Season’s Greetings from SusChem

This year in June we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry “SusChem”. When we established SusChem in 2004 we knew that we had set the sustainable chemistry community in Europe a difficult task, but together over the past decade we have shaped a lively, creative organisation, open for all interested stakeholders: an organisation that has made a huge impact. 

Over the past 10 years SusChem has inspired research and innovation projects worth well over one billion euros: the vast majority funded via the European Commission’s FP7 programme. And with the launch of Horizon 2020 this year SusChem is proud to have inspired two major new public-private-partnerships (PPPs) that are already delivering real competitive advantage for Europe: the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPP and the Bio-based Industries (BBI) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI).

But there is more to do. At the June stakeholder meeting the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) was discussed. The SIRA sets SusChem’s research and innovation priorities for the medium term helping to bridge the “innovation valley of death” and address societal challenges. It will be published early in 2015.

Everything we do  is focused on ultimately improving societal conditions, in particular, with respect to sustainability for “People, Planet and Profit”. Our work will be fully justified if we can simultaneously create jobs, improve the environment and generate greater economic success and wellbeing.

SusChem’s momentum and success is based on the personal commitment of all SusChem members and stakeholders We are confident that our new SIRA will help and inspire us all to take SusChem to the next level.

To conclude, on behalf of the SusChem board and the SusChem secretariat, We  wish you all a very happy and relaxing holidays, and a happy, healthy and sustainable New Year. 2015 will be another great year for SusChem with the publication of the SIRA, the launch of some fantastic new SusChem-inspired projects and, a date for your diary, our next stakeholder event that will take place on 8 and 9 June.

Kind Regards,

Dr Klaus H. Sommer
Chairman of the SusChem Board
Head Consumer & Product Management Bayer Technology Services

Dr Jacques Komornicki
SusChem co-ordinator and secretary
Innovation Manager, Cefic

SusChem 2014 in Review

2014 was another great year for the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry: SusChem.  This year we celebrated our 10th anniversary with an extra special stakeholder event in Brussels. Over the past decade SusChem has inspired research and innovation projects worth well over one billion euros: the vast majority part-funded via the European Commission’s FP7 programme.

The launch of Horizon 2020 on 1 January 2014 saw SusChem proud to have inspired two major new public-private-partnerships (PPPs) that are already playing a major role in 2014 in delivering real competitive advantage for Europe via the new programme: the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPP and the Bio-based Industries (BBI) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI).

SusChem itself was also ‘quick off the blocks’ for Horizon 2020 by organising its first SusChem brokerage event on 31 January. The event attracted some 200 participants who heard about results from existing projects and started the process of initiating new consortia for the new Horizon 2020 calls.

On April 9 – 11 SusChem was at the Industrial Technologies 2014 event in Athens one of the highlights of the Greek Presidency of the European Union.

And on 6 May the European Commission gave the formal greenlight for the BBI JTI with the first calls for the Euros 3.7 billion joint venture announced on 9 July. Our other major PPP saw its second major call brokerage event on 23 May. The SPIRE Brokerage event was extremely successful and profiled its second wave of calls under Horizon 2020.

SusChem#10
June 11 and 12 saw the event of the year for SusChem - SusChem#10 - our 10th anniversary stakeholder event. To mark the occasion a series of videos were produced to celebrate our first decade.



At the June stakeholder meeting as well as celebrating our 10th birthday we discussed and augmented the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). This new agenda shows how the platform can help Europe to bridge the so-called ‘innovation valley of death’ and tackle some of the societal challenges addressed Horizon 2020.

You can access a series of seven videos produced around SusChem#10 to celebrate our achievements and look forward to the next ten years here on the SusChem YouTube channel.

Material innovation
At the end of September the SusChem FP7 project MatVal held its closing conference within the large LETS 2014 event in Bologna, Italy. SusChem and SPIRE were also featured in many other LETS 2014 sessions.

Bringing an exciting year to a very successful end SusChem had a big role in Knowledge for Innovation’s (K4I) Sixth European Innovation Summit at the European Parliament in Brussels from 17 - 20 November. As well has organising and participating in many of the conference sessions the SusChem stand in the exhibition area was a big hit with two 3D printing machines showing how chemistry is supporting the next industrial revolution: additive manufacturing.

A short video (below) gives a brief overview of SusChem’s involvement and the excitement generated at the event.



Great job!
When SusChem was established in 2004 the sustainable chemistry community in Europe faced a difficult task: to bring stakeholders in the chemical and the biotechnological industries, along with other important European industries, research organisations and academics together to formulate a strategy and a plan. This strategy and plan outlined how we could rejuvenate our industries through research and innovation and improve the competitiveness of our industries.

This was not an easy job, but together over the past decade we have shaped a lively, creative organisation, open for all interested stakeholders, that has made a huge impact.

But there is more to do. In early 2015 the full SIRA will be published setting out SusChem’s research and innovation priorities for the medium term under Horizon 2020 and other funding programmes. The document will add value to the societal, scientific and industrial debate in Europe and help all SusChem stakeholders to concentrate on the real challenges that we all face. Our work will be fully justified if we can simultaneously create jobs, improve the environment and generate greater economic success and well-being.

We look forward to working together to take SusChem to the next level in 2015.

SusChem Stakeholder Interviews from #SusChem10

A new video of interviews from the 2014 SusChem Stakeholder event in mid June has just been published (see below). The video outlines SusChem’s rationale, vision, achievements and future goals.

Since it launch in 2004, SusChem has made many significant achievements - including the initiation of projects worth more than € 1.5 billion in FP7, its visionary flagship projects such as the Smart Energy Home, the F3 Factory and Integrated Biorefinery, and more recently the launch of two large Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) under Horizon 2020 : SPIRE and the BBI JTI.



The video features interviews with Clara de la Torre of the European Commission, Gernot Klotz of Cefic, Peter Nagler from Evonik and Louis Neltner of Solvay. The short video covers topics such as SusChem’s role in tackling societal challenges, the role of PPPs, and how Horizon 2020 will help accelerate innovation in Europe.

SusChem’s vision is for a competitive and innovative Europe where sustainable chemistry and biotechnology together provide solutions for future generations.

For more information on SusChem activities and the new SusChem SIRA contact Jacques Komornicki, SusChem Coordinator at Cefic. The SusChem website is at http://www.suschem.org.

SusChem: The Story So Far

As part of our 10 year anniversary celebrations an extended video on the how, what and why of SusChem has been produced. Featuring a host of SusChem personalities that have been involved in SusChem over its first 10 years, the video covers the launch of the platform, its challenges, how we work together and its key achievements so far. The video then goes to look at the new Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA), our PPPS (SPIRE and the BBI JTI), the platform's future aspirations and, most importantly, how you can get involved with our activities now. Enjoy! 

Happy Birthday SusChem!

You can download an executive summary of the draft SusChem SIRA here.

To find our more about SusChem and its activities visit our website or contact Jacques Kormonicki, the SusChem coordinator at Cefic. Join us today!

Formulation: Recognising a Key Enabling Technology for SusChem

At the 10th Anniversary SusChem Stakeholder Meeting (#SusChem10), held last month (June 2014) in Brussels, participants contributed to the development of the SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). The SIRA will form the basis of SusChem’s input to forthcoming calls for the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and other European and national research and innovation programmes. The SIRA highlights the importance of sustainable chemistry and biotechnology in responding to the key Societal Challenges facing Europe and addressed by Horizon 2020 as part of the EU’s Europe 2020 growth strategy. 

In this special article SusChem board member Prof Rodney Townsend (above) outlines the opportunities for SusChem in the Health and Wellbeing area and how the stakeholder event highlighted a new area for potential SusChem research and innovation activities.

On 11 and 12 June at the Stakeholder Event breakout sessions were held to address each Societal Challenge (SC) addressed in the SIRA. Conference participants commented on and added to draft SIRA documents for each SC which had been prepared in advance of the meeting.

Although health and well-being topics were part of the initial discussions when SusChem was first established in 2004, to date SusChem has not considered in depth how innovative sustainable chemistry could deliver health benefits, generally leaving this to Horizon 2020 activities linked more strongly to the pharmaceutical industries, such as the Innovative Medicines Initiative, the Active and Assisted Living Programme and the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance.

SusChem well-being
However, it is recognised that there are a number of areas where SusChem could complement these activities, which are critically important if the objectives of Horizon 2020’s SC1 (‘Health, demographic change and wellbeing’) are to be delivered.

A number of topics have already been highlighted in personalised diagnosis using imaging; and responsive materials for prosthetic devices including:

• Innovative further development of highly sensitive imaging technologies for tumours, ischaemia and neurodegeneration using more specific and multifunctional chemical contrast agents and point-of-care diagnostics: an exciting prospect is to improve the specificity of expensive chemical markers, thus simultaneously increasing sustainability and reducing use of expensive reagents. 
• Further development of technologies that assist and enable those who either are partially and progressively disabled to continue to contribute positively to society for longer: Here, we envisage an enhanced role for new (‘smart’) materials, such as haptic (reactive to touch or other sensory input), photoactive or piezoelectric polymers, as well as improved prosthetic devices and biomedical implants containing improved biocompatible soft materials for artificial limbs and the like.

Formulation
In addition at the Stakeholder Meeting a key issue came to the fore during breakout discussions: formulation. This is an area that is often taken for granted, yet is of profound importance across the whole of sustainable chemical technology, pharmacology and biotechnology. Formulation comprises a set of key skills and technologies that are absolutely critical for bringing many new inventions and advances in technologies to market in nearly every industry sector.

For example, starting with health, it is fine to design at a molecular level a new contrast agent that can so specifically target characteristic moieties present in a tumour that it can lead to unambiguous identification of the location, size and nature of a tumour. But, can one also design a suitable vehicle for that contrast agent that will ensure that the contrast agent is dispersed quickly through to all the organs in the body, is kept stable as it is dispersed, and delivered in a targeted manner?

Designing a suitable vehicle to achieve this is what formulation is all about. And successful formulation technology is not just important for health applications. It forms the basis of many businesses beyond medical and/or pharmaceutical, including the processing, manufacture and delivery-in-use of foods, personal products, cosmetics, and paints. It also has a role in crude oil extraction, including enhanced recovery concepts such as ‘fracking’, vehicle fuel or lubrication systems and very many other areas.  

The theory that underpins formulation is primarily physico-chemical and was traditionally referred to as ‘colloid science’.  It is concerned with the quantification of the forces that operate at interfaces between discrete physical domains, and how these forces operate and change over a hierarchy of length and time scales in different types of colloidal systems for example suspensions, sols, pastes, gels, foams, emulsions, micro-emulsions, gels, polymer and fat crystal networks, complex fluids and liquid crystals.

These forces combine to yield the observed useful properties of these systems including targeted delivery, visco-elasticity, opalescence, thixotropy, adherence and ‘spreadability’, softness, and dispersibility etc. They also are key to the delivery of product characteristics under different physical and chemical conditions such as the clarity and response rate of a LCD phone display, when an ice cream will soften and melt, how long it takes for an emollient hand cream to spread and penetrate skin, the touch or taste or smell of a food or medicine, how easy a medicine is to swallow and how fast the active components ingest through the stomach and intestinal walls amongst many other examples.

A new SusChem KET?
Although the physics underpinning these phenomena is fairly well understood, this understanding does not in itself lead one to be able to a priori formulate a product with the desired properties. The ability to do this lies with physical and synthetic chemists together with chemical and process engineers and comprises a highly valuable set of skills, based on a sound knowledge of theory and years of experience. But this skill base, so important for future innovation, is declining across Europe as a whole.

The Stakeholder Meeting highlighted the need to nurture and build this skill set as a SusChem key enabling technology (KET) that is applicable across and along value chains that cover many different industry sectors.

In his closing remarks at the 12th Stakeholder Meeting, SusChem Chairman Dr Klaus Sommer emphasised the need for us to highlight “formulation for delivery” in the SusChem SIRA. This will probably now result in the inclusion of a proposal for a Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action (CSA) in the SIRA that would bring the chemical, biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors together to exchange information and enhance each other’s innovative skills in formulation.

For more information on SusChem activities and the new SusChem SIRA contact Jacques Komornicki, SusChem Coordinator at Cefic.

#SusChem10: SIRA, ICT and Combined Funding

The main topic of the 2014 SusChem Stakeholder event in Brussels on June 11 and 12 was the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). The underlying structure of the document is designed to match key societal challenges under Horizon 2020 with SIRA priorities and SusChem's enabling technologies. The SIRA covers some new topics and, with new combined funding possibilities envisaged by the Commission, will cover potential projects further along the research and innovation chain.

Parallel breakout sessions over the two days of the SusChem event explored priorities and issues in all the SIRA topics including two new areas: ‘Health and well-being’ and ‘Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)’. Brief descriptions of the current main SIRA priority areas are given at the end of this article.

ICT and process control
The ICT topic was the subject of a particularly useful discussion on June 12. ICT is essential for advanced process control in industry and will become even more important in the future as an enabler for improvements in resource and energy efficiency. It is therefore important that the sustainable chemistry community can articulate its needs, knowledge gaps and challenges to guide research and development in this area.

Topics discussed at the stakeholder event included:

• Fundamental and data-driven modelling (molecular, processes and equipment, applications)
• Material, product and process design
• Process engineering techniques
• Process and equipment monitoring and maintenance techniques
• Data handling and data analysis techniques
• Process control, including hardware and software

“ICT already plays a critical role in developing and maintaining chemical products and processes,” explains Pádraig Naughton, Innovation manager at Cefic. “However, in many cases the application of ICT is still conducted in a discrete way throughout the various development and production steps. Huge potential exists to apply ICT technologies across the complete development chain, in a closed loop, leading to an integrated, more efficient and more profitable approach.”

As new process technologies are developed, new ICT technologies will need to be developed and applied. For example, trends towards modular, flexible processing will require an innovative ICT approach to control and monitor variable systems. In addition, with the advent and growth of renewable feedstocks and energy, new challenges arise in the field of ICT to ensure sustainable development.

The session certainly stimulated discussion between industry, academia and the European Commission and a number of priority topics were outlined which will drive developments in this field for the chemical industry at European level. It was concluded that there is a clear window of opportunity for chemical process issues to be addressed in forthcoming Horizon 2020 calls coordinated by DG CONNECT.

Guide to combine funding
The second day of the event also looked at new opportunities for innovation through combined funding within the EU. Presentations described the new innovation investment eco-system in the EU focusing on funding instruments under Horizon 2020 and the opportunities for synergies with structural funds for investment projects that could provide funding instruments that can cover all stages of the innovation chain with optimal use of resources.

A new guide on the practicalities of combining funding described at the Stakeholder event has just been published by the European Commission.

The guide entitled ‘Enabling synergies between European Structural application: and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 and other research, innovation and competitiveness-related Union programmes’ describes the synergies now available between ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds) and Horizon 2020 and other EU programmes for innovation and competitiveness.

The 125 page guide contains explanations on the basic rules and principles for obtaining synergies and combining the different funds, and contains recommendations for relevant actors. It is accompanied by descriptions of the various programmes (Annex 1) and guidance via a set of scenarios designed to “inspire programme designers and implementers” with respect to the potential to combine schemes (Annex 2).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) also described its new toolbox of instruments for investment in innovation (InnovFin) that was launched during the SusChem event.

SusChem already has experience of combining funding sources as Thomas Goergen from Bayer Technology Services explained at the event. In the our flagship F3 Factory project the project itself was co-funded via the European Commission FP7 framework research programme while the construction of its backbone infrastructure facility (INVITE) was partially funded by German regional government funds and remains a valuable asset for future collaborative research and innovation projects.

SIRA Outlined
SusChem has just published a new video interview with SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki. In the video (below) Jacques describes some of the thinking behind the new SIRA programme and the future direction of SusChem activities.



The SIRA is structured around seven sections:

• ‘Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials’ tackling priority areas in raw materials and feedstocks; water conservation, recycling and reuse; waste reduction and recovery; climate action through energy efficiency in the chemical industry; and the chemical plant of the future.
• ‘A sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy’ looking at sustainable agriculture and forestry; and the establishment of sustainable and competitive bio-based industries.
• ‘Secure, clean and efficient energy’ dealing with energy efficiency in the chemical industry; products for energy efficiency; competitive low carbon energy production; and enhanced energy storage technologies.
• ‘Health, demographics and well-being’ focusing on personalised diagnosis using imaging; responsive materials for prosthetic devices; and formulation technologies.
• ‘Smart, green and integrated transport’ covering green vehicles; materials for reduced energy consumption; materials and systems for sustainable design; and the achievement of a more sustainable internal combustion engine.
• ‘ICT and the chemical industry: smart processes and smart materials’ exploring the connections between the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) domain and sustainable chemistry that, on the one hand, could boost the overall performance of all the process sectors and, on the other hand, provide new technologies and materials for ICT exploitation.
• ‘Horizontal issues’ covering four important areas: building skills capacity in Europe; developing a robust definition of sustainable chemistry; accelerating societal uptake of innovation; and developing new innovative business models.

An executive summary of the SIRA can be downloaded here.

For more information on SusChem activities and the new SusChem SIRA contact Jacques Komornicki, SusChem Coordinator at Cefic.

The 12th SusChem Stakeholder Event celebrating 10 Years of Sustainable Chemistry at the Forefront of European Innovation!

The 2014 SusChem Stakeholder event was a special meeting for the European sustainable chemistry community: celebrating 10 years of the SusChem European Technology Platform and looking forward to the next 10 years of success with the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). Some 200 delegates joined SusChem at the Renaissance Hotel in Brussels on June 11 and June 12 to reflect on our joint achievements and to toast a sustainable future.

Since it launch in 2004, SusChem has made many significant achievements - including the initiation of projects worth more than € 1.5 billion in FP7, its visionary flagship projects such as the Smart Energy Home, the F3 Factory and Integrated Biorefinery, and more recently the launch of two large Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) under Horizon 2020 : SPIRE and the BBI JTI.

Chairman of the SusChem board, Dr. Klaus Sommer summed up the first decade of SusChem saying: "When we started SusChem we had a lot of ground work to cover, but we were successful in establishing SusChem as a voice to be taken seriously." He also reminded delegates that: "The 3Ps of sustainability - Planet, People, Profit - are at the heart of everything that we do at SusChem."

The SusChem event was opened by the screening of a specially made SusChem 10th Birthday video (see below) featuring many personalities from the SusChem community past and present.



Looking forward Dr Sommer stated that SusChem would need to fight continuously to ensure that the competitiveness of the European chemical and biotech industry remains strong. The platform must continue to drive and develop SusChem strategy and foster the SusChem national technology platform network to establish an excellent strategy that can really improve European competitiveness.

Praise for SusChem
Praise for SusChem was also reflected by Clara de La Torre, Director of Key Enabling Technologies at the European Commission DG Research and Innovation who said: "SusChem has achieved outstanding results and was a great success story" and concluded her presentation declaring: "Long life to SusChem!"

The SusChem event also generated some great media coverage including articles in IHS Chemical Week, Chemical Watch and Specialty Chemicals magazine.

More to come!
And SusChem is putting together a longer video message on our achievements and the way forward that will be released around the actual tenth anniversary of the launch of SusChem on 6 July 2004.

We will also be publishing overview articles on various chapters of the new SusChem SIRA over the next few months.

As Klaus Sommer concluded at the Stakeholder event. "Lets start the success for the next 10 years now!"

For more information on SusChem activities and the new SusChem SIRA contact Jacques Komornicki, SusChem Coordinator at Cefic.

#SusChem10 Day 2: Sustainable Chemistry defining the Next Decade

The second day of SusChem's 12th Stakeholder Event was packed with presentations and discussions on a variety of new opportunities for sustainable chemistry research and innovation ranging from the new ability to combine funding available through European Union initiatives to the challenges for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enable increased energy and resource efficiency in the chemical and wider process industries. The afternoon brokerage session saw project presentations and 'speed-dating' as SusChem stakeholders looked to initiate collaborative contributions to the next round of Horizon 2020 calls and kick-off the next 10 years of SusChem success!

In his concluding remarks Chairman of the SusChem board, Dr. Klaus Sommer summed up the first decade of SusChem saying that: "When we started SusChem we had a lot of ground work to cover, but we  were successful in establishing SusChem as a voice to be taken seriously."

He praised SusChem's achievements including its three flagship projects under FP7 and its significant contributions to establish two PPPs - the SPIRE PPP and the BBI JTI - under Horizon 2020. Today the platform is working broadly with a number of other relevant European initiatives, such as the European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs), and is renewing its strategic plans via a new Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) that reflects the new needs and challenges following the start of Horizon 2020, SPIRE and BBI.

Dr Sommer stressed that SusChem needed to be more proactive about communicating the benefits of sustainable chemistry and its beneficial impact for society. "The chemical industry represents some 11% of all the economy in Europe – essentially nothing works without chemistry," he said.

SusChem needed to fight continuously to ensure that the competitiveness of the European chemical and biotech industry is not weakened and must continue to drive SusChem strategy, develop our national technology platform network to establish an excellent strategy that can really improve European competitiveness. "Lets start the success for the next 10 years now!" he concluded.

Combined funding
The morning had started with a panel discussion on new innovation opportunities through combined funding. Doris Schroecker of DG Research (below, second left) described the new innovation investment eco-system in the EU that was aiming to help achieve a full and sustainable recovery and new growth for the European economy. She recognised that the chemical industry was a sector that is innovative and invests. Her emphasis was on funding instruments under Horizon 2020 but she also stressed the opportunities for synergies with structural funds for investment projects.

The synergy aspect was reinforced by Heidi Moens of DG Enterprise and Industry (above far left) who described the practicalities of combined funding. For work in key enabling technologies the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) were now that are funded to the tune of € 110 billion and the general idea was to provide funding instruments that can cover all stages of the innovation chain with optimal use of resources.

There were two main principles to combining funding:

• No substitution, i.e. the funding could not act as a substitute for national or private contributions to Horizon 2020
• No double financing, i.e. no two EU funding instruments could cover the same cost item.

A new guide on the practicalities of combining funding would be published by the Commission in the very near future.

Olivier Debande (second right above) of the European Investment Bank (EIB) described its role in financing innovation.The EIB had recently received a boost to its loan capital to € 71 billion and a new toolbox of instruments for investment in innovation (InnovFin) was to being launched today (12 June).

Thomas Goergen (far right above) from Bayer Technology Services gave a couple of practical examples of projects that had benefited from combined funding including the F3 Factory project where the project itself was funded via FP7 while the construction of its backbone infrastructure facility (INVITE) was partially funded by German regional government funds.

The key was to produce a 'Master Plan' for funding that showed how different funding sources were to be used to ensure transparency and avoid double funding.

Future Technologies
Ales Fiala of DG CONNECT (below) described the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) component of Horizon 2020 which covered some 3.5% of the Horizon 2020 budget under the Excellent Science theme.

FET was about visionary ideas, emerging concepts, and building new communities and under Horizon 2020 it had a new mandate that goes beyond ICT to bridge from excellent science to exciting technology futures and turn the EU into the best place for dynamic ideas.

FET has three elements:

• FET Open - for early ideas, bottom up projects on novel ideas for radical new technologies
• FET Proactive - involving a top-down process with topics specified by development communities and focusing on emerging innovation themes and communities. These has two strategic objectives: coordinated exploration of directions to build a pool of knowledge and new research alliances.
• FET Flagships – large-scale programmes on grand challenges that were long term (10 year). For example the Graphene Flagship with a focus on moving from academic laboratories to establishing a European 'graphene' industry.

Education and ICT

After coffee two parallel sessions took place. The 'Integrating Higher Education, Business and Research for Sustainable Chemistry Innovation: EIT’s next steps' session (below) looked at the role of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology  (EIT) Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) . KICs are seen as an ideal way of involving SMEs in collaborative innovation. A new KIC on Advanced Manufacturing will be launched soon and the Climate Change KIC is supporting some CO2 utilisation projects that are of great interest to SusChem and SPIRE.

KICs had a very useful role in shaping the workforce of tomorrow and enabling industry to interface with education. They were a very flexible funding format.

The second session on 'ICT in Chemical Processing' (see below) also produced a "vivid discussion" and yielded the message that "data will be the new oil".

ICT is already essential for advanced process control in industry and will become even more important in the future as an enabler for improvements resource and energy efficiency. It is therefore very important that the sustainable chemistry community can articulate its needs, knowledge gaps and challenges to guide research and development in this area. There was a clear window of opportunity for chemical process issues to be addressed in DG CONNECT.

Feedback from the two parallel sessions was relayed by rapporteurs Rodney Townsend (KIC-EIT, centre below) of RSC and Andreas Foerster of Dechema (ICT, right below) before SusChem chairman Klaus Sommer concluded the main proceedings and thanked the organising team.

Towards the next 10 years
Dr Sommer (below)  picked up a number of points from the two days of discussion in his concluding remarks including the need for incorporating ICT issues into the SusChem SIRA and helping to integrate the farming and forestry sectors with the bioindustry – here he thought joint BBB - SPIRE projects would be very useful.

Many of the challenges, for example in chemical energy storage, needed to be demonstrated practically at large scale not just in the laboratory and he also welcomed the ideas for greater coordination between classic chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry in formulation sciences.

Brokerage bonanza
After lunch the Horizon 2020 Brokerage session was kicked off by a presentation by Soren Bowadt of DG Research and Innovation (below). Soren focused on the experienced gained from the results of the first calls for SPIRE PPP, which had been some of the first to be evaluated under the new European Commission programme.

The success rate for the first SPIRE calls had been 16% success rate and he anticipated a similar rate for future calls.The call had resulted in a main list of 11 projects worth € 58.4 million and a reserve list of six projects worth € 39.1 million.

He emphasised that the calls under Horizon 2020 are challenge based with a strong focus on innovation outcomes and the potential emphasis of the results. Including an outline business in a proposal was important to demonstrate impact - and this could include ideas for further funding under ESIF etc. It was also to respect the TRL level of the call and to demonstrate the credibility of all collaborative partners.

For various reasons the deadline for 2015 calls was likely to move backwards from mid December 2014 to early February 2015. This would be announced officially once the Horizon 2020 Work Programme had been adapted to reflect the change.

The Brokerage presentations were split into two parallel sessions covering waste and/ or side-stream valourisation (10 project presentations) and Materials and Processes for Improved Capacities (9 project presentations). In addition six groups presented their ideas and capabilities via a poster session during the speed-dating session.

#SusChem 10 Day 1: Sustainable Chemistry at the Forefront of Innovation

SusChem's 12th Stakeholder Event and 10th anniversary celebration kicked off today (June 11) at the Renaissance Hotel in sunny Brussels. Some 250 members of the SusChem stakeholder community were registered for the event. The theme of the event was 'Sustainable Chemistry: At the Forefront of Innovation: Defining the New Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda for the Next Decade.' 

Following the screening of a specially made SusChem 10th Birthday video, Dr Klaus Sommer (below) welcomed delegates and described the history of SusChem since its launch in 2004, its significant achievements - including the initiation of projects worth more than € 1.5 billion in FP7, its visionary flagship projects such as the Smart Energy Home, the F3 Factory and Integrated Biorefinery projects, and more recently the launch of two PPPs under Horizon 2020 : SPIRE and the BBI JTI.

Dr Sommer then looked forward to further success through the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). He reminded delegates that: "The 3Ps of sustainability - Planet, People, Profit - are at the heart of everything that we do at SusChem."

The new SIRA would focus on providing sustainable solutions to boost competitiveness in Europe and he looked forward to another 10 years of success - starting today!

Clara de La Torre (above), Director of Key Enabling Technologies at the European Commission DG Research and Innovation continued the theme of industrial renaissance in Europe highlighting the key role of EU industry in wealth creation and competitiveness.

Two lessons had been learnt from previous research programmes: the need to take knowledge closer to the market; and that implementation of research findings was key.

"SusChem has achieved outstanding results and was a great success story," she concluded declaring: "Long life to SusChem!"

SIRA
The new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) was then introduced by Jacques Komornicki (below), Secretary of the SusChem ETP.

Jacques related the societal challenges under Horizon 2020 and the priorities in the draft SIRA to SusChem's enabling technologies. The SIRA was organised around these societal challenges.

After coffee the event split into six parallel breakout sessions with the following themes:

• Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
• Biotechnologies and the Bio-economy
• Clean and Efficient Energy
• Transportation
• Health and Well-being
• Horizontal Issues

These round table sessions then discussed priorities and made a first pass of outlining potential ideas for work, including timelines etc. Discussion was lively (see the energy session above) and brought out some excellent ideas: some building on existing SIRA text and others suggesting different areas for research.

Rapporteurs from each breakout group then reported back to the main session (see above).

SusChem NTPs
The final formal session of Day 1 was on the role of SusChem National Technology Platforms (NTPs) from Cristina Gonzalez, Chairwoman SusChem Spain (below).

Cristina highlighted three main reasons for being involved or initiating a SusChem national technology platform (NTP): to help in forming the foundation for project consortia through networking; helping to influence the definition of national (and international) research and innovation priorities; and enabling stakeholders in your country - especially SMEs - to understand and participate in international research collaborations.

At the end of the day a networking cocktail was held combined with a NTP poster session featuring all 12 of SusChem's national platforms.

Ten Years of SusChem: Celebrating Success, Preparing for the Next Decade

Today (11 June) in Brussels the European Technology Platform (ETP) for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) is celebrating 10 years of achievement in sustainable research and innovation in Europe. Since its launch in 2004 SusChem has made significant contributions in areas from industrial biotechnology to process technologies and the development of new materials. And SusChem is preparing to do even more during the next decade. Over two days SusChem will be celebrating its achievements so far and looking to future activities in the context of its new Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA).

Clear commitment to Europe
Over the past 10 years SusChem has benefited from the solid commitment to sustainable chemistry of a broad range of stakeholders from industry, academia, and research and technology organization (RTOs) from all parts of Europe to build an invaluable network for sustainable chemistry across the continent.

Through its network of national technology platforms (NTPs), and a proactive approach to other industrial and technology sectors, SusChem is a trusted partner for research and innovation activities with the European Union and its member states. SusChem is officially recognised as a platform in the European Commission’s new research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.

A decade of achievement

Over the past 10 years SusChem has inspired research and innovation projects worth well over one billion euros: the vast majority funded via the European Commission’s FP7 programme. Under Horizon 2020 SusChem is proud to have inspired two major new public-private-partnerships (PPPs) that will deliver real competitive advantage for Europe: the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPP and the Bio-based Industries (BBI) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI).

“SusChem is leading the development of many of the key enabling technologies that are indispensable to achieving sustainable solutions for our most pressing societal challenges,” said Chairman of the SusChem Board Dr. Klaus Sommer (pictured right).

The next 10 years: breaking new boundaries 
On June 11 and 12 the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) will be discussed. The SIRA will set SusChem’s research and innovation priorities for the medium term.

An executive summary of the SIRA can be downloaded here.

However, to ensure future sustainable growth and competitiveness in Europe needs more than innovative sustainable technologies. To successfully compete with the US and China Europe must play to its strengths in a united effort to establish a sustainable, innovative and dynamic society.

“The proximity of European value chains across many different sectors, the possibility to easily work together on highly technical, cross-border projects, and the European economic eco-system of large and small enterprises working together give Europe a strong head-start to deliver the sustainable technologies the world needs,” commented Dr. Sommer.

And to enable Europe to meet the needs of our 21st century societal challenges, we also need a working population that is equipped with the right skill sets.

“We must make sustainable chemistry and science education in general more exciting and inspiring to attract more of our best young people with the right skills to science, technology and engineering careers. Without these skills Europe cannot build the sustainable future that we all want,” concluded Dr. Sommer.

The Stakeholder event
The SusChem Stakeholder event is taking place on 11 and 12 June 2014 at the Renaissance Hotel, Rue du Parnasse, Brussels with the theme: “Sustainable Chemistry: At the Forefront of Innovation. Defining the New Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda for the Next Decade.”

For more information on the event keep an eye on the SusChem blog or follow @suschem on twitter. We will be tweeting pictures and comments from the event under the hashtag #suschem10.

SusChem was initially formed as a joint initiative between Cefic, DECHEMA, EuropaBio, GDCh, ESAB and RSC with the objective to revitalize and inspire European chemistry and industrial biotechnology research, development, and innovation in a sustainable way.

SusChem was officially launched on Tuesday 6 July 2004 at an event hosted by the then Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin in Brussels. You can access Commissioner Busquin's speech from 6 July 2004 here (in French).

More information on the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) can be found on its website.

#SusChem10: Video shoot

Registration for the SusChem Stakeholder event is now closed. But preparations for our 10th anniversary event are in full swing. Today (2 June) the weather in Brussels was sunny and bright so we took advantage of the conditions and  recorded some video interviews for the event outside in the sunshine.

First up was Frank Agterberg (above) who was the first SusChem coordinator at Cefic and a main motivator in getting the idea for a European technology platform on sustainable chemistry off the ground from 2002 to 2005.

Rodney Townsend, past chairman of the SusChem board and long-term supporter of the technology platform, was also taped on Monday.

And our final outdoors shoot was with EuropaBio's Director of Industrial Biotechnology Joanna Dupont-Inglis (above, right) who talked about industrial biotechnology's contribution to SusChem and the new Biobased Industries JTI that will officially launch on 9 July.

Cefic Research and Innovation Communication Manager Esther Agyeman-Budu (left) was asking the questions for all of the interviews.

Looking forward to seeing the final edit at the SusChem 10-year Anniversary. See you there!