best Benefit to Environment or Sustainability that is sponsored by U.S. Chemicals, LLC.

In their deliberations the judges were looking for innovations that were at or close to commercialisation and that fulfilled a need or created a new need or market. The innovations also needed to be creative and relevant to the market.

The Awards, sponsored overall by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and with category sponsorship from U.S. Chemicals, LLC, recognise outstanding technological and business innovation in the global chemical industry.

Warm glow of Innovation
The award for best product innovation went to Solvay, for its Emana polyamide fibres that contains an additive that converts the wearer’s body heat into physiologically beneficial far-infrared radiation. The winning entry, developed in Brazil, was deemed to have a strong scientific element to it and innovative marketing.

Jacques Korminicki of Cefic said: “It looks like a great innovation and a strong marketing opportunity.”

Honeywell UOP, with INEOS and Total, were awarded the best process innovation award for their advanced methanol-to-olefins process. This award category, which was reintroduced to the ICIS awards after a couple of year’s absence, was judged to be very timely with migration of global petrochemical feedstock from naphtha to coal and natural gas.

Finally the best innovation by an SME award was made to Argex Titanium for a novel route to titanium dioxide pigment.

The judging panel also awarded Clariant a special mention in the Best Process Innovation category, for its Heat Generating Material for use in on-purpose olefin production using the Catofin process.

John Baker, ICIS editor and organiser of the Awards, commented that: “This year the Awards attracted a near-record entry, showcasing a wide range of excellent innovation across the chemical sector. All the winners demonstrate not only that innovation is well and truly alive in the chemical industry but that this innovation brings benefits not only to companies and their customers but the environment as well. And it helps the sustainability of the business of chemicals.”

Full descriptions of all the winning entries, and interviews with the sponsors, can be found on the ICIS website and a special ICIS Chemical Business supplement on the awards and the winners can be accessed on-line here.

What are the ICIS awards
The awards are open to any chemical company or collaborative effort between industry and academia anywhere in the World. The judging panel looks for innovative projects that solve problems or provide solutions for the company or its customers or that demonstrate an innovative approach to business, the environment and sustainability.

In 2014 there were four prize categories:

• Best Product Innovation
• Best Process Innovation
• Best Innovation by a Small or Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)
• Innovation with Best Benefit for the Environment or Sustainability

For more information about the ICIS Chemical Business Innovation Awards or for specific queries contact John Baker at ICIS.

BIO-TIC looks at CO2 based chemicals

BIO-TIC's second business case workshop took place in Lyon on September 24 as a side event of the Third CO2 Forum conference entitled: ‘Large Volume CO2 Utilization Enabling Technologies for Energy and Resource Efficiency, 3rd Edition, The CO2 Forum, International Sustainable CO2 Chemical and Biochemical Recycling’ organised by CPE Lyon. The objective of the BIO-TIC workshop was to discuss the use of CO2 as a feedstock for Industrial Biotechnology (IB) processes and more specifically to discuss the barriers that hamper the development of IB for CO2 utilization.

The potential to use greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock for producing new materials is a hot topic currently and could help to develop a true circular economy.

To define the opportunities and hurdles in the “CO2 to Chemicals” business case the BIO-TIC workshop explored the role of industrial biotechnology in:

• Direct production of chemicals through the transformation of CO2
• “Artificial leaves”, using CO2, water, sunlight and a (semiconductor) catalyst to produce glucose as a feedstock for industrial biotechnological processes to produce chemicals

Hurdles identified
The delegates, from both academic and industrial backgrounds, identified the main hurdles for CO2 bioconversion technologies and sketched out a set of recommendations and concrete actions to overcome these hurdles. Participants also stressed the need for a close collaboration between IB experts, the chemical industry and the owners of CO2 sources, since CO2 bioconversion will require some level of customization such as tuning the IB processes to match the characteristics of different CO2 emission sources.

Overall the discussions with participants provided the BIO-TIC project partners with additional, focused input for the next and final version of the roadmap on Industrial Biotechnology, to be released at the end of the project in July 2015.

“Although there are already a few concrete projects, such as the fermentation of syngas, the general view of participants was that CO2 Bioconversion technologies could become viable in the 2020-2030 timeframe,” commented Pierre Barthelemy, Research and Innovation Manager at Cefic. “The most advanced process, including artificial photosynthesis, will require more time to become significant and could only play a role after 2030.”

What is BIO-TIC? 
Funded by the European Commission, BIO-TIC was launched, as an FP7 project, with the aim to establish an overview of the opportunities and barriers to biotechnology innovation and propose approaches to address them.

Modern use of industrial biotechnology is critical in a bio-based economy. Deploying the full potential of biotech innovation will enable European industry to deliver high-value products to consumers and create new commercial opportunities. New feedstock demands will lead to synergies amongst SMEs and large industrial partners. New technological developments will boost European export of technology and facilities by bringing some of Europe’s top sectors together: chemical industry, engineering and renewables.

However to date, major hurdles continue to hamper the full exploitation of biotechnology in Europe. These hurdles may vary from technological bottlenecks to limited availability of venture capital and fragmented policy frameworks.

BIO-TIC seeks to define product segments and applications that promise significant potential for Europe’s industry and society by 2030. Five major “bio-business cases” have been identified that are EU-competitive and have the potential to introduce cross-cutting technology ideas. The event in Lyon was the second in a series of five workshops looking at these identified product segments and applications.

Based on these business cases, BIO-TIC will develop three in-depth “bio-roadmaps”. These focus on the market potential, R&D priorities and non-technological hurdles of IB innovation. In particular, the market roadmap will provide market projections up to 2030. The technology roadmap will focus on setting R&D priorities and identifying needs for pilot and demonstration of plant activities. And, last but not least, the non-technological barriers roadmap will identify regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit industrial biotech innovation reaching new market opportunities. The second draft version of the roadmaps is already online while the final version will be released in July 2015.

All the BIO-TIC roadmaps can be downloaded from the BIO-TIC Partnering Platform. You can find more information on the BIO-TIC FP7 project here.

MatVal: Concrete Actions from Closing Conference

On 30 September 2014 the MatVal FP7 project held its closing conference as part of the major European Commission LETS 2014 event in Bologna, Italy. The conference brought together policymakers, R&D experts, material manufacturers and end users under a unifying theme - 'Shaping the future of Europe’s Materials research and innovation through a value chain approach' - to explore how materials R&D in Europe can be more innovation focus, be clustered along the value chain and create strong partnerships in the overall European materials community.

Materials research and innovation is a technology area that affects almost every industrial sector. Starting in 2012, MatVal (a value chain approach to materials research & innovation) has worked to identify the success and failure factors in this area. This two-year FP7 project was initiated by the Alliance for Materials (A4M) that brings together major European Technology Platforms (industry-led) and materials research societies (Academia-led) involved in materials research and innovation activities in Europe.

Roadmap
Working initially with the technology platform’s roadmaps and the materials research agendas of different industry sectors it was clear that the value-chain concept was widely recognised and used and the integration of the manufacturing aspects for a material has to be an integral part of any materials research agenda. Other factors identified included the importance of regulations, the need for coherent long-term visions and road-maps (technology planning), and the rising importance of recycling issues.

The project has identified a number of key findings in materials research for innovation including some issues in the working relationships between industry and academia and how to resolve them. Aspects of public funding for materials research and innovation have also been identified; in particular the need for continuity of funding of projects. In addition there is a need to establish a ‘common house’ to continue the work of MatVal in facilitating interaction between industry and the materials research community in Europe.

Speaking at the conference, MatVal project co-ordinator Dr Marco Falzetti (above), Manager of EU Research Affairs at Centro Sviluppo Materiali, said: “this conference is the public closure event of the MatVal project and a crucial moment to discuss the achievements and the future actions needed to ensure the continuity of the groundwork laid for the construction of a unified policy on Materials R&D as real enabler of the European industrial renaissance, through its promotion of jobs, growth and competitiveness.”

Opening the conference Clara de la Torre (above) Director of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) at the European Commission's DG Research and Innovation said that: "Advanced materials was one of the six key enabling technologies supported and promoted by the Commission that were essential for competitiveness and growth." She looked forward to MatVal's conclusions to reduce fragmentation of European research efforts and reduce resource waste and its suggestions for prioritisation of future projects.

Main findings
The main findings from the project were presented by Michal Basista (research aspects), Lutz Walter (innovation aspects) and SusChem co-ordinator Jacques Komornicki (the Strategic Report document).

One of the key findings in materials research for innovation relate to issues in the working relationships between industry and academia and how to resolve them. Aspects of public funding for materials research and innovation have also been identified - in particular the need for continuity of funding of projects. These findings support the need to establish a ‘common house’ to continue the work of MatVal in facilitating interaction between industry and the materials research community in Europe. A follow-on project is being formulated.

On the innovation side, it is recommended that high tech materials be supported through public funding on a continuous base – this is pulled directly by high-tech markets with an immediate need of these materials (e.g. aerospace) with the vision that other markets will benefit from these materials at a later stage. This can be facilitated by some efficient technology transfer structures.

For smart materials market needs, performance/cost ratios and time-to market are key success factors with strong collaboration within the value-chain vital. Manufacturing aspects are very important and public-private partnerships oriented towards value-chain innovation can offer good support.

The event was rounded up with a panel discussion moderated by SusChem Blog Editor Tim Reynolds involving Gernot Klotz of Cefic and SusChem, Fabrice Stassin of EMRI, Matteo Santin, President of the European Society for Biomaterials, Mike Clinch of LUXFER cylinders and Jean-Pierre Birat, General Secretary of the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP).

A comprehensive conclusions report from the project of the project will be published in the near future and will shape future European initiatives in materials research and innovation – a key enabler for sustainable competitive growth. For more information, please visit the MatVal website.

LETS contributions

SusChem and SPIRE were also featured in the main LETS (Leading Enabling Technologies for Societal Challenges) conference programme in Bologna.

Loredana Ghinea (above), executive director of A.SPIRE the industry body supporting the SPIRE PPP, spoke about this cross-sectorial initiative for resource and energy efficiency in the session on 'New industrial networks based on cross-cutting technologies.'

While Gernot Klotz (above, right) of SusChem made a number of contributions in his role as Chairman of the Horizon 2020 Advisory Group for Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing (NMBP) including the session entitled on 'From science to market through FET (Future and Emerging Technologies), KET and more.'

Presenting at SPIRE PPP InfoDays on 21 October?

The SPIRE PPP will be featured at the Horizon 2020 Information Days on Public-Private Partnerships taking place in Brussels on 21 October. And you have just a few days left if you want to reserve your place to make a presentation during the related brokerage sessions for the 2015 calls.

The four research public-private partnerships launched in the framework of Horizon 2020 - Sustainable Process Industry, Green Vehicles, Factories of the Future and Energy-efficient Buildings - will be the main features during the European Commission Information Day on Tuesday 21 October 2014. The aim of the event is to give the research community an overview of ongoing activities in the PPPs under Horizon 2020, and to support the preparation of proposals for the upcoming 2015 calls.

To register for the event use the registration form on the European Commission website. But hurry as places are being allocated on a first-come first-served basis and all participants will need to register. Don’t expect to turn up on the day and get in!

SPIRE session and brokerage
A specific session dedicated to the SPIRE PPP will take place during the afternoon of 21 October in the Charlemagne building from 13.30 to 15.30 and will be followed by a brokerage and networking event from 15.30 to 17.30 during which interested stakeholders will have the opportunity to present their project ideas for the 2015 SPIRE calls and meet potential partners. The full Info-Day programme can be accessed here.

If you are interested in presenting a project idea during the brokerage session, contact Valeria Lautizi in the SPIRE secretariat with your name, the name of your company or organisation, the title of your project and the reference of the Horizon call topic addressed.

You can find more information on the 2015 calls for SPIRE under Horizon 2020 here.

To be sure of a place you must contact Valeria by the end of business on Monday, October 13. If successful in gaining a place to present you will be provided with a SPIRE Powerpoint template to organise your presentation on the day. See you there!

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the SPIRE secretariat.