BIO-TIC Video

BIO-TIC, the SusChem supported FP7 project examining how to overcome barriers to the optimum exploitation of industrial biotechnology to address major global challenges such as climate change and the need to develop a more sustainable and resource-efficient economy, has just released a new public video. The video can be viewed below - please share the link with your colleagues.

The video features project coordinator Jasmiina Laurmaa of EuropaBio explaining the aims of BIO-TIC and the major hurdles that it aims to address. These hurdles include technological bottlenecks, market entry and institutional barriers as well as funding challenges. An integrated approach is needed to overcome these hurdles, with a clear perception of their nature and the way they interrelate.

BIO-TIC was launched in September 2012 and is a three-year project offering “a solutions approach” centered on a solid roadmapping exercise that will involve a broad stakeholder base from industry, knowledge organisations, governments and civil society. Three intermediary roadmaps will focus on market assessments and projections, research and innovation as well as non-technological barriers such as feedstock.

A series of stakeholder workshops will take place at national and European level to reach a comprehensive view on solutions BIO-TIC can offer to accelerate market uptake of industrial biotechnology.

The final aim of the project will be to draw up a blueprint document with a comprehensive set of policy recommendations for overcoming the identified innovation hurdles within a selection of European business and societal opportunities.

In addition, the project will develop and market test a methodology to measure the growth of biomass use and industrial biotechnology in the market as metric to evaluate the impact of the project.

Get involved with BIO-TIC
BIO-TIC aims to be a truly dynamic open innovation network and will engage with all relevant value-chain partners, promoting and facilitating active discussion groups across all industrial biotechnology sectors.

You can find out more about the project at the BIO-TIC website which also includes a project partnering platform. In addition there is an active BIO-TIC Linked In group with over 60 members that is open to anyone interested in the transformative potential of industrial biotechnology.

The BIO-TIC project is funded via the European Commission’s FP7 research programme and its full project title is ‘The Industrial Biotech Research and Innovation Platforms Centre – towards Technological Innovation and solid foundations for a growing industrial biotech sector in Europe’. The project is coordinated by EuropaBio.

2013 SusChem Stakeholder Event

The dates for the 2013 SusChem Stakeholder event have just been announced. The event entitled ‘The root of EU Growth and Jobs: Innovative Materials and Processes’ will take place on 14 – 15 May 2013 in Brussels. The meeting will primarily address the benefits of partnerships to boost EU growth and improve its competitiveness and how SusChem will play a part in this. Join us at our eleventh stakeholder event and get the latest insights!

SusChem has evolved into a Europe-wide platform that captures the full benefit of Europe’s strengths in research and provides a well-connected network for innovation in the chemical and biotechnology value chain. As a result, its strategy has evolved too.

The new SusChem 2020 strategy retains research, innovation and education actions at the heart of our activities. These three activities are important to engage with policy makers and partner organizations to shape research and innovation policies and deliver truly sustainable innovation that creates value in and for European society.

To achieve its ambitious objectives, the platform’s partnership activities will also need to expand strategically. This means a substantial increase in multidisciplinary and cross-sector working along value chains. The new strategy is also designed to strengthen cooperation between SusChem Europe and our network of National Technology Platforms.

With this new strategy and its broad and growing stakeholder base, SusChem aims to ensure that research is effectively turned into innovative products and services that will shape Europe’s future.

Where and when?
Join us at the SusChem Stakeholder Event next year in Brussels to see examples of the new strategy in action!

The event will take place at the Hotel Sofitel Europe on Place Jourdan in the heart of the European Quarter in Brussels.

More information on speakers and the programme will be available in the New Year. In the meantime reserve the dates in your diary!

For more information on SusChem activities, please contact the SusChem secretariat.

Leading Industrial Biotech in the UK

With the pace of development of the global bioeconomy growing almost daily, a two day event in the UK on 22-23 January 2013 will illustrate the progress made in exploiting industrial biotechnology (IB). The ‘Leading IB: A UK Showcase’ is hosted by the UK’s Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum (IBLF) and will also be the venue for a BIOCHEM Accelerator event.

The Leading IB event will showcase recent examples of commercial success in the bio-based sector and key speakers will describe UK industrial biotech success stories including exemplar projects, processes and products and give an overview on the national strategy for industrial biotech to 2015 and beyond. There will also be panel discussions to provide delegates with the opportunity to hear from senior industrialists and other stakeholders.

The event, which takes place at Church House in Westminster, central London, will be opened by Michael Fallon UK Government Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. The showcase is expected to attract business leaders, technology providers, investors, leading academics and policy makers from the UK and across Europe.

The event aims to:

• Showcase UK success in Industrial Biotechnology and Bio-based Products
• Inspire new manufacturers to explore the potential of IB
• Build new collaborations within the UK and beyond
• Demonstrate the impact of current government support and commitment for the future
• Set out the IBLF strategy to 2015 and beyond

An exhibition will provide further information on funding, partnering, skills, facilities and capabilities for the bioeconomy. For more information on the UK showcase event visit the dedicated website or you can register direct here.

BIOCHEM accelerator
In parallel to the Showcase event the SusChem supported EU INNOVA project BIOCHEM will be running an Accelerator Forum. Previous fora have been successfully run in Bilbao, Milan and Frankfurt (at ACHEMA).

If you are a researcher, entrepreneur or SME keen to become part of the growing bioeconomy by changing to biobased products and processes, then this event is for you. The outline programme for the Forum can be found here.

To find out more on BIOCHEM take a look at the BIOCHEM video (below) or consult the BIOCHEM website. For specific information on the BIOCHEM Accelerator Forum in London contact Kate Nickson at the UK Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network (CIKTN).

Consultation supports SPIRE Roadmap

The revised roadmap for the proposed Public Private Partnership (PPP) for Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) has been recently published on the SPIRE website. This document was the result of over 450 responses to the consultation on the draft roadmap and showed highly positive support for the initiative from a wide range of industry sectors, value chains and stakeholder communities.

The initial roadmap was first presented at the European Commission Info Days on 9 – 10 July and was widely disseminated with the official launch of the consultation on 27 July. The consultation period was open until 1st October 2012.

This public consultation allowed opportunities for submission of comments, requests for clarification and to suggest additional ideas not only from members of the process industry community but also from other bodies and actors across the European Research Area (ERA).

Positive feedback, high acceptance
More than 450 responses were received to the online questionnaire part of the consultation and showed a wide coverage along many different value chains (upstream industry included) as well as across the SPIRE core sectors and other organizations including SMEs, large industry, research and technology organizations, academia and NGOs.

Analysis of the responses from all the different sectors and communities showed high levels of acceptance of the SPIRE roadmap with particularly high scores for the contribution that SPIRE’s vision can make to tackling the challenges listed in the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy and its ability to address sustainability issues in the process industries. The responses also indicated that SPIRE will add value to sustainable innovation across the various sectors.

“Overall the consultation process showed an overarching positive feedback across many actors in the ERA,” commented A.SPIRE aisbl Executive Director Loredana Ghinea. A.SPIRE is the legal entity established to manage and implement the SPIRE PPP.

“The highly positive acceptance levels for the contents and structure of the SPIRE roadmap shown in the consultation demonstrates that it reflects the main challenges and interests of the process industry stakeholders,” she added.

More information
The revised post-consultation Roadmap is available to download now on the SPIRE website and will also be published on the European Commission PPP website. A period of validation will now take place until 15 December before formal submission to the European Commission.

For more information on the SPIRE initiative and how you can get involved please visit the SPIRE website or email the SPIRE secretariat.

A.SPIRE GA hears SPIRE Progress

The first full General Assembly of A.SPIRE aisbl, the legal entity established to manage and implement the proposed Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) Public-Private-Partnership (PPP), was held on Tuesday 20 November at the Sheraton Airport Hotel in Brussels.

Member companies and research and technology organisations (RTOs) heard about the development of the organisation, progress on the SPIRE initiative, including work on the SPIRE Roadmap document, and future plans.

SPIRE roadmap
Following the recent public consultation the new version of the SPIRE Roadmap has been published on the SPIRE website. A period of validation will now take place until 15 December and will be the last chance for input to the document before formal submission to the European Commission. The new post-consultation Roadmap is available now on the SPIRE website and will also be published on the European Commission PPP website.

SPIRE needs you!
A.SPIRE President, Klaus Sommer, and Executive Director, Loredana Ghinea, emphasised the tight schedule for developing the SPIRE PPP and making sure it made the desired impact with decision-makers. The six working groups established to develop the roadmap would continue to work on detailed proposals and support the work of the A.SPIRE board and the Ad-hoc Industry Advisory Group (AIAG).

“It is imperative that all of SPIRE’s members and supporters are fully engaged in developing the PPP and promoting it whenever the opportunity arises at European, national and regional level,” said Klaus Sommer.

Membership of A.SPIRE now stands at 59 member companies, associations or institutions from eight process sectors and 14 countries. New members of his important European initiative are always welcome.

For more information on the SPIRE initiative and how you can get involved please visit the SPIRE website or email the SPIRE secretariat.

SusChem finalises strategy for Horizon 2020

SusChem has just published its enhanced strategy document: ‘Meeting the Challenges of Europe 2020’. The new refined strategy for the European Technology Platform (ETP) is squarely aimed at enabling SusChem to be fully equipped to meet the challenges that are implicit in the Europe 2020 strategy for growth. It sets a consistent basis for SusChem’s engagement with the forthcoming European Commission Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation.

The enhanced strategy is the result of a consultative process launched at SusChem’s 10th Stakeholder Conference in April and was led by former SusChem Chairman Prof Rodney Townsend (below).

SusChem Chairman Dr. Klaus Sommer comments: “This document will set SusChem strategy for the next few years and will guide our efforts to make a very significant contribution to achieving smart, sustainable growth in Europe. SusChem will be fully engaged in Horizon 2020, and other elements of the Europe 2020 agenda, to ensure that chemistry and biotechnology continue to drive the innovative, truly sustainable technology solutions that are needed to address the challenges facing society today.”

“I thank Rodney for his hard work and dedication in leading the consultation process and preparing the strategy,” continues Dr. Sommer. “The final document also fits very well in terms of both content and in timing with the recent position paper from the European Commission of the future of ETPs.”

The consultation process on the document was exhaustive. “Over the past six months the strategy has evolved as the result of a wide range of inputs from stakeholders,” says Prof. Townsend. “Like so many of SusChem’s activities this has been a highly collaborative effort and the result is a strategy which provides a clear path forward for the platform.”

Key elements
The key elements of the SusChem 2020 strategy can be summarized in two paragraphs:

The new SusChem strategy retains research, innovation and education actions at the heart of its activities. There is a new commitment to engage with policy makers and partner organisations to shape research and innovation policies and deliver truly sustainable innovation that creates value in and for European society.

To achieve its objectives the platform’s partnership activities will be expanded strategically, by increasing substantially multidisciplinary and cross-sector working along value chains. In addition, cooperation between SusChem Europe and its National Technology Platforms will be strengthened.

To download the new Strategy document, please visit the SusChem website. For more information on the new SusChem strategy, please contact the secretariat.

SusChem: Skills for the Bioeconomy

SusChem presented its Educate to Innovate ideas to the European Commission’s conference "New Skills for a European Bioeconomy" on 20-21 November in Brussels. Gernot Klotz from Cefic outlined SusChem's new strategic approach and the role of education in the platform’s activities.

SusChem is a new form of Technology Platform which fully integrates researchers, academia, industries and skills argued Gernot Klotz. This integrated approach is needed to build a distinct European distinct innovation system that can compete in a global market.

Innovation requires not only technical and scientific skills, but also business and personal skills. Cefic and SusChem initiated studies to determine the critical skills (business, personal, scientific and technical) that scientists and engineers will need to boost innovation in the European chemical industry – a major driver of the future bioeconomy.

The study found a need for a broader scientific skill set that goes beyond traditional single discipline teaching: a multidisciplinary and broad skill set base, also business and personal skills for efficient interdisciplinary work and easy adaptation to new tasks, and strategic awareness of business and innovation management issues.

Educate to Innovate
But how can this be achieved in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)? In many ways it is a matter of a different approach to teaching rather than teaching something different (in terms of content) suggested Gernot.

Business and personal skills can often be addressed through different teaching methodologies rather than additional courses or new curricula, and opportunities for context- and problem-based learning should be considered when developing new courses. Promoting multidisciplinary working is also important.

This needs a sound industry-academia collaboration to help fill the skills gap. Collaboration between industry and academia on research topics is already well developed. The SusChem Educate to Innovate programme seeks to exploit innovation outputs from SusChem’s Research and Innovation projects to enhance the innovation skills of future generations of scientists and engineers through effective engagement of industry and HEIs.

The programme is developing a framework that will capture examples of innovation and innovative approaches emerging from the SusChem projects and identify and engage with key stakeholders in European industry and academia.

The programme can facilitate constructive dialogue and exchange of ideas on the best ways to introduce key innovation themes into academic teaching. It will also design educational resources that can be used at undergraduate and masters level to develop the skills needed to enhance innovation in the chemical and industrial biotechnology sectors.

Bioeconomy
The recently adopted European Commission Communication "Innovating for Sustainable Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe" aims to shift the European economy towards greater and more sustainable use of renewable resources, building on research, innovation and investment. Anticipating and upgrading knowledge and skills and better matching of skills and jobs are key to the success of the bioeconomy strategy in delivering growth and new employment opportunities in Europe.

The "New skills for a European Bioeconomy" conference organised by DG Research and Innovation brought together bioeconomy and education and training stakeholders to discuss skills development needs and employment opportunities rising from the transition to a bioeconomy.

For information on Educate to Innovate see the Education section of the SusChem website or contact Sophie Wilmet at Cefic.