SusChem Spain enabling the Circular Economy

Under the motto ‘Enabling circular economy’, the SusChem España national technology platform is organising the third edition of the Forum Sustainable Chemistry, innovative and competitive companies (3SCICC Forum Sustainable Chemistry), an international meeting aimed to debate and share information on new chemical products and processes that are more efficient, safe and environmentally friendly. This major event takes place in Tarragona, Spain on May 28 and 29. Tarragona is home to the largest chemical cluster in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe.

3SCICC Forum Sustainable Chemistry is sponsored by the Spanish Chemical Industry Federation (FEIQUE) and Expoquimia – the International Chemistry Event of Fira de Barcelona together with industrial sponsors Dow Chemicals and Emerson Process Management.

SusChem chairman Dr Klaus Sommer of Bayer and board member Gernot Klotz of Cefic will be presenting at the meeting. More details of the programme can be accessed here.

Circular
The Circular Economy is an economic model that finds ways to reuse products and components and restore their material and energy inputs. And sustainable chemistry innovation provides the fundamentals for making it possible.

A Circular Economy is an industrial system replaces the ‘end-of-life’ concept with restoration and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products and systems, facilitating component separation and making it feasible for manufacturers to collect, re-manufacture and re-distribute their products, thus generating a circular, cradle-to-cradle system.

Circular Economy has an increasing number of supporters as the essential model needed to face the economic, social and resource challenges of the 21st century. The European Commission has chosen to move to this restorative economic system as part of its strategy for Europe 2020, as it drives substantial and lasting improvements in resource productivity. Sustainable chemistry and engineering innovation provides the fundamental basis that can enable the circular economy (new materials, new production systems, sustainable water management etc.).

Raw materials
Critical Raw Materials reducing, reusing, recycling or substitution; state-of-art and new trends in biobased products and biorefineries; new trends and challenges in process optimization or different ways for by-product valorization, are among the topics to be discussed at the 3SCICC Forum Sustainable Chemistry. Cities and industry symbiosis and the solutions chemistry provides to make this possible will also be addressed.

The day before the conference, May 27, will see the opportunity to visit a variety of industrial facilities and research centres in the Tarragona area to see the exciting sustainable chemistry taking place there.

For more information and registration details visit the 3SCICC Forum Sustainable Chemistry website.

Grant-it: your portal to EU funding schemes

Launched on 17 December, the Grant-it portal was an early Christmas present from SusChem to the European sustainable chemistry community. Grant-it is your ‘one-stop’ shop for information and project building tools for Horizon 2020 and a range of other financing initiatives for collaborative research and innovation projects in Europe.

“During FP7, SusChem initiated and inspired sustainable chemistry projects with a total funding in excess of € 1 billion,” says Jacques Komornicki, SusChem coordinator and Innovation Manager at Cefic. “We have used this experience and expertise to shape the new Grant-it portal to enable SusChem stakeholders to successfully engage with the new opportunities presented by Horizon 2020.”

“The Grant-it website is your ‘one-stop’ access to funding opportunities from the European Commission and from selected national and regional governments in the field of sustainable chemistry,” agrees Pádraig Naughton, Innovation Manager at Cefic, who was heavily involved with the development of the site. “Using Grant-it you can search for funding opportunities, search for and identify project opportunities, propose project ideas, and search for potential project partners. The system also allows searches of past funded EU projects including FP5 to FP7 and other initiatives.”

Grant-it is a password protected free service offered by Cefic to its members and SusChem stakeholders to further boost industry participation in collaborative research and innovation activities.

“SusChem members can log-in with their SusChem username and password,” says Jacques. “While Cefic members can log-in with their click-in username and password.”

Cloud concept
Grant-it is based on the cloud-concept of sharing innovation knowledge, projects and funding between stakeholders in Europe and has been specially developed by Cefic for the SusChem community working with PNO Consultants and its software partner Innovation Engineering.

Grant-it includes a number of dedicated features, such as specially selected Horizon 2020 funding topics that are particularly relevant for the SusChem community.

Experts from CEFIC and PNO screen all relevant project calls that come in and provide support to consortia to further promote participation in EU programmes through partner search and project feedback on request.

“In addition, there are some unique search features that enable users to search on key words across European programmes,” says Ron Weerdmeester of PNO. “This not only covers Horizon 2020, but also covers programmes such as LIFE+, COSME etc, as well as national programmes in a number of LIFE+ countries.”

“Searches will return comprehensive summaries of the relevant grant programmes,” explains Ron. “Alternatively the system allows the user to directly do a free text search in the EU funding programme documents (i.e. the work programmes), quickly read the texts in these work programmes, and download the document of interest.”

“We will continue to improve the system,” says Ron. “And we invite the SusChem community to actively use the system for searching information and partners. The more it is used the better it will get!”

Since its launch the site has received some 17 new potential project ideas and Grant-it is growing in popularity as the web resource for EU funding information amongst SusChem stakeholders.

Prepare for Brokerage!
The SusChem Brokerage and Project Submission Workshop will take place on 31 January, but the deadline for registration is fast approaching: 20 January. Already more than one hundred participants have registered.

This important event takes place at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel, Place Rogier 3, Brussels and the draft agenda for the event is available here.

“The Brokerage event is the best occasion for SusChem stakeholders to present their Horizon 2020 project proposals,” says Pádraig. “And the ideal way to prepare for the event is to input your project proposal through the Grant-it website.”

Submitting a project idea is easy. Just log in with your SusChem username and password and click on ‘Propose a Project’ from the homepage. From there, you will be able to complete a submission form.

“Participants in the workshop will also have the opportunity to work with SusChem’s Innovation Managers and EU funding experts who can advise and guide them on how to further develop project consortia and proposals,” explains Jacques.

In addition the event will include a number of other unique features that will facilitate the development of projects and consortia perfectly suited to the Horizon 2020 calls:

• A poster exposition that will enable stakeholders to showcase their project proposals to potential partners. A few places are still available if you want to promote your project or competences to the SusChem community
• A ‘speed dating’ session to enable matching of potential project partners. 
• A Workshop on Writing a Proposal led by experts in the field of European-financed research and innovation projects.

More information
A link and further information on how to enrol in the ‘speed dating session will be provided to registered workshop participants. If you would like more information on any aspect of the 31 January Brokerage event, including poster display, please contact the SusChem secretariat.

Innovative Financing for Innovative Water SMEs

On 24 January 2014, the European Water Platform (WssTP) and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) are organising an information day on public funding opportunities for SMEs in the water sector. The session is also organised through the FINNOWATER Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership on Water (EIP Water).

This afternoon workshop entitled 'All you wanted to know about financing innovative SMEs but…' will start with a networking lunch at 12:30 and give a comprehensive overview of funding schemes available for SMEs in 2014. The event will be of interest to all stakeholders wishing to gain an understanding of the current funding opportunities. and takes place at the Netherlands Embassy in Brussels, Kortenberglaan 4-10, 1040 Brussels.

Funding opportunities addressed will include, amongst others EIB, Eco-ovation, Horizon 2020, the SME instrument COSME, Eurostars, Acqueau, crowdfunding, and business angels.

The event will be followed by a networking cocktail. The event may also be web-streamed for interested people that are not able to attend in person: this will be confirmed in the near future.

The EIP Water is strongly supporting this event and will include the outcomes in a practical guide for European water innovation funding opportunities which will be developed in the next few months.

For more information on the final programme for the workshop here and pre-registration can be found on the WssTP website.

Founded in 2001, ERRIN is a Brussels-based platform of regions dedicated to strengthening regional research and innovation capacities in Europe by exchanging information, sharing best practice, supporting project development, policy shaping and profile raising.

Water News Round-up

SusChem was involved in significant activity in the water sector towards the end of 2013. The first Annual Conference of the European Innovation Partnership on Water (EIP Water) took place in the European Parliament in Brussels at the end of November and a meeting of the High Level Steering Group (HLSG) convened in early December. SusChem has been deeply involved in discussions in this area: in particular in the task force to identify and remove barriers to innovation in the water sector.

The first annual conference of EIP Water was held on 21 November with over 500 registered participants. The event was opened by Marianne Wenning, Director Quality of Life, Water and Air at the European Commission DG Environment, who highlighted the importance of water, the current situation in the EU and the worldwide water market size estimated at around one trillion US$.

The role of the EIP Water is to overcome the water-related challenges that the EU faces, including technological aspects, water scarcity and droughts, and also (paradoxically) more frequent flooding – an issue that having a major impact on many European citizens.

In concluding remarks Commissioner Potocnik stated that: “The challenges [for the EIP Water] are numerous, maybe even daunting, but at the same time the opportunities are great and we cannot afford to miss them. Working together we will all be better prepared to face the challenges as well as to take advantage of the opportunities. The EIP Water is an excellent instrument to support this, bringing together all relevant professionals, initiatives and organizations around shared interests.”

Action groups
Earlier, Tomas Michel from the European Technology Platform on Water (WssTP) stated that EIPs accelerate research, development and market deployment of innovations that can tackle societal challenges and also boost the competitiveness of EU industries. He highlighted the importance of the water sector in Europe and its objective of becoming the global water technology leader by 2030.

The conference was an opportunity for the first nine Action Groups selected by the EIP to present their progress so far.

A second call for proposals for Action Groups is now underway. The EIP is looking for innovative concepts with commercial possibilities that offer solutions to the issues prioritized in the partnership’s Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). The deadline for submission of proposals is 31 January 2014.

Innovation barriers
Following the annual conference, the HLSG of the EIP Water met on December 6 in Brussels with European Commissioners Potocnik and Geoghegan-Quinn opening the meeting.

Commissioner Potocnik reiterated the EU’s commitment to continuity for the EIP Water and supported the work of the Task Force producing the report on the barriers to innovation in the sector. He encouraged the EIP to move forward with the analysis of priority barriers and bottlenecks and the suggested intervention measures.

SusChem board member Gernot Klotz (above) presented this report to the HLSG. As well as identifying the main barriers and bottlenecks to innovation in the water sector, the report proposes and prioritizes a range of interventions to remove or mitigate them.

Some of the identified barriers are technological and others have non-technological aspects. For the technological barriers linking the EIP activities to the various available funding mechanisms will support progress to achieving commercialization of new solutions.

For the non-technological barriers a different approach is required, therefore the engagement of the European institutions, Member States and Regional authorities, together with users (including industry, agriculture and citizens) is crucial to achieve results.

Members of the report task force will participate in working groups to develop the action plan for each intervention measure that is identified. The draft work plan for this should be completed in February 2014.

Right links
Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn commented on the crucial role of Horizon 2020 and thanked the EIP council and stakeholders for their support for the programme. She thought that the activities under the EIP Water were a good model. In the last calls for FP7 around € 50 million had been provided to support demonstration activities and market uptake in the water sector.

“This support will continue in Horizon 2020,” she stated. The EIP Water will provide priorities to consider under Horizon 2020 where water is one of the focus areas in Societal Challenge 5: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. The EIP’s SIP will be a key driver in identifying priorities here. The Commissioner also highlighted strategic international cooperation opportunities (especially in China and India) that could be expanded to global markets.

The need for continuity of the EIP Water after 2014 was a main conclusion of the HLSG meeting. This continuation should be framed by Horizon 2020 and clear links to Horizon 2020 and other funding mechanisms, such as Life+ and Structural and Cohesion funds, would be welcomed.

For more information about SusChem and water issues please contact Antonia Morales Perez at Cefic.

SusChem looks forward to 2014

Dr Klaus Sommer (pictured below), Chairman of the SusChem Board, talked to SusChem News reflecting on another year of achievement for SusChem during 2013 and looking forward to the challenges for 2104.

SusChem News: "What have been your main highlights of the year for SusChem?"

Klaus Sommer: “Just before the holiday season, on December 11, the Commission published the Horizon 2020 calls, these were close to the drafts on which SusChem has worked since this summer and which were the subject of our pre-brokerage event on October 23. This pre-brokerage event was very successful with a great attendance and a number of interesting proposals generated.”

“Our analysis of the Horizon 2020 work programmes has shown that many of the SusChem proposals are already being considered in the ‘Industrial Technologies’ or ‘Societal Challenges’ areas. This is the result of all the hard work accomplished on many fronts following the revised SusChem strategy and based on an active participation in European Innovation Partnerships (Water, Raw Materials, Smart-Cities and Communities), strong support to Public Private Partnerships initiatives (particularly the SPIRE cPPP and the Bio-Based Industries JTI), participation in Task Forces and the High level Group on Key Enabling Technologies and the revision of our Materials Technologies agenda.”

SusChem News: “What has been the effect of this huge effort on SusChem’s profile?”

Klaus Sommer: “All this hard work has allowed us to boost SusChem’s visibility and influence, have a true dialogue with the EU and with all our stakeholders and finally play our role as a recognised ‘ETP 2020’ Technology Platform.”

“I would like to thank all the SusChem stakeholders for the support they have provided to make this happen either by direct involvement or by providing the required expert resources from their organisations. I personally would like to thank our colleagues at Cefic who support SusChem, in particular Jacques Komornicki, for their great commitment and support. Without them, it all would not work out.”


SusChem News: “Where do you see the main focus for SusChem in 2014?”

Klaus Sommer: “Looking forward, it is very important that we confirm our engagement by participating actively in the first round of calls of Horizon 2020. For this SusChem is organizing a ‘true’ brokerage event on January 31 where project ideas can be confirmed and consortia started - first deadlines for project submission are as soon as mid-March 2014. And the new Grant-it on-line facility is also available for free to all SusChem registered members. We urge you to mobilize your respective organisations to actively participate.”

SusChem News: “How else can the SusChem community contribute to the platform’s activities in 2014?”

Klaus Sommer: “Another important effort, which is part of our core strategy, is to have the SusChem National Technology Platforms play a more active role in mobilising our stakeholders at the national level; some clear progress has been made in 2013 with the publication of our new rules, the creation of a twelfth National Platform in Switzerland and an active brokerage activity by some NTPs. In the next steps we will further involve the National Platforms in our discussions and actions. I encourage SusChem members to support the SusChem platforms in their respective countries.”

“A further short-term action for 2014 is to publish a new Strategic Research Agenda based on our revised strategy; strong support from the board and stakeholders will be needed to make it a high quality document and a cornerstone of our communication activities for the future.”

“Finally, as you will know, Horizon 2020 contains many more innovation activities than previous programmes and our chances of obtaining successful project awards will depend on the quality and preparation of the evaluators of project proposals. The Commission has recently issued an appeal for such experts – and this is an opportunity for experts in your organisations can become expert evaluators.”

More information
More information on the requirements for expert evaluators can be found here. And the registration site for experts is available here.

SusChem News wishes all members of the SusChem community an excellent holiday break and looks forward working with you during another successful year for SusChem in 2014.

See you at the SusChem brokerage event on 31 January!

SPIRE ready to inspire in 2014

2013 has been a great year for the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and energy Efficiency (SPIRE) public-private-partnership (PPP) initiative. Three year’s of hard work culminated in the official launch of the SPIRE PPP on 17 December. To mark the event a new video has been produced (see below) and, to get ready for 2014, the SPIRE website has been refreshed.



In an end of year message to the SPIRE community Dr Klaus Sommer, the President of A.SPIRE aisbl, thanked SPIRE members and supporters for their “full-hearted support over these years and for believing in our initiative and what it can achieve not only for our industries but also for the entire European economy.”

Dr Sommer continued by praising the A.SPIRE office personnel, in particular A.SPIRE executive director Loredana Ghinea, for their “tireless efforts and their great leadership in pulling our proposal unscathed through the process. Great job!”

Great expectations
The first calls for SPIRE projects in Horizon 2020 were published on December 11. But already there had been an impressive first round of expressions of interest, especially through the first SPIRE brokerage event in October, as well at the PPP infodays on 16 December. “A lot of expectations have been raised;” said Dr. Sommer. “It is now in our hands to match them and make this PPP happen.”

He urged the SPIRE community to continue and build engagement towards designing good project proposals that have highest chances to get funded. Dr Sommer highlighted some points that people should take advantage of when designing proposals and consortia:

• the guiding objectives and principles of the SPIRE roadmap
• the diversity of the SPIRE community and 
• the facilitator role of the A.SPIRE office

He also highlighted the criteria that have made the SPIRE initiative unique:

• cross-sectorial aspects, synergies and opportunities 
• the sustainable nature of the projects demonstrated with appropriate methodologies and tools 
• impact across sectors and throughout the value chain, including through new business models 
• the potential to enhance skills for innovation in the process industry through improved exploitation of innovation output from projects

These have been to have translated into the spirit of the SPIRE calls.

Expert evaluation
In addition Dr Sommer called on members of SPIRE to get involved with the expert evaluation of Horizon 2020 projects. “Given that we are exploring new territories with a more innovation-focused PPP than before,” he said “Our chances towards successful projects awards depend on the quality and preparation of the evaluators.”

Both SPIRE and SusChem are encouraging companies to take the opportunity to become expert evaluators. More information on the requirements for expert evaluators can be found here, and the registration page for Horizon 2020 experts is here.

Finally on behalf of SPIRE’s Board of Directors, the A.SPIRE office he wished all SPIRE members and supporters: “A very happy holidays, good rest and a happy and healthy New Year 2014 that will be hopefully SPIRE-busy and certainly inSPIREing.”

SusChem Horizon 2020 Brokerage Workshop 2014

SusChem is already off the starting blocks to help make the most of Horizon 2020 for its stakeholders and the sustainable chemistry community in Europe. With the first calls for Horizon 2020 published last week and the Cefic-SusChem Grant-It website launched earlier this week, today (19 December) the draft agenda for the SusChem Brokerage and Project Submission Workshop has been published.

The SusChem Brokerage and Project Submission Workshop will take place on 31 January and follows up on the SusChem Pre-Brokerage workshop in October.

The event will again take place at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel, Place Rogier 3 in Brussels. Registration for the event is now open and can be accessed here. The workshop itself is free to attend and if you register now you can book rooms at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel at discounted rates. The offer of discounted rooms is valid until 30 December 2013. To book a room at a special rate, please click here.

The event will kick off with an overview of Horizon 2020 calls by Soren Bowadt of the European Commission. This will be followed by presentations from project consortia looking for partners with specific skills or experience. After coffee there is the opportunity for new project ideas to be presented.

Just before lunch a session on tips for boosting the success of projects submitted to Horizon 2020 is foreseen and in the afternoon there will be "speed dating sessions" and consortia meetings. An informal project poster session and networking is also planned for the afternoon.

At this event, you will be able to finalise your projects for upcoming and future calls with the support of SusChem’s Innovation Managers and EU funding experts. They will help you add the finishing touches to your proposals, complete your consortia with appropriate partners, and advise you on how to have the best chance to get your projects accepted.

Proposals via Grant-it
The workshop will be a great occasion to present your project proposals. The best way to prepare for the event is to use the new interactive Cefic-SusChem portal GRANT-IT. The portal should also be your gateway to information on all SusChem-relevant calls under Horizon 2020 and other EU and national funding schemes such as LIFE+ and COSME.

To submit your proposal you will need to log-in to the site using your SusChem username and password. Then click on "Propose a project” from the homepage. From there, you will be able to complete the submission form.

We look forward to seeing you there! For more information, please contact the SusChem secretariat.