Fifth EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Istanbul

The Fifth EuCheMS Chemistry Congress kicks off in Istanbul at the WOW Convention Centre on 31 August and will present leading research in chemistry as well as the infinite number of applications of chemistry in our everyday lives. The Congress, which runs from 31 August to 4 September and is hosted by the Turkish Chemical Society, will feature more than 1100 contributions and gather together more than 1500 chemists from almost 70 countries, not only from Europe but from all over the world.

The immense possibilities of chemistry being presented at the Congress are of great relevance not only for the research community but also for wider society.

Hot topics 
Topics that will grab scientific attention at the Congress include nanometre-scale structures and their possible applications in electronics, in sensing and in biomedical applications that will be presented by EuCheMS 2013 Lecturer, Prof. Maurizio Prato. New carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, might open new doors for gas storage, pharmaceuticals, inter-neuron communication, spinal cord repairs and production of hydrogen from splitting water: creating new possibilities for a greener society.

The congress will also host a session with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) on nanomaterials safety and training and education regarding quality assurance for analytical measurements as well as a session on the European Research Council's (ERC) activities, presented by its President, Prof. Bourguignon.

With their eyes set on the future of chemistry, the European Young Chemists´ Network (EYCN) are presenting a wide range of activities over the course of the Congress focussing on chemical careers  and employability of young chemists including several workshops, talks and meetings with possible employers.

SusChem board member and Cefic's Executive Director of Research and Innovation Gernot Klotz will talk about sustainable chemistry and innovation during the EYCN career sesson on Monday (1 September).

You can access and download the full programme for the Congress here. To follow the Congress on twitter search on the hashtag #5ECC.

Awards
The Congress will also be the place for acknowledging excellence in research and in promoting chemistry. Some of the awards delivered will be the Young European Chemist Award; the European Sustainable Chemistry Award, which will be given to Prof. Walter Leitner and Prof. Jürgen Klankermeyer; and the EuCheMS Award for Service, which will honour EuCheMS past president Prof. Luis Oro.

EuCheMS
EuCheMS aims to promote co-operation in Europe between non-profit-making scientific and technical societies in the field of chemistry and molecular sciences. EuCheMS has 42 member societies across 32 European countries and represents more than 150,000 chemists. EuCheMS brings together world class expertise to provide a single voice on key science and policy issues, based on expert scientific knowledge.

The EuCheMS Chemistry Congress is a biannual event that was first organised in 2006 in Budapest. Since then it continued to promote European Chemistry all around Europe. Previous venues include Turin, Nuremberg and Prague. Future venues include Seville and Liverpool.

For more information on EuCheMS activities, please contact EuCheMS Secretary General Dr. Nineta H. Majcen.

EU Chemistry Employment Survey

Update February 2014. The deadline for input for the EU Employment Survey has been extended to 28 February. To access the questionnaire (now available only in English) click here.

For more details on the the survey see below.

In which European country do chemists and chemical engineers enjoy the highest salary? Where are the best prospects for employment? And which of the various chemical sub-disciplines offer the most jobs? Getting answers to these questions is the aim of the first European employment survey for chemists and chemical engineers. The deadline for contributing to the confidential survey is 31 December 2013.

The employment survey has been commissioned by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to provide details about the current employment situation for chemists and chemical engineers across Europe and to understand future needs for post-secondary education in Europe.

The survey is open to all chemists and chemical engineers in Europe and is supported by Cefic, EuCheMS, the European Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Network (EC2E2N). The project is being coordinated and managed by the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association (ECTNA). And all chemist and chemical engineers in Europe are encouraged to take part in the survey. Chemists who are members of national societies affiliated to EuCheMS should have already received notification of the survey.

However, chemists and engineers from industry are often under represented in national chemical societies so it is important that the survey is accessible to them as well.

24 languages
The questionnaire was available in 24 European languages and all responses are saved anonymously. A valid email address is requested at the start of survey, but this is just a check to prevent misuse. The email is only stored (independently from your responses to the survey) if you want to receive the results of the survey directly when they are published in 2014.

The survey has six general pages (on Personal data, Education, Employment, on Job Training and Salary) all of which provide fields for free-text responses.

You can find the survey at www.chemsurvey.eu. National coordinators for the survey have been nominated and if you have any questions about the survey they should be your first port of call. They can be contacted via the Survey site.

The original deadline for completing the survey was 31 December 2013.

Eco-industries and Life Cycle Thinking

SusChem and Cefic were at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) Eco-industries conference in Brussels today (15 May). Sessions covered air quality, waste management, renewables, energy efficiency and water management. SusChem activities in the water sector including the forthcoming European Innovation Partnership (EIP) were presented.

Before the start of the conference, the Cefic-SusChem stand in the exhibition area was visited by Research Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (centre below) and Paul Rubig MEP (left) who talked with Gernot Klotz, Cefic Executive Director of Research and Innovation. A short video including the Commissioner's visit (at ~1'58") is embedded at th end of this blog article.

Opening the conference, Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn said: “The eco-industry is already a major player and promises great things for our society and our economy. The Europe 2020 Strategy identifies these [eco-industry] sectors as key contributors to sustainable growth and the shift towards a resource efficient, greener and more competitive low carbon economy.” Her full speech can be found here.

Water management
Describing the chemical sector’s vital role in driving innovation in the session on water management Gernot Klotz (below) stated that “solving the water challenge was critical to enable the growth of the future bioeconomy.”

Chemistry is involved in improvements for water quality, quantity and energy efficiency. Cefic has recently launched a water issues website that explains the impact of chemical innovation on improving water resources.

The launch of the EIP on Water is very welcome and the chemical and water sectors are working very closely together to ensure that the challenge on water in Europe is addressed.

Life Cycle Thinking
Reinforcing the drive to eco-industries a new report also published today by the JRC provides key information for policy makers and business managers on how to assess the environmental impacts of products and services. It will help to pave the way towards a resource-efficient Europe and aims to help design more sustainable products. Two objectives that SusChem, in particular through its SPIRE PPP initiative, is working to achieve.

Life Cycle Thinking is key to making substantial improvements in the environmental performance of goods and services. This concept looks at the environmental impact of production, distribution and consumption activities from cradle to grave, quantifying the environmental impact of products from the extraction of natural resources to product recycling or waste disposal.

The Commission’s 2011 Communication on a resource-efficient Europe, a flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy, takes these developments to the next stage, as it promotes taking a life-cycle approach to reducing the environmental impacts of resource use in the EU. It is clearly important that a consistent analytical approach is used.

Rare Earth Shortages can hamper Low-carbon Technologies

A new report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) highlights the threat to successful deployment of low-carbon energy technologies due to a potential shortage of five elemental raw materials. The report recommends a set of actions to prevent shortages and allow a smooth implementation of the Commission's Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan.

Scientists from the JRC’s Institute for Energy and Transport (IET) have carried out an in-depth analysis of the use of raw materials, especially metals, in the six priority low-carbon energy technologies of the Commission's SET-Plan: nuclear, solar, wind, bio-energy, carbon capture and storage and electricity grids.

The study 'Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies' reveals that five metals commonly used in these technologies – neodymium, dysprosium, indium, tellurium and gallium – show a high risk of shortage. Europe depends on imports for many of these, for which there is rapidly increasing global demand and limited supply, often concentrated in a few countries with associated political risks. Furthermore, these materials are not easily recyclable or substitutable.

Deployment issue
A large-scale deployment of solar energy technologies, for example, will require half the current world supply of tellurium and 25% of the supply of indium. At the same time, the envisaged deployment of wind energy technology in Europe will require large amounts of neodymium and dysprosium, (about 4% of the current global supply each) for permanent magnet generators, which could only be eased if the supply of such metals in the future is increased, which may not be simple. Virtually the whole European supply of these metals comes from China.

The report considers possible strategies to avoid or mitigate shortage of these metals, including promoting recycling and reuse and looking into substitution by other less critical materials. Further measures could be the development of alternative technologies. These are all issues that are addressed in the proposed European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials for a Modern Society being developed with significant SusChem involvement.

Innovation Union Information and Intelligence system launched

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has just launched the Innovation Union Information and Intelligence system (I3S) as a web-based platform for all Innovation Union stakeholders.

This web-based platform gathers information on each of the 34 commitments made in the Innovation Union Communication published in October 2010. These commitments include crucial issues for innovation such as e-skills, access to finance, a viable and economic EU patent, eco-innovation or joint public procurements.

At the core of the I3S is a searchable repository of detailed information on each of the 34 Commitments. For each of these, a dedicated section of the site sets out:

• the key dimensions of challenges faced



• the objectives in tackling these challenges



• the approach planned to meet these challenges

Key milestones along the way are presented, highlighting the achievements made and specific events, publications and other activities planned.

Background intelligence
Complementing this information, the system provides more detailed background intelligence information relating to each commitment. These facilitate further exploration of the key issues addressed, and provide additional supporting data and analytical perspectives.

The portal aims to ensure that all stakeholders are well informed on the implementation of the commitments by providing easy access to up to date and comprehensive information.

It is planned that the I3S site will be complemented by the launch of a web-based portal on research and innovation policies in EU Member States, Associated Countries and a number of third countries.