Sustainable Chemistry for Life - The Role of Chemistry in the European Bioeconomy

The Thirteenth Congress of the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) brings together decision-makers, industry representatives, researchers and stakeholders to exchange experiences on policies and good practices on sustainability, chemistry and the bioeconomy on 8 and 9 October in Novara and Milan, Italy. The discussions will be enriched by a ‘Market of Ideas’ introducing regional activities, innovative products and projects from chemical regions across Europe. You are invited to join the event, present your activities and be inspired by others!

The ECRN event will be organised in two parts. The first day will be held in Novara and the second day in Milan. The first day will focus on sustainable innovations and technological advancements in the field of biotechnology and bioeconomy and the second day will address policies and future perspectives.

Discussions will be linked to the broad themes of Expo Milan 2015, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” and enriched by a “market of ideas” introducing regional experiences, best practices and projects that illustrate the variety of activities taking place across Europe's chemical regions.

The Market of Ideas
The afternoon of the first Congress day (8 October) is dedicated to presenting and exhibiting examples of regional projects and innovative chemical companies and clusters. Representatives from projects and organisations will have a chance share their stories with other participants. The Market of Ideas is an open, interactive session for networking and finding new partners and contacts. It provides regional and industrial actors, SMEs, (inter)regional projects, research institutes, clusters and other organizations with an opportunity to showcase their initiatives and success stories and build bridges across the value chain.

Each presenter will have their own space for networking and meeting other interested participants. Beyond brokerage or matchmaking, participants can learn from each others’ experiences and find new contacts. In addition to networking between individuals, a moderator will draw attention to interesting initiatives in the market with on-the-spot mini-interviews.

Participants should prepare a brief abstract (~ 250 words) on their project, product or organisation for the congress materials and organize any supporting materials you might need for your “market stall” – such as roll-up(s), flyers, brochures, reports, laptop presentations etc. - to promote their activities.

Reasons to participate in the ECRN Congress Market of Ideas include:

• Benefiting from a platform for networking opportunities and meeting valuable new contacts (decision-makers and stakeholders from authorities, academia and industry)
• Gaining visibility by having your project or organization presented in the congress materials and on the event website
• Using the opportunity to participate in the entire Congress programme (in Novara and Milan), the Congress reception, and visit the major EXPO 2015 in Milan.
• Participating in and presenting your activities is free – all you need to do is register!

Participating and presenting in the Market of Ideas is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Registration is being handled by the ECRN Secretariat in Brussels and the office can also provide additional information to interested potential participants. The secretariat can be contacted via email.

More details on the Conference can be found on the ECRN website and the Congress programme can be downloaded here.

SusChem and the bioeconomy
The opening ECRN session will highlight the ways in which chemistry and chemical innovations can enhance and contribute to the bioeconomy and sustainability. Chemistry is a key source for sustainable solutions and future challenges on issues like sustainable feeding or biobased solutions for a circular economy are very important for the chemical industry.

The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) has a dedicated chapter on ‘A Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy’ and SusChem is an essential link between the chemical industry, industrial biotechnology and stakeholders in the bioeconomy.

The platform is actively involved in two large and relevant PPPs between the European Commission and industry launched in 2014:

• The Joint Technology Initiative ‘Biobased Industries’ (BBI) that brings together research and industry partners along the whole value chain of biobased products and focuses on innovation for products from biobased feedstock.
• The PPP ‘Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency’ (SPIRE) that provides a solid basis for academia, SMEs, and multinational companies to collaborate on cross-sectorial initiatives in these areas.

SusChem contributes to the alignment of both initiatives. The interface between BBI and SPIRE is the provision and use of biobased platform chemicals. In addition, both PPPs may support projects using biotechnological conversion processes and specific improvements of biotechnology processes may be eligible for funding through either PPP. SusChem will enable the coherence of ongoing and future funding initiatives and the deployment of flagship projects that demonstrate technological leadership and that Europe is a globally competitive location to invest in the bioeconomy.

For more information on SusChem's Bioeconomy activities, contact Cefic Innovation Manager for the Bioeconomy Flavio Benedito.

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation: A Catalyst for European Industrial Renaissance?

Essen will be the “place to be” at the end of September for those working on CO2 recycling and #useCO2 projects in Europe. The city will be the venue for the Fourth Conference on Carbon Dioxide as Feedstock for Fuels, Chemistry and Polymers on 29 and 30 September organised by the Nova Institute. And before the conference the SCOT (Smart CO2 Transformation) FP7 project will hold its mid-term conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) on 28 September. All the events take place at the same location: Haus der Technik in Essen, Germany.

On 28 September the SCOT team will present its Vision for Carbon Dioxide Utilisation and a Strategic European Research Agenda for Europe. The floor will then be open for the views of high level speakers from politics and industry. Plenty of discussion is expected and you are welcome to take part!

SCOT wants to hear the voices of a wide range of participants. Break-out sessions in smaller groups will also provide opportunities for intense knowledge exchange and discussions on the various aspects of #useCO2 policy and technical issues.

Interactive sessions
This one-day conference will be THE place to hear about the latest developments on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation and help shape the future of CDU/ #useCO2 in Europe. Input from the conference will directly feed into SCOT advisory reports to the European Commission. These reports will cover both the future role of CDU in Europe and future support mechanisms for CDU.

The SCOT conference aims to actively engage academics, politicians and industry to discuss the Vision and business opportunities of CDU up to 2030. The break-out sessions will be in small groups of (20-25 people) and will involve a single presentation and a moderator to guide the discussion. The outcomes can help the SCOT team to further narrow down the project’s Vision, Research Objectives and Action Plan.

The sessions are on:

• The Potential of Carbon Dioxide Utilization for Mineralization and Waste
• Availability of low-cost low-carbon electricity for CDU
• Making chemical building blocks using CO2
• Working towards better LCA for CDU and System boundary definitions of CDU
• Power to X: Synthetic fuels from CO2? 
• Framing Carbon Dioxide Utilisation
• Bridging the Gap: (Policy) options to get from lab to market

The SCOT project team are certain that there are already many ideas for CDU that only require a good platform and funding to make them happen. At the end of the conference, SCOT is organising a matchmaking event to allow people to find projects and partners to respond successfully to the European research calls of 2016 on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation. Information will be available on next year’s Horizon 2020 calls including those under the SPIRE PPP initiative and the forthcoming Horizon Prize on CO2 utilisation. Come along to pitch your project ideas and expertise!

Participation in the SCOT conference (including the matchmaking event) costs €50 and you can register here. Students have the opportunity of getting a free ticket on a first-come-first-serve basis.
For more information, please contact the project secretariat. You can download the programme here.

CO2 as Feedstock
The SCOT conference takes place back to back with the Fourth Conference on Carbon Dioxide as Feedstock that is hosted by the Nova-Institute on 29 and 30 September at the Haus der Technik in Essen.

Over the last few years, the rise of this topic has developed rapidly from several research projects and industrial applications to become more and more dynamic, especially in the fields of solar fuels (power-to-fuel, power-to-gas) and also in CO2-based chemicals and polymers. At this conference leading players will showcase some enhanced and also new applications using carbon dioxide as feedstock. Representatives from political bodies and research institutes will be on hand at the event to present and discuss the latest national and regional policies, strategies and visions.

You can access the full programme for the event here and registration is here.

Horizon 2020 Brokerage Diary Dates for October

Preparations for the Horizon 2020 2016 calls move into top gear in the Autumn and SusChem and SPIRE will be here to help with both organisations running major Brokerage events in October. 

SusChem Brokerage Event

The SusChem Brokerage event will take place on Tuesday 6 October 2015 from 9:00 at the Sheraton Rogier Hotel in Brussels.

The event will help participants to prepare their proposals for the next set of Horizon 2020 calls. The 2015 SusChem Brokerage Event follows the success of previous SusChem brokerage events and is the perfect occasion to interact with strategic partners, get key insights on the content of a wide range of calls and take your project proposals to a competitive new level!

More details will be announced after the summer break, but you can already register for the event, which is free, here.

PPP Info day and SPIRE Brokerage Event

This year's Information Day on contractual PPPs covering the Sustainable Process Industry, Factories of the Future, Energy-efficient Buildings, and Green Vehicles Initiative PPPs will take place on 16 October 2015 in Brussels. The event, organised by the European Commission, will cover an overview of ongoing activities, presentation of the 2016 and 2017 calls and brokerage and networking sessions. The venue will be in Brussels within the European Commission’s Charlemagne and Centre Albert Borschette buildings.

The registration form for the PPPs Infoday on October 16 is available here. Please note that participants need to register and places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

A specific session dedicated to the SPIRE PPP will take place on the afternoon of 16 October and this will be followed by a brokerage and networking event, supported by the SPIRE Association, during which interested stakeholders will have the opportunity to present their initial project ideas for the 2016-17 SPIRE calls and meet potential partners.

If you are interested in presenting a project idea at the SPIRE brokerage event on 16 October, please send an email to the SPIRE secretariat by October 7 indicating your name, the name of your company, the title of your project and the reference of the call topic to be addressed.

Shape the future of EU R&I policy in Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

On 23 and 24 September the second RECREATE Strategic Workshop will be held at the Diamant Conference and Business Centre in Brussels. The theme of the workshop will be “Defining tomorrow’s research and innovation funding priorities” and participants will help outline policy needs with other key stakeholders to support the development of the EU’s research funding programme Horizon 2020 in the area of Climate, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. 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. RECREATE aims to provide evidence and intelligence concerning the future direction for research in Horizon 2020 in the areas of 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.

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.

EFIB 2015: Is the Chemical Industry catching up with Biobased?

The European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy (EFIB) is the market leading annual event in Europe for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy. And the 2015 event on 27-29 October promises to be better than ever. The eighth EFIB takes place at The Square in Brussels and will welcome some 90 industry experts and over 700 delegates from the leading sectors in biobased value chains and address the future of the bioeconomy in Europe. SusChem and Cefic are organising a dedicated session on biobased chemical value chains as part of EFIB2015.

Industrial Biotechnology is currently worth €23 billion – this represents just 6% of sales in the overall worldwide chemicals market. However, the sector is significantly out-performing the overall chemicals market at an impressive 20% annual growth rate. and it has the potential to become the dominant technology of tomorrow’s chemicals industry representing a huge future opportunity.

Delivering on this opportunity will require significant investment, innovation and value chain development and, most importantly, new collaborations across the sector. In addition the chemical industry is faced with important challenges posed by high energy prices, the impact of the shale gas boom on the development of biobased chemicals markets and the ongoing need for predictable, coherent and supportive policy in the EU.

A biobased Chemical Industry?
In order to understand and overcome these challenges and prosper in the industrial biotechnology market, industry experts throughout the vibrant and innovative biobased community are coming together to discuss the key issues at EFIB2015.

The Cefic session at EFIB2015 takes place on the morning of 29 October and will be chaired and introduced by Pierre Barthélemy, Executive Director Research and Innovation at Cefic. The view of the European Commission DG GROW will be given by Reinhard Buescher, Head of Unit for Chemicals Industry.

Insights from industry will be presented by François Monnet from Solvay,  Dr. Henrike Gebhardt of Evonik Industries AG, Dr. Stefan Lundmark of Perstorp AB, and Dr Marcel Wubbolts from DSM. The presentations will be followed by a group discussion.

SusChem and the bioeconomy
The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) has a dedicated chapter on ‘A Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy’ and SusChem is an essential link between the chemical industry, industrial biotechnology and stakeholders in the bioeconomy.

The platform is actively involved in two large and relevant PPPs between the European Commission and industry launched in 2014:

• The Joint Technology Initiative ‘Biobased Industries’ (BBI) that brings together research and industry partners along the whole value chain of biobased products and focuses on innovation for products from biobased feedstock.
• The PPP ‘Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency’ (SPIRE) that provides a solid basis for academia, SMEs, and multinational companies to collaborate on cross-sectorial initiatives in these areas.

SusChem contributes to the alignment of both initiatives. The interface between BBI and SPIRE is the provision and use of biobased platform chemicals. In addition, both PPPs may support projects using biotechnological conversion processes and specific improvements of biotechnology processes may be eligible for funding through either PPP. SusChem will enable the coherence of ongoing and future funding initiatives and the deployment of flagship projects that demonstrate technological leadership and that Europe is a globally competitive location to invest in the bioeconomy.

More information on EFIB
Delegates to EFIB2015 will receive a comprehensive update on the status and outlook for the biobased industries in Europe and globally. EFIB is proud to foster engagement between policy makers, a broad range of stakeholders connected with the existing biobased value chain and seeks to reach out to, and include, new interlocutors. EFIB2015 is the only meeting to combine high-level discussions on business and policymaking.

If you book by 8 August you can save € 300 on your registration.

The conference kicks off with a set of pre-conference Workshops on 27 October with the full conference on 28 October and 29 October. You can request a full conference brochure here.

Nominate your European CTO 2015!

The nomination process for the European Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Year 2015 award is now open. And you have until 18 September to make your suggestions. Who is the most inspiring, innovative and foresighted technology leader you know in Europe?

The CTO of the Year award is given to an outstanding technology leader of an innovative European company from any industry sector: a person who is an inspiring leader, a foresighted technology manager, and who contributes to the development and sustainability of his/her industry as well as to society at large.

The award aims to promote the importance of technology and innovation for growth and competitiveness in Europe, and to find the people who can act as role models and promote the importance of technology leaders in companies of different sectors and locations.

EC recognised
The CTO of the Year event has been recognised by the European Commission. Mr. Robert-Jan Smits, General Director, DG Research and Innovation endorsed the award saying: “Europe needs to celebrate those who advance technology and innovate. Initiatives like the ‘CTO of the Year award’ are very welcome as they lead to role models and further strengthen innovation in Europe.”

The winner will be selected by a high level jury from the suggestions collected by the open call. Professor Yrjö Neuvo, former CTO of Nokia and a jury member, explains: “The European CTO of the Year Award was launched in 2014 and immediately created a lot of interest. It is given to a CTO who is both an inspiring leader and a competent technology developer. The winners are awarded in two categories in order to highlight that both SMEs and large corporations are needed to support technology-based growth in Europe. We look forward to broad participation and believe that this contest has a significant role in strengthening cross-sectorial learning and cooperation across European industries”.

In 2014, the award was given to Prof. Richard Parker of Rolls-Royce in the large companies’ category based on his personal leadership, long career in technology innovation and significant efforts in partnering with the outside world. In the SME category Dr. Gert-Jan Gruter of Avantium was the winner due to his and the company’s impressive work, focus on innovation and strong partnerships combined with the company’s future potential – and its sustainable chemistry in particular its work on advanced catalytic research.

Nominate
How can you nominate your candidate in this contest organised by Spinverse and EIRMA, the European Industrial Research Management Association? Your nominee can be any European technology leader driving technology-based sustainable growth not only in his or her company, but also in Europe and globally. Find more information and submit your nomination by 18 September here.

For more information contact Terhi Marttila at Spinverse.

Connecting with Chemistry

The latest issue of Horizon 2020 Projects: Portal features an interview with SusChem coordinator Dr. Jacques Komornicki. In the article (see below) Jacques talks about the SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA).

The article outlines the societal challenges that the SusChem SIRA addresses. Jacques also discusses the overall impact of Horizon 2020 and how SusChem is contributing to its evolution and helping to encourage the greater participation of industry in the research and innovation programme.

You can access the article directly here.

Horizon2020projects
Horizon2020projects.com provides up-to-the-minute information on the Horizon2020: European Commission’s latest and largest ever research and innovation framework programme.

The Horizon2020projects.com web portal is dedicated to providing information for the many hundreds of thousands of interested parties. No area of Horizon 2020 is left unexplored and feature news articles and web interviews are used to cover every aspect of the framework programme, with contributors from every sector involved.

For more information contact the editorial staff.