'Towards a New SusChem SIRA' Workshop

SusChem stakeholders met on 16 and 17 May in Brussels to work on the next SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA), reflecting on the new opportunities and challenges to be faced in the next European research and innovation framework programme: Horizon Europe. This SusChem SIRA-dedicated workshop brought together members of the SusChem Board, the SusChem NTPs and experts from across Industry, Academia and SMEs, to finalise the technology content of the SusChem SIRA. The SusChem community continued a process that was initiated at theSusChem Stakeholders 2018 meeting, followed by nominations of experts and two consultation rounds. The communication of the new SusChem SIRA is expected at the upcoming 2019 SusChem Stakeholder meeting on 27 November 2019.

SusChem has been working on identifying technology priorities along its three main technology pillars: Advanced Materials, Advanced Processes and enabling Digital technologies. The ‘Towards a New SusChem SIRA’ workshop was a follow up to prior consultation rounds that were initiated after the SusChem2018 Stakeholders meeting. The new SIRA will reflect on the overall strategy and role of Sustainable Chemistry and Industrial Biotechnology in boosting innovation in Europe and tackling global challenges, in the context of Horizon Europe.

On day one, participants focused on four cross-cutting topics of high relevance for SusChem: 'Circular Economy', 'Process Intensification', 'Sustainability Assessment Innovation', and 'Safe -by-design innovation'.

Delegates joined roundtable discussions, moderated by experts, focussing on a specific sub-topic within one of the four areas and considered the current state-of the-art and grand challenges. From that analysis they then selected key priority areas for research and innovation in the timeframe of Horizon Europe. A key output was the likely impact of research and innovation. Horizontal impacts and requirements, such as education and training, were also discussed.

For the Process Intensification session, the sub-topics were: reaction engineering, digitalisation, electrification, modularisation, and materials. In the Safe-by-Design session research and innovation themes relevant to process and materials innovation as well as methodologies towards improved safety and sustainability were discussed. The Circular Economy session looked at biomass valorisation, CO₂ valorisation, waste valorisation, circularity-by-design and water circularity. Finally, the Sustainability Assessment Innovation session discussed methodologies, data, tools and uptake issues to ensure the measurable and sustainable impact of the developed technologies.

SusChem key enabling technologies in Horizon Europe

The second day of the workshop began with a summary of the outcomes of day one, followed by a panel discussion on strategic research priorities for Sustainable Chemistry and Industrial Biotechnology in the context of the transition to Horizon Europe.

Contributions were made by SusChem board members Dr. Jens Rieger of BASF, Dr. François Monnet from Solvay, Dr. Deirdre Black of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Dr. Fernando Moreno of Solutex, with Jürgen Tiedje representing the European Commission DG Research & Innovation. The panel debate was moderated by Dr. Pierre Barthélemy of Cefic and also a member of the SusChem Board.

Jürgen Tiedje opened the discussion with an update on Horizon Europe. He noted that there was a basic agreement between the Commission, Member States and the European Parliament on the framework programme, although the budget is still to be finalised. The Commission is moving ahead with implementation to ensure calls would be available in 2021.

He described the changes in areas relevant to industry in Horizon Europe as “not a revolution, but a big change nonetheless” and he emphasised the need to highlight the impact of any proposed research and innovation calls. In June the Commission will publish strategic plans describing “what do we want to achieve” in Horizon Europe, again with a clear emphasis on increasing impact. A widespread consultation on the document will follow and the plan will be discussed at and finalised after the next EU Research and Innovation Days on 24-26 September 2019. He also noted that the Commission has just published a call for experts to join the new Horizon Europe Mission boards and invited SusChem stakeholders to be involved in all the above-mentioned steps of stakeholder consultation. In general, he thought that the outcome of the SIRA workshop would be an excellent basis for SusChem input to the Horizon Europe debate.

The panel discussed the significant impact of SusChem and the previous SusChem SIRA under Horizon 2020, and how this raised the platform’s ambition for Horizon Europe. The SusChem Board highlighted how this could be achieved through SusChem’s considerable experience as a multi-stakeholder platform and an advisory forum on technology priorities to address EU challenges.

The panel discussion ranged across the role of the European Research Council in the programme, how to support SMEs’ involvement and the role of the SusChem NTPs in achieving this, and Horizon Europe’s aim to provide new open infrastructure such as facilities for innovation testing and demonstration.

The SusChem Board members highlighted the need to make the best use of the collaborative synergies and experience established by SusChem that could be very useful in achieving, for example, a true Circular Economy faster. They also emphasised how both vertical and horizontal technologies will contribute to achieving high-impact goals with digital technology being both enabling and transformative.

Jürgen Tiedje reminded the audience that the last work programme for Horizon 2020 would be published soon and would feature a wide-ranging call on circular economy topics which would emphasise inter-topic connection. “It is important to start to look beyond individual topics to leverage impact,” he concluded.

The final working session was devoted to three parallel sessions in which participants considered gaps and prioritisation for research and innovation topics under the three SusChem technology pillars: Advanced Materials, Advanced Processes and enabling Digital Technologies.

Over the two days of the workshop a considerable number of ideas and initiatives were discussed and captured. Existing input from expert groups and the wider consultation process were reviewed and validated and technology gaps were identified with relevant input suggested. All-in-all an excellent basis for refining and completing the revised SIRA.

Next steps?

SusChem Manager, Dr. Vivi Filippousi from Cefic, thanked all participants and the SusChem team for their hard work and significant contributions to the formulation of the new SIRA and outlined the process going forward.

The input from the SusChem SIRA workshop will be analysed and incorporated in the earlier consultation input. As of June, the technology priorities will be structured into SIRA chapters that will relate to the structure of Horizon Europe (clusters and intervention areas). Targeted involvement of SusChem experts will be used to build the SIRA chapters. Once a full draft is assembled, the text will be reviewed by the SusChem Board and the SusChem NTPs for approval before sharing with all contributors for acknowledgement of the document by their organisation.

An expected communication of the new SusChem SIRA towards Horizon Europe (2021-2027) will take place at the 2019 SusChem Stakeholders meeting on 27 November 2019. Save the date now – and see you there!

You can access a photo gallery with images from the workshop event here.

Help shape the next SusChem SIRA

Do you want to help shape the next SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA)? Then you need to register for the SusChem Workshop ‘Towards a New SusChem SIRA’, which will take place on 16 and 17 May 2019 at Hotel Le Plaza in Brussels, Belgium.

The May event will bring together members of the SusChem Board, the SusChem National Technology Platforms (NTPs) and Research and Innovation experts in a two-day working meeting to help finalise the revised SusChem SIRA that will feed into future technology road maps and calls under the next European Commission Framework Programme (Horizon Europe) and other European innovation initiatives.. 

The participation and contribution of as many SusChem Stakeholders as possible is crucial to ensuring the right priorities and topics are included in the revised SusChem SIRA. 

Sessions and key topics 

On 16 May, four sessions, with a number of round table discussions, will focus on cross-fertilisation topics, helping to define strategic priorities for future sustainable research and innovation activities in chemical sciences. 

The four sessions are: 

• Process Intensification. Sub-topics: reaction engineering, digitalisation, electrification, modularisation, and materials;
• Safe-chemicals-by-design. Sub-topics: R&I themes relevant to process and materials innovation as well as methodologies towards improved safety and sustainability;
• Circular Economy. Sub-topics: biomass valorisation, CO2 valorisation, waste valorisation, circularity-by-design and water circularity); and
• Sustainability Assessment. Sub-topics: methodologies, data, tools and uptake. 

On the second day, 17 May, the event will feature the conclusions on high-level priorities from Day 1, followed by a panel discussion on ‘Strategic Research priorities on Sustainable Chemistry and Industrial Biotech’, between SusChem Board members and European Commission representatives from the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD).

Three parallel sessions will follow to fill remaining gaps for specific technology priorities under Advanced Materials, Advanced Processes and enabling Digital Technologies, accounting for their contribution to Horizon Europe challenges and intervention areas.

A draft agenda for the Workshop can be downloaded here and details of how to register for the event can be found here. 

We look forward to seeing you in Brussels on 16 and 17 May!

A Roadmap for the Chemical Industry in Europe towards a Bioeconomy

The final event of the Horizon 2020 project RoadToBio will take place on Monday 18 February 2019 in Brussels. This stakeholder workshop event will present and discuss the project’s ‘Roadmap for the Chemical Industry in Europe towards a Bioeconomy’.

Over the last 18 months, the RoadToBio consortium has developed suggestions on how to produce 25% of organic chemical products in Europe as biobased goods by 2030. The results of the project have been achieved in close cooperation with many stakeholders from industry, associations, NGOs, and academia.

At this final workshop, the project will share the insights that have been gained and discuss the results of the analysis, the proposed actions and the messages that can help to facilitate the participatory development of Europe's bioeconomy going forward.

Objectives

There are three main objectives to the workshop.

• Firstly, to present the analysis on the selected nine product groups with a high potential to switch from a fossil-based to a biobased production pathway and to discuss their market opportunities. These nine products groups are: Agrochemicals, Adhesives, Cosmetics, Lubricants, Man-Made fibres, Paints and Coatings, Plastics, Solvents, and Surfactants. Participants to the workshop will be able to choose two breakout sessions covering specific aspects of each product group.
• Secondly, to discuss general barriers that may hinder the development of Europe’s bioeconomy and the recommended actions from the project to overcome these.
• And, thirdly, to explain how biobased products could be communicated better and what tools and messages can be used to better engage stakeholders and the public

The event will be held on the afternoon of 18 February 2019 at the Bluepoint Conference Centre in Brussels. You can download a draft agenda for the event here. Registration will be open until 13 February 2019 by emailing Lea Koening at Dechema indicating which two product groups you are particularly interested in.

More on RoadToBio

How can the chemical industry in Europe meet the challenges in global markets while becoming more sustainable at the same time? RoadToBio is a Horizon2020 project funded via the Biobased Industries JU that aims to pave the way for the European chemical industry towards a higher biobased portfolio and competitive success based on the benefits offered by the bioeconomy. The Project will deliver a roadmap for the chemical industry that will specify benefits as well as barriers towards a biobased economy to meet societal needs in 2030.

Registration open for second RoadToBio Stakeholder Workshop

Registration is now open for the second RoadToBio stakeholder workshop on biobased opportunities for the chemical industry. The workshop is organised by the RoadToBio consortium and will take place on Tuesday 19 June 2018 - the day before the SusChem Annual Stakeholder event - in Brussels. The workshop will introduce and discuss the biobased opportunities identified within the project for the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio.

Over the past year, RoadToBio has identified opportunities to switch fossil process chains in the chemical industry to biobased alternative methods. For this purpose, the technical side was analysed and complemented with studies on public perception and regulatory barriers. In this way nine 'sweet spots' were identified, which are to be worked out in detail in a roadmap to show the possibilities for how biobased alternatives can be included in the portfolio of the European chemical industry.

The aim of the workshop is to invite participants to take a closer look at these sweet spots, the methods the project has used for their identification and to discuss what is important to develop a new process.

The workshop will take place on 19 June 2018 from 12h30 to 16h15 at Factory forty, Rue des anciens étangs, 40, 1190 Brussels, Belgium.

Register for this event before 08 June by sending an email to Lea Koening at Dechema.

More on RoadToBio

How can the chemical industry in Europe meet the challenges in global markets while becoming more sustainable at the same time? RoadToBio is a Horizon2020 project and funded via the Biobased Industries JU that aims to pave the way for the European chemical industry towards a higher biobased portfolio and competitive success based on the benefits offered by the bioeconomy. The Project will deliver a roadmap for the chemical industry that will specify benefits as well as barriers towards a biobased economy to meet societal needs in 2030.

Recently, many successful production and subsequent uses of biobased building blocks have started up. However, their production and applications are limited. Aside from technical and operational challenges, there is a plethora of hurdles in the fields of regulation and acceptance hindering the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio.

The roadmap developed in RoadToBio will contain two main components: first, an analysis of the most promising opportunities (‘sweet spots’) for the chemical industry to increase its biobased portfolio as well as the technological and commercial barriers and the hurdles in regulations and acceptance by society, governing bodies and the industry itself, and second, a strategy, action plan and engagement guide to overcome the existing and anticipated barriers and hurdles as mentioned above.

The roadmap for the chemicals industry to a bioeconomy will describe the actions that need to be done by all stakeholders to achieve the overarching objectives, set out over time, showing inter-dependencies between them. The overarching objectives are to achieve the full exploitation of the bioeconomy within the EU, specifically aiming for a 30% share of biobased products in the chemical industry by 2030.

Join the SusChem and WssTP Workshop in Porto!

SusChem and the European Water Technology Platform, WssTP, in collaboration with the EIP Water, are jointly organising a pre-conference workshop ‘Industry Water: From Single Use to Integrated Management' that will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 26 September 2017 in Porto, Portugal just prior to the The EIP Water Conference.

The workshop builds on an earlier workshop organised in Brussels on 20 April 2017 and will prepare specific messages to deliver to the audiences attending the EIP Water Conference in Porto that takes place on 27 and 28 September 2017.

These messages relate to the reuse of industrial water reuse as highlighted, for example, at the WssTP Water Innovation Europe 2017 event and are built from the four pillars of the WssTP’s Value of Water model: Sensors, Big Data, Analysis and Modelling, and Governance.

Workshop outcomes

The Brussel’s workshop produces a range of recommendations and conclusions on these four aspects:

• Sensor Networks - Sensor development provides a unique opportunity for enhancing the Value of Water. Advanced sensor development is required to ensure continuous understanding and control of water quality. Handling of dynamic water systems requires advanced sensors. Full implementation, reliable operation costs and maintenance are important.
• Big Data - Identifying the value of the water system in generating and creating data is central to its economic value. The creation of a resilient basis for cyber security and privacy legislation is necessary, as no holistic overview currently exists. Links between data silos and pockets of data should be established and prioritised.  
• Modelling and Analysis - Many models for enhancing water management exist in academia or within RTOs. But these methodologies need to be brought into context before moving to the next pilot phase. It is necessary to identify models and tailor them to the requirements of users in order to develop more efficient  water systems, while observing the interactions and implications.   
• Smart Governance - Smart governance models vary from region to region. The selection process for an appropriate governance design requires extensive consideration. Education and communication is crucial for its successful understanding and implementation.

The Porto workshop will further examine outcomes via four parallel breakout sessions covering the above topics that will include introductory presentations, moderated discussions, collection of ideas, and building of key messages.

The outcomes of the four sessions will be collated and conclusions and key messages for EIP Water conference formulated.

Workshop details

The workshop will take place on Tuesday 26 September 2017 from 14:00 to 18:00 and participation is free of charge, however prior registration is compulsory. You can register for the workshop via this online form.

Please note this registration is valid for the pre-conference workshop only, it will not allow attendance at the EIP Conference itself.

You will have to register separately for the Fourth EIP Water conference Water Innovation: Bridging Gaps, Creating Opportunities’ part of ‘Porto Water Innovation Week 2017’.

For more information on the workshop, please contact either Andrea Rubini at WssTP or Henk Pool at SusChem.

VERAM holds Expert Workshop on future of European raw materials research

On Tuesday 13 June 2017, the Horizon 2020 project VERAM (Visionand Roadmap for European Raw Materials) is holding a workshop to explore opportunities and develop solutions which will help shape the landscape of European raw materials research and innovation towards 2050. The event will take place in Brussels. SusChem is a partner in VERAM and you are invited to participate, but places are limited so don't miss this opportunity to have your say on the future of raw materials research and innovation!

VERAM is a unique coordination project that links two European Technology Platforms (ETPs) in minerals and forestry and two European Research Areas (ERA-NETs). And SusChem is involved too. With a total budget of €1.4 million to be implemented over a period of 30 months, the project kicked off in December 2015 and will complete its work by 31 May 2018.

The VERAM project is working to produce a Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials to 2050 based on the coordination of raw materials research and innovation. At the heart of this collaboration are two of our fellow ETPs: ETP SMR on Sustainable Minerals Resources and FTP (Forest Technology Platform). They are supported in their efforts by the ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform) represented by Università Politecnica dells Marche - UNIVPM, EuMaT (Advanced Materials ETP) represented by Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek - VITO, and by SusChem represented by the European Chemical Industry Council - Cefic.

In addition the ERA-NETs WoodWisdomNet (represented in the project by Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe – FNR – from Germany) and ERA‐Min (represented by the French National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS) will link to national research funding activities and four well-known research institutes - D’Appolonia SPA from Italy, Germany's Forschunszentrum Juelich - FZ Juelich, Fundacion Technalia Research and Innovation - Tecnalia from Spain, and Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy - VTT from Finland - complete the partnership.

The VERAM Experts' Workshop takes place on 13 June at the Orega - EU District, Rue du Commerce 123, 1000 Brussels from 10:00 to 16:00 and will gather information, ideas and opinions from expert stakeholders to develop a solid Research and Innovation Roadmap for European Raw Materials.

If you want to help shape the future of European raw materials research and innovation, please register for the event by clicking here. For more information on the VERAM project, please visit the project website.

Industry Water: From Single Use to Integrated Management

The European Water Platform (WssTP) and SusChem are jointly organising a workshop on ‘Industry Water: From Single Use to Integrated Management’ that will take place on Thursday 20 April 2017 at the BluePoint Centre (formerly known as the Diamant Centre) in Brussels.

The workshop will gather perspectives and viewpoints on the water reuse domain and will feature contributions from the European Commission, the ‘problem owners’ and ‘solution providers’ involved in the water and related sectors, and a final insight on the holistic and systemic structure (Smart Governance and Digital Water) which can address the challenges for discovering and exploiting the true Value of Water: multiple waters, digitally connected and smartly managed.

Tangible outputs from the workshop will be produced through a final breakout parallel session that will develop and propose content, gaps, strengths and needs of the four pillars of the Value of Water concept:

• Modelling and Analysis
• Big Data
• Smart Governance
• Sensor Networks

The final session will build an action plan to deliver the outcomes of the workshop to the Fourth EIP Water Conference that takes place in the city of Porto during the week of 25 September.

You can download the agenda for the workshop here and registration can be found here.

Register now for 18th Annual LRI Workshop!

The 18th Annual Cefic-LRI Workshop will take place in Brussels from 16-17 November 2016. The event is organised by the Long-Range Research Initiative Programme (LRI) of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and it's main focus this year will be on ‘AOPs (Adverse Outcome Pathways) and Genomics: how useful, how to address risk, and where next?’

The event kicks off on the evening of Wednesday 16 November 2016 at the Le Plaza Hotel with an invited poster session and networking cocktail followed by the Workshop Dinner and the 2016 LRI Innovative Science Award ceremony.

This evening session will be chaired by Nicolas Cudre-Mauroux from Solvay Award. He will introduce 2015 LRI award winner Dr Alice Limonciel of Innsbruck Medical University who will present the results of her study to establish thresholds of activation for stress response pathways and ligand-activated receptors for chemical classification.

This will be followed by the presentation of the €100,000 2016 LRI Innovative Science Award to the winning research concept who will outline the work they intend to undertake thanks to the award funding.

On Thursday, 17 November the workshop venue will be The Square in Brussels. This main workshop session will consist of a morning plenary session covering the impact of LRI research in the following key project areas:

• Environmental methodology of mixtures and residues
• Grouping of nanomaterials
• Dust and workers exposure
• Dermal absorption modelling
• Eye irritation alternatives
• Epidemiological evidence of Endocrine Disruption
• Epigenetics normality

After Lunch a thematic panel discussion on ‘AOP and Genomics: how useful, how to address risk, and where next?’ will be chaired and moderated by Prof Ian Kimber of the University of Manchester.

You can download the programme for the event here and registration is now open and free!

LRI AMBIT Workshop

Cefic’s Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) is organising a training workshop on the AMBIT tool on 21 January at Cefic’s Brussels offices. AMBIT tool is a predictive toxicity model based on read-across and categorisation. The tool is a web-based application freely available to all and could prove very useful for companies for both R&D and regulatory purposes – in particular for REACH.

The AMBIT tool is described on the LRI website and in more detail on its own website and in this presentation from the LRI 2015 programme workshop.

The workshop is entitled ‘Linking LRI AMBIT Chemo informatics system with the IUCLID Substance database to support Read across of Substance endpoint data and Category formation.’
AMBIT is an essential component of the LRI toolbox of methods and instruments, while IUCLID (International Uniform Chemical Information Database) is a key tool for the chemical community to fulfil data submission obligations under REACH. The linking of the two systems was undertaken in LRI project EEM9.3.

The inclusion of high quality substance data will enhance the predictive power of the AMBIT in-silico tool. The new version of AMBIT also implements workflows for assessments and should minimise overall animal testing needs and resource costs.

Another important new feature is the automatic assignment of chemical structures from the AMBIT structure pool to all the constituents, impurities and additives defined in an IUCLID substance. A search for a defined structure yields relevant substances and endpoint data that could be filtered as required by the user.

In addition AMBIT has several output options including the generation of an assessment report as a Word document that itemises justification/ validation of the approach taken.

AMBIT is an open source application with many functions that can be further developed or customised. The EEM9.3 project ended this month (December 2015) and the new version of AMBIT will become a free, open, publicly available tool.

The AMBIT workshop on 21 January will allow users to gain “hands on” experience of the new system.

Free registration
There is no charge for attendance at the AMBIT workshop but places are restricted to a maximum of 50 participants – so reserve you seat now! You can view the programme of the workshop here.

To register, please send an email to Andreea Udrea withh cc to LRI Programme Manager Bruno Hubesch. Places will be allocated on a ‘first come first served basis’.

For more information on LRI activities, please contact Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager or the LRI Secretariat.

Lightweight Construction for Advanced Manufacturing

The European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) is organising an event on lightweight manufacturing on Wednesday 16 December 2015 in Brussels. Entitled 'Lightweight Strategies and their Contribution to Added Value Manufacturing - A Heavy Topic?' the workshop will give an overview of state of play and recent developments in advanced manufacturing with a clearly defined thematic focus on lightweight construction and also look to identify the key future challenges and opportunities. This is an area of great interest to SusChem and highlighted in our recent Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA).

The concept of 'lightweighting' refers to a means of construction with respect to materials and manufacturing that aims to reduce the mass and increase the quality of a product and all its component elements. The available data suggests that achieving a 10% decrease in weight within the broadly defined area of mobility (including cars, trucks, transport and machinery) would contribute to a reduction in emissions of some 100 million tonnes of CO₂ in Germany alone - and about three billion tonnes worldwide.

For advanced manufacturing lightweight construction is a crucial factor. However, it is not just enough to integrate a small number of lightweight parts into the process of manufacturing. Lightweight design needs a holistic approach from the choice of appropriate materials and the manufacturing process itself to consideration of the efficient and low-cost recycling of the product after its use.

Questions
The ERRIN workshop aims to give an overview of state of play and recent developments in advanced manufacturing and to attempt to answer a range of questions including:

• How do we prevent too much waste of lightweight components when it comes to mass production? Are there limits to lightweighting in construction?
• How will changes in weight affect the driving behaviour of an extremely lightweight car?
• How can we recycle to the maximum components of a lightweight product after use?

The workshop will take place on 16 December from 09:00 to 13:30 at the Saxony Liaison Office in Brussels at Avenue d’Auderghem 67, 1040 Brussels. The event is organised by ERRIN's Advanced Manufacturing and Nanotech working group.

The workshop will include presentations from Prof. Dr. Lothar Kroll of the Technical University of Chemnitz, Laszlo Bax of Bax and Willems Consulting and Prof. David Bailey of the Aston Business School in Birmingham.

The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion: 'Lightweight in Europe: Where are we? Where do we want to go to? What has to be  done?' with representatives from industry, academia and the European Commission.

A programme for the event can be downloaded here and you can register via this link.

About ERRIN
Founded in 2001, ERRIN is a unique Brussels-based platform of more than 120 regional stakeholder organisations most of whom are represented by their Brussels offices. ERRIN promotes knowledge exchange between its members, focusing on joint actions and project partnerships to strengthen regional research and innovation capacities. Through these actions ERRIN seeks to contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Innovation Union flagship initiative and Smart Specialisation strategies.

2015 LRI Innovative Science Award Winner Announced

French researcher Dr. Alice Limonciel was awarded the €100,000 LRI Innovative Science award, one of Europe’s largest research grants for early career scientists, at an award ceremony at Cefic’s 17th Annual Long-Range Initiative (LRI) Workshop in Brussels on November 18, 2015.

Dr.  Limonciel’s winning research proposal is entitled "Establishment of thresholds of activation of stress
responses pathways and ligand-activated receptors for chemical classification” and will investigate cellular responses to the acceleration of chronic kidney disease progression due to chemical exposure. The project aims to identify the genes involved in cellular stress response pathways, quantify these responses in parallel with markers of cellular dysfunction and deliver a new generation of quantitative tools based on gene expression to evaluate the hazard linked to chemical exposure for use in risk assessment strategies.

Dr. Pierre Barthélemy, Cefic Executive Director of Research and Innovation commented: “It’s always a pleasure to see the enthusiasm of early career scientists and their desire to make our world safer. The LRI Innovative Science is a great opportunity for them to develop their breakthrough ideas with complete freedom, find new approaches to tackle risk assessment and help reduce uncertainty as it relates to chemicals safety”.

Dr. Limonciel (pictured above, right, receiving the award from Yves Verschueren Managing Director of Essenscia)  studied pharmacology and toxicology at the engineering school Polytech’ Nice-Sophia in France. She completed her doctoral studies in the department of Physiology and Medical Physics at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria in 2013.  Dr. Limonciel is currently working at Innsbruck as a Postdoctoral researcher on molecular mechanisms of nephrotoxicity notably using the integration of multiple omic datasets such as transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenomics.

A video from the LRI Award ceremony 2015 is embedded below. 



The award ceremony and dinner were the highlights of the first day of the 2015 Annual CEFIC-LRI Workshop. The second day of the workshop will focus on non–animal-based safety assessment and will showcase the outcome and impact of several LRI projects completed in 2014-2015 from the fields of environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modelling, skin sensitization and acceptance of innovation.

About the Award
The LRI Innovative Science Award worth €100 000 was first introduced in 2004 as a funding opportunity for young scientists based in Europe. Its aim is to stimulate innovative research, to foster ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and to introduce new approaches that will advance the environmental assessment of hazardous substances. More than a decade later, it is still the biggest award of its kind in Europe and has helped numerous scientists realise their ambitions and become part of the LRI scientific network.

The Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) is part of Cefic's voluntary initiatives to improve the Regulatory Framework of the chemical industry in Europe. Its mission is to identify and fill gaps in our understanding of the hazards posed by chemicals and to improve the methods available for assessing the associated risks.

For more information on the LRI activities and the award, please contact Programme Manager Bruno Hubesch.

LRI Workshop looks at progress in Non-animal-based safety assessment

Don’t forget the Long-Range Research Initiative Programme (LRI) of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) is holding its 17th annual workshop on 18 and 19 November 2015 in Brussels. This year, the Annual CEFIC-LRI Workshop will focus on non–animal-based safety assessment and will showcase the outcome and impact of several LRI projects completed in 2014-2015 from the fields of environmental risk assessment, bioconcentration, chemo-informatics, exposure modelling, skin sensitization and acceptance of innovation.

Registration is now open and free!
The Cefic-LRI workshop is a must-attend event for the scientific community and an excellent networking opportunity for policymakers. This year’s venue is Le Plaza Hotel Brussels.

On the evening of the first day the LRI programme will present the winner of the LRI Innovative Science Award for 2015 and also catch up with the progress of winner of the 2014 LRI Award winner Dr Alexandra Antunes of the Centro de Química Estrutural, Complexo Interdisciplinar Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal and her work on Covalent Modification of Histones by Carcinogens: a novel proteomic approach toward the assessment of chemically-induced cancers.

AMBIT tool
The second day will feature plenary sessions on the impact of LRI projects that cover subjects including an integrated modelling tool for ecological risk assessment, a mechanistic bioconcentration model for ionogenic organic compounds in fish, passive sampling formats, exposure modelling platforms and much more.

One of the presentations will feature the project to revise and update the AMBIT tool as a predictive toxicity model based on read-across and category formation. The tool can be used for both research and regulatory purposes and will be released in early 2016 and will be fully loaded and formatted with the non-confidential part of the REACH database. LRI will soon organize hands-on training to familiarize research experts with this new web-based application. Keep an eye on the LRI website for more announcements on this.

Panel discussion
And in the afternoon of Day 2, Prof Ian Kimber of the University of Manchester with moderate a dedicated panel discussion on non-animal-based safety assessment to consider the questions: “Non-animal based safety assessment: within reach or over-sold? Do we need to set back expectations?”

The panel will focus on current and future developments in non-animal toxicity testing methods and address the key issues and challenges to developing non-animal methods in toxicology. It will also examine visionary versus unrealistic regulatory expectations e.g. in view of REACH 2018.

The panel will consist of:

• Dr Karel de Raat, ECHA
• Dr Karen Niven, Shell
• Dr Alan Poole, ECETOC
• Dr Rick Becker, American Chemistry Council
• Dr Raffaella Corvi, JRC/EURL-ECVAM
• Prof Jim Bridges, Univ. Surrey
• Dr Kirsty Reid, Eurogroup for Animals

More information
For more details of the 17th Annual CEFIC-LRI workshop visit the dedicated webpage and download the final programme.

To register for the event, please click here.

You can follow the event on Twitter via the hashtag #lri2015

For more information on the workshop, please contact Dr. Bruno Hubesch, LRI Programme Manager or the LRI Secretariat.

More about LRI
The Long-range Research Initiative (LRI) programme is a major voluntary initiative of the European chemical industry to support the long-term sustainability of its sector and European society. Through the programme we hope to identify the hazards posed by chemicals and improve the methods available for assessing the associated risks.

The LRI sponsors high-quality research of a standard publishable in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, and seeks to provide sound scientific advice on which industry and regulatory bodies can draw-on to respond quickly and accurately to the public's concerns.

LRI research supports the 3R's principle. Read more here: http://cefic-lri.org/lri-research-programme/research-areas/intelligent-testing/ and http://cefic-lri.org/news/cefic-lri-in-joint-cross-sector-workshop-on-alternatives-for-skin-sensitization-testing-and-assessment/.

Help Shape Research Policy on Climate Change!

If you want to help shape the future Horizon 2020's programme in the area of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials then you need to be in Brussels on 23 and 24 September for the second RECREATE Strategic Workshop. The workshop is being held at the Diamant Conference and Business Centre in Brussels and has the theme: “Defining tomorrow’s research and innovation funding priorities”.  Registration for the workshop is now open!

The RECREATE (REsearch network for forward looking activities and assessment of research and innovation prospects in the fields of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials) project is a Coordination Action funded by the European Commission under FP7 and SusChem (via Cefic) is involved with the project.

The RECREATE project has the explicit purpose of supporting the European Commission in the future programming of Horizon 2020 calls in the area of Societal Challenge 5: Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. To do this the project is involving a large network of stakeholders, making extensive impact assessments and developing a range of forward looking activities (with a time horizon to 2050) to provide the insights and knowledge required. The RECREATE project started in July 2013 and will run until June 2018.

Participants in the workshop can get their travel costs reimbursed up to Euros 550.

Workshop objectives
The objectives of the September workshop include:

• Presentation of the project's first results and findings
• Gathering stakeholders’ viewpoints and feedback
• Identification of future research and innovation funding needs in the relevant fields

The workshop will open on the afternoon of 23 September and will include a keynote presentation on ‘Expectations and new developments at DG RTD with regard to Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials’ from Kurt Vandenberghe, Director Environment, DG RTD, European Commission and a report on recent progress in RECREATE from Robbert Fisher, Managing Director of JIIP and RECREATE Project Coordinator. A second Keynote presentation will be given by Eva Kaili, MEP.

The first day will also feature a presentation and discussion on the RECREATE scoreboard work package that is being developed to compare and benchmark the performance of Member States in terms of ‘Green Innovation’ and assess the implementation of the European Research Area in the fields of Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. The scorecard should be able to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches pursued in the Member States and reflect on different opportunities as well as potential barriers and failures.

The day will be completed by a poster and networking session

On 24 September will feature a dual track with TRACK 1 looking at RECREATE’s evidence-based narratives on Climate Information Services, Nature Based Solutions, and Systemic Eco-Innovation and TRACK 2 discussing RECREATE’s Trends and Scenarios.

More information on the workshop can be found here and registration for the workshop is here.

This workshop is the second of four RECREATE workshops that will be held in Brussels to:

• Share information on the fields of Climate Change, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials.
• Enable networking with relevant stakeholders on these arenas
• Gather feedback on research needs, gaps and recommendations that contribute to creating a clear cut research and innovation agenda for the Horizon 2020

By participating in these workshops, stakeholders will be helping the project consortium and the European Commission in their efforts to develop a programme which addresses research, innovation and industry needs in these fields.

What does RECREATE do?
The overall objective of the project is to support the development of the European Union’s new research funding programme Horizon 2020, with a specific focus on Societal Challenge 5 - Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials - by providing an evidence base.

To do this RECREATE will:

• Create, launch and manage a Stakeholder Network
• Develop and monitor indicators for assessing the impact of EU research and innovation programmes (including policy, economic, society, sustainability)
• Analyse technology, policy and market developments as well as policies and programmes as a basis for forward looking activities
• Produce quantitative and qualitative briefings with R&I information, trends and strategic options for EU research

Further information about the event and the workshop's travel reimbursement policy can be requested from the RECREATE secretariat.

#SusChem2015, Open Innovation SME Workshop and Brokerage Event

Places are going fast for the 2015 SusChem Stakeholder event #SusChem2015 and registration will close on Friday 29 May. The event takes place on 8 and 9 June at the Sheraton Rogier Hotel in Brussels. Immediately after the Stakeholder event there is a special Open Innovation SME workshop and Brokerage Event on the afternoon of 9 June that is also open to all SusChem Stakeholders.

One of SusChem's goals is to foster greater collaboration between larger chemical players and SMEs in the sector. The Open Innovation Workshop is part of our work in this area and participants will learn about the EU funding instruments available to SMEs and experience first-hand the creation of new partnerships as innovative SMEs from across Europe pitch their bright ideas and novel technologies to big chemical companies.

Entrepreneurial SMEs
During the event more than 20 leading SMEs, from across Europe with ambitions to connect to new industrial partners and investors will present their elevator pitches in three fields of interest to sustainable chemistry:

• ICT for chemical and bio-tech processes
• Eco-innovation technologies
• Advanced materials and nano-technologies

Listening to them will be representatives from leading Multinational Chemical Companies, including BASF, Bayer AG, Solvay, Dow, DuPont, Arkema, Repsol, DSM, EVONIK Akzo Nobel and Clariant, that are keen to connect to innovative SMEs.

In addition there will be a dedicated SME poster session where SMEs will be able to present their innovative technologies and expertise to potential partners and collaborators.

Finally, a Speed Dating Brokerage Session will give the opportunity to network and set up one-on-one meetings with the 150+ participants from industry, academia, RTOs, leading experts and policymakers who have already registered to attend the SusChem Stakeholder event.

Who Should Attend?
The aim of the SME workshop is to facilitate the development of new partnerships and to start building the bridges required to foster successful collaborations between SMEs and big chemical companies. Anyone interested in innovation and SMEs in Europe can attend, including:

• SMEs
• Industry
• Academia
• NGOs
• Policymakers
• Venture Capitalists

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity! Spaces are filling up quickly, so reserve your place HERE! Registration will close end of the day on Friday 29 May.

Stakeholder event
Registration for this event is in conjunction with the main 2015 SusChem Stakeholder event. The main focus of the Stakeholder event will be the recent SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) and how it is being implemented. The overall theme of this year's event is 'Propelling Sustainable Chemistry to exciting new frontiers - Implementing the New Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda'.

The packed programme includes many exciting activities over two days including:

• Presentation of the key highlights addressed in the SIRA by SusChem Board members, followed by a stakeholder breakout discussion on how to translate the SIRA into tangible action
• Conclusions from breakout session discussions to be addressed in a lively panel debate on day two, and
• The latest news and activities from our SusChem National Technology Platforms (NTPs)

Confirmed speakers over the two days include:

• Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General, DG Research and Innovation 
• Klaus H. Sommer, Senior VP Bayer Technology Services and Chairman of the SusChem Board
• Christos Tokamanis, Head of Unit Nano and Converging Sciences and Technologies, DG Research and Innovation
• Dirk Carrez, Executive Director, Biobased Industry Consortium
• Loredana Ghinea, Executive Director, A.SPIRE

For a complete list of confirmed speakers please refer to our updated agenda. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity! Register now to avoid disappointment!

Book your accommodation before 29 May!
Accommodation for delegates is also available at the Sheraton Rogier Hotel in Brussels for the days of the event. SusChem has managed to extend the deadline for booking rooms with a fixed discount rate also until 29 May. You can book via this link. Don't delay!

See you in Brussels on 8 and 9 June!

SPIRE already making a big Impact!

On 21 and 22 April the SPIRE consortium and the European Commission organised a workshop on the impact of the SPIRE PPP and associated FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects. The workshop took place at Committee of the Regions offices in Brussels. This event was billed as the first in a series of annual impact workshops and saw some 40 process-related projects represented: 12 from Horizon 2020 and 28 from FP7. SusChem News will be looking to follow up on some of these projects and investigate their outcomes and potential impact in more detail.

Chairing the opening session  José Lorenzo Vallés from the European Commission said that PPPs offer a framework to encourage projects to work together and supports transfer of results to the market. But key issues remain: What impact is actually achieved? How can impact be improved? And specifically for SPIRE how is it adding value?

Søren Bøwadt of the European Commission outlined the current status of SPIRE projects in Horizon 2020. “SPIRE is an integral part of the circular economy,” he stated. “As development of the circular economy requires significant RTD and Innovation investments.”

Project presentations
The first day of the workshop saw presentations on project clusters with the aim of assessing the impact achieved, the potential uptake and exploitation, the benefits of clustering and identifying good practise to maximise impact.

The first session covered efficient processes. Prof Andrzej Gorak of TU Dortmund presented results from eight projects in the domain of process optimisation: COPIRIDE, F3-Factory, INCAS, POLYCAT, SYNFLOW, MAPSYN, INNOREX, and ALTEREGO.

Prof Gorak highlighted a range of technical impacts from the development of highly selective hydrogenation catalysts through new synthesis methodologies, and novel modularised processes, process intensification and advanced design of integrated technologies, to combined reaction and separation processes. Cost reduction, better safety characteristics and improved resource and energy efficiency were also targeted.

Adaptable processes

Denilson da Silva Perez of Institut Technologique Foret Cellulose Bois-construction Ameublement (FCBA) based in Bordeaux presented a cluster of projects looking to enable the use of renewable resources, such as biomass and residues from different EU regions, and increase the efficiency and economic viability of the transport of pre-treated  biomass from decentralised rural locations.

The projects were AFORE, EUROBIOREF, FASTCARD, BIOGO, CASCATBEL, STEAMBIO, MOBILE FLIP, and PRODIAS.

Five projects in the domain of modelling and elements of process control were described by Sebastian Engell of TU Dortmund. All were of high industrial relevance and covered process control and resource efficiency monitoring. Projects COOPOL and OPTICO focus on control: OPTICO examining multi-scale, multi-phase phenomena to enable new technology and processes with process improvements of ~17%, while COOPOL worked on control and real-time optimisation providing a framework for intensification of chemical processes within a limited timeframe.

MORE looked at near real time monitoring of resource efficiency indicators (REIs) producing novel analytics, and a new process dashboard including visualisation of multi-dimensional REIs. Similarly TOP-REF looked to develop homogeneous audit and diagnosis tools based on thermo-economics techniques. Finally REFFIBRE modelled the impact of innovations on the circular economy for improved resource efficiency.

Integrated process control

Peter Singstad of Norwegian company Cybernetica AS described four SPIRE projects covering control, instrumentation and mathematical modelling with potential to transfer technology and knowledge between sectors.

RECOBA covered real time sensing, advanced control and optimisation of batch processes that could save energy and raw materials. From an economic standpoint the project could lead to material savings of typically to 1-5% and up to 25%. The DISIRE project also used integrated process control based on distributed in-situ sensors to optimise belt conveyor transportation schemes used in minerals, mining and industrial combustion processes. Similarly CONSENS (website under construction) used integrated control and sensing for sustainable operation of flexible intensified processes. The ProPAT project was also developing an integrated process control platform able to utilise individual sensors and methods for multi-sensory inputs leading to more efficient control of processes.

Sebastian Engell noted that for control solutions there was a huge gap between proven technology and what is actually applied broadly in industry. Technical innovation was slow to permeate through to the factory floor despite the relatively low investment required and low risk. This needed to be improved to maximise impact.

Sustainability and Circular Economy

The first domain discussed in the field of sustainability and the circular economy was integrated management of resources. Anna Sagar of SP Technical Research in Sweden described four projects E4WATER (developing and implementing more efficient and sustainable water management in the chemical industry), R4R (improving research and cooperation between chemical regions in Europe), MefO2 (using waste CO2 to make methanol) and TASIO (demonstrating a modular approach to waste heat recovery in the cement industry).

Jan Meneve of VITO then described projects involved in waste recovery. He defined three waves of waste management: first remediation driven by health and safety concepts; then commodity recycling driven by volume issues; and now specifity recycling driven by value considerations. This last wave was the focus of nine projects: RECLAIM, REMANENCE, HydroWEEE, RECYVAL-NANO, REEcover, RecycAl, ReFraSort, C2CA, and BIOMETALdemo. Jan stated that recycling by definition represented the use of smart green technologies that reduced waste generation while improving resource efficiency.

Life cycle Management

The final set of three projects on day one were presented by Amy Peace of BRITEST Limited and concerned lifecycle management. All focused on developing recommendations on the current use of sustainability indicators, tools and methodologies. There was close cooperation between the three projects: SAMT was gathering industrial best practise; STYLE was a pragmatic project looking to see what can be achieved on a day-to-day basis; and MEASURE had the most academic focus to develop an in-depth cross-sectorial Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) methodology. The joint aim is to ensure that the sustainability impact of new SPIRE technologies can be evaluated on a consistent basis.

Plenary and panel discussion

The second day of the workshop was opened by Clara de la Torre, Director ‘Key Enabling Technologies’ (KETs) at DG Research and Innovation (below, right). She noted that SPIRE was now the second largest PPP in Horizon 2020 after the Factories of the Future initiative and she stressed the importance of financial leverage in PPPs. “PPPs follow the same processes as the normal Horizon 2020 programme, but represent a long-term commitment by the Commission to support, and by industry to invest,” said Ms de la Torre. But she emphasised that “Impact is the name of the game!”

This theme was taken up by Dr Klaus Sommer, Chairman of A. SPIRE (above, left). “[SPIRE] must focus on the ‘wow’ factor,” he said. “Finding good stories to promote in terms of impact and outcomes.” The integrated character of SPIRE allowed for a systematic approach to impact from raw materials to end user industries and R&D to the market.

He summarised the expected impacts of SPIRE: to integrate and demonstrate at least 40 innovative systems and technologies. This meant every SPIRE member needed to contribute. He also emphasised the need to make it easier for SMEs to get involved. “The advantage of being in SPIRE is that you can contribute to shaping the future,” concluded Dr Sommer. “Rather than just experience it.”

The instruments available from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for financing investments in KETs were outlined by Piermario Di Pietro with a specific focus on the InnovFin scheme. He also sought views on access-to-finance experiences, current or past, from established larger SMEs or small mid-caps firms (minimum € 5 million annual turnover).

The next session highlighted four projects that have made high impact: SYNFLOW (looking at innovative synthesis in continuous flow operations in particular to reduce waste in the production of pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals); COOPOL (looking at control of emulsion polymerisation; specifically intensifying this 100 year-old process); E4Water (looking at increasing eco-efficiency in industrial water management); and R4R, (involving analysis of innovation systems and research agendas in six regional clusters).

The workshop’s formal sessions concluded with a wide ranging panel discussion on maximising impact and successful innovation strategy.

Concluding remarks

The meeting rapporteur, Keith Simons (below), remarked that the FP7 projects presented had clearly developed new technology and methodologies. But he also noted that there was a need to communicate success in terms of hard economic figures. He knew that some excellent process technology success stories were out there that could be used to promote SPIRE. He thought that SPIRE as a concept had been a political masterstroke and that European process community has taken up the challenge. He believed that SPIRE had already had an impact, but needed to better recognise and exploit success.

Loredana Ghinea, chief executive of the A.SPIRE consortium, outlined the objectives for SPIRE in the coming 12 months. These included preparing for the Horizon 2020 work programmes in 2016-17. There will be a SPIRE brokerage event on 29-30 June and a SPIRE knowledge and dissemination platform was planned to be available by January 2016. This would help to forge connections between businesses and connect the work programmes with actual projects to enable a continuing discussion on future programme development.

A thematic workshop will be held later in 2015 bringing together the different SPIRE sectors to identify and tackle common challenges. The PPP also aims to follow up with all SPIRE projects and provide support for communication and dissemination activities.