Update: SusChem Brokerage event on 6 October

Get ready for the Horizon 2020 2016 calls at the 2015 SusChem Brokerage on 6 October. The event will be your best opportunity to get fully briefed on the forthcoming calls, to present your own project proposal ideas and find the strategic partners you need for a successful consortium bid!

The SusChem Brokerage event will take place on Tuesday 6 October 2015 from 9:00 at the Sheraton Rogier Hotel in Place Rogier, Brussels. Registration for this free event is now open - you can register now via this link.

And if you need accommodation for the Brokerage event you can also book a room at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel at a special discount rate until 14 September. To reserve your room at the special rate, please click here.

The SusChem Brokerage 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 call content and take your project proposals to a competitive new level!

Submit your project proposal
Project ideas should be submitted through SusChem's interactive portal GRANT-IT. To submit your ideas 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 the simple submission form.

The deadline for submitting project ideas is close of business on 30 September.

In addition the event will feature the ever popular SusChem speed dating session. Further information on how to enroll in this session will be provided to registered participants.

Briefing
The morning of the brokerage will feature a briefing on 'Horizon 2020 strategic objectives and highlights for Work Programmes 2016-2017' from Clara de La Torre, Director Key Enabling Technologies at DG Research and Innovation followed by more detailed views on the forthcoming 2016-2017 calls in three research areas:

• Advanced Materials Research
• Process and Biotechnologies
• Raw Materials in Societal Challenge 5

SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki will also outline SusChem's priorities in the 2016-2017 programme in relation to the SusChem SIRA.

An updated draft agenda is available here.

Find your missing consortia partner at the SusChem Brokerage event! See you there!

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.

Register for October Horizon 2020 Brokerage Events

Preparations for the Horizon 2020 2016 calls are now moving into top gear with both SusChem and SPIRE organising Project 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 Place Rogier, Brussels. And registration for this free event is now open – you can register now via this link.

And if you need accommodation for the Brokerage event you can also book a room at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel at a special discount rate until 14 September. To reserve your room at the special rate, please click here.

The SusChem Brokerage 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 call content and take your project proposals to a competitive new level!

The draft agenda for the event is available here.

The Brokerage event is the best occasion to present your project proposals for the up-coming 2016-2017 calls of Horizon 2020 and the event will – as usual – include the very popular SusChem speed dating session to facilitate the development of project consortia.

Find your missing consortia partner at the SusChem Brokerage event!

In the near future the SusChem secretariat will open the platforms interactive portal to allow registered participants to submit their project proposals and further information on how to enrol in the speed dating session will also be provided to registered participants.

PPP Info day and SPIRE Brokerage Event

And don’t forget that this year's Information Day on contractual PPPs covering the Sustainable Process Industry, Factories of the Future, Energy-efficient Buildings, and Green Vehicles 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 at the 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.

€106 million Call for Proposals for the BBI JU Published

Today (25 August) a new €106 million call for research and development was unveiled for biobased initiatives to turn renewable resources into useful biobased products. This second call for proposals for the BioBased Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) will support research and innovation actions, including demonstration actions, for making the best use of biomass, enabling a functioning bioeconomy in Europe and supporting the establishment of a sustainable circular economy.

The call for proposals is aimed at speeding up the development of new biorefineries. Moreover, it focuses on exploiting synergies across sectors. This means new business models that integrate economic actors all along complete value chains. It also means improving strategic cooperation between the different economic sectors: linking actors involved in biomass supply (breeding and plant production, forestry, farming) to biorefineries and consumers of biobased products. This integration of producers, refineries and consumers will help SMEs as their technologies, equipment and instruments will be needed to assist large enterprises as well as stand-alone projects.

Budget allocation
The budget for the proposals will be split as follows:
€28 million will be allocated for Research and Innovation Actions covering the following topics:

• Converting the streams of lignin (the complex organic polymers that make wood cells rigid) in biorefineries so they can be eventually used in sectors like chemical, transport, aerospace, textile, energy, and construction industries
• Pre-treating lignocellulose (plant dry matter) while simultaneously removing contaminants and separating lignin and cellulosic fractions. Solving this challenge will remove a major hurdle to processing biomass into feedstock
• Developing biobased molecules for coating and surface treatment, a growing market as businesses aim to increase the shelf life of products
• Separating and extracting technologies to pull added value compounds such as bark and branches from wood and forest-based residues
• Promoting practices to improve effective forest management, so there is more access to wood resources with less of an environmental impact
• Developing sustainable cellulose based materials to ensure their strong market prospects as textiles, films and thermoplastics meet tight environmental demands
• Tailoring tree species to produce wood designed for industrial processes and biorefining purposes. This means engineering and generating wood feedstock with a chemical structure designed for later processing steps
• Increasing productivity of industrial multi-purpose agricultural crops: with limited natural resources, this means developing more efficient nutrient uptake, water use and land regeneration
• Making the most of the aquatic biomass: water plants like algae and microalgae have high value applications such as food ingredients, polymers, feed proteins, cosmetics, pharma, etc but the costs of the extraction and conversion need to come down. 

An additional €12 million is assigned for Innovative and efficient biorefinery technologies. The aim is to improve the technologies pioneered by existing biorefineries so they become cost-competitive with respect to fossil counterparts. Most biorefineries today are designed to process only one kind of feedstock, which means most of the important value chains are not exploited.

The bulk of the call funding, €64 million, will be allocated for Demonstration Actions that address the following areas:

• Showing how lignocellulosic feedstocks can be turned into chemical building blocks and high added value products, with products and processes benchmarked against fossil based alternatives
• Developing innovative cellulose-based composite packaging solutions, mainly to improve their mechanical properties and address contaminant control (dust, bacteria and other impurities)
• Producing biobased elastomers from Europe-grown feedstock
• Developing high purity biobased intermediates and end products from vegetable oils and fats
• Making the most of agricultural residues and side streams from the agro-food industry
• Extracting organic acids from municipal solid waste
• Overcoming low product yields from fermentation processes in the production of industrial products like alcohols, acids, proteins, amino acids, and specialty carbohydrates.

A further €2 million of funding will cover Coordination and Support Actions. Part of this is focused on helping biobased products meet the standards and regulations needed to trade across the EU and expand their market potential. Other actions are aimed at enhancing awareness of biobased products and their benefits in order to get public acceptance and reach the success of a bioeconomy.

About BBI JU
The call for proposals follows the July 2014 launch of the BBI JU, a €3.7 billion public-private partnership aimed at supporting the development of Europe’s emerging bioeconomy. The BBI JU is a public-private partnership (PPP), part of the EU’s plan to move its economy to a post-petroleum era.

BBI JU is expected to help make the EU’s economy more resource-efficient and sustainable, while supporting growth and employment. €3.7 billion will fund the BBI JU between 2014 and 2024, with €975 million coming from the European Commission and €2.7 billion from its private partner, the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). The BBI is responsible for the implementation of open calls for proposals for research and innovation actions, as well as coordination and support actions, in line with the Horizon 2020 rules for participation.

More information on the calls can be found on the Horizon 2020 portal site.

The Economic Benefits of Water Innovation

The SusChem-inspired FP7 project ‘Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry’ (E4Water) will be holding a workshop on the Economic benefits of Water Innovation on Thursday 5 November 2015 at the offices of the State of Hessen Representation to the EU at 21 Rue Montoyer, Brussels. The event will focus on the topical issue of the economic challenges and opportunities for the chemical sectors when looking at water innovation solutions (such as water reuse and recycling). With the E4Water project now nearing its end, some of the main experiences and results gathered by the project will be presented.  The event is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. Registration is now open.

The workshop will take place from 10h00 to 16h30, at the offices of the Representation to the EU of the State of Hessen at 21 Rue Montoyer, 1000 Brussels. Note this is a change to the venue originally announced on this blog. A full programme for the day can be accessed here.

Among the confirmed speakers are:

• Panos Balabanis, Deputy Head of Unit 'Eco-innovation', DG RTD
• Edouard Perard, European Investment Bank
• Thomas Track, Dechema, Project Coordinator E4Water
• Marianne Wenning, EU Commission, DG Environment, Director "Quality of Life, Water and Air"
• Dirk Van der Stede, Flanders Knowledge Center Water, Vlakwa
• 
  
• Uwe Fortkamp, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet
• Peter Cauwenberg, Vito
• Riikka Timonen, Kemira
• Alexandre Muller, Total
• Eddy Linclau, P&G
• Luc Brams, Agfa

Water is an important natural resource on the planet, playing a big role in our sustainability effort. At the corporate level, the value of water is increasingly recognised as a natural resource to be shared between many users.

Cefic’s "The Water Matters!" flagship initiative focuses on water use at operating sites, with particular regard to “water stressed” areas. The main objectives of the initiative are to further support corporate efforts towards sustainable water management and to raise awareness on the importance of water risk assessment and mitigation within the chemical sector.

What is E4Water?
With the chemical industry providing the highest potential to demonstrate increased eco-efficiency in industrial water management, the FP7 project ‘Economically and Ecologically Efficient Water Management in the European Chemical Industry’ (E4Water) addresses a range of crucial process needs to overcome bottlenecks and barriers to a fully integrated and energy efficient water management system.

The project’s main objective is to develop and test integrated approaches, methodologies and process technologies. There are six industrial case study sites at the core of E4Water that are expected to achieve a reduction of 20-40% in water use, 30-70% in waste water production, 15-40% in energy use and up to 60% in direct economic benefits. In addition to the chemical industry, the project is actively seeking opportunities for cross-fertilisation with other industrial sectors.

The project consortium brings together large chemical companies, leading European water sector companies and innovative research and technology development centres and universities. The partners are also involved in the Water supply and sanitation Platform (WssTP) and SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, and actively collaborate with water authorities in different European countries.

For more information about SusChem involvement with water issues, please contact Antonia Morales-Perez at Cefic, or visit the water priority page on the SusChem website.

SusChem introduces: Martin Winter

Cefic Research and Innovation has recently recruited two new Innovation Managers who will be heavily involved with SusChem activities over the next few years. Martin Winter and Flavio Benedito both started their secondment to Cefic in June and many members of the SusChem community will have met them at the 2015 SusChem Stakeholder event. In this and a subsequent article we introduce both managers and ask them about what they are expecting to achieve for Sustainable Chemistry in Europe during their time with the platform.

In this article we talk to Martin. You can find the interview article with Flavio here.

Career highlights

Martin is a chemist by education and received his PhD on a nanomaterial science topic in 1998 from the Max Planck Society before leaving for postdoctoral study at the Scripps Research Institute in the U.S.

He has a long term background in the chemical industry joining Clariant in 1999 managing several innovation projects as Research and Development group leader and focusing on innovation and growth of new businesses. This included setting up external innovation activities through venture capital mechanisms, e.g. through screening and investments in start-up companies. In addition a marketing and sales responsibility for one of Clariant’s young start-up businesses brought him to Asia/Japan for a while.

Since June 2015 he has been seconded from Clariant to CEFIC in Brussels as an Innovation Manager responsible for driving the innovation agenda for the Chemical Industry by networking regarding research and innovation priorities and connecting them with the European Commission’s funding instruments under Horizon 2020, for example via the SPIRE Public Private partnership.

He likes to spend his free time with his family and also enjoy flying in the sky being an enthusiastic skydiver, instructor and tandem-master.

What is your view on Sustainable Chemistry?

I consider sustainability not only as a simple ‘trend’, but today not considering its significance means not only risking to stay in the business but also exposing future growth opportunities to risk. The concept of “being and developing sustainable” has to be strongly considered and supported by the innovation agenda of our industry to keep us ahead in the race for competitiveness.

The SusChem ETP and its Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) is an excellent platform to support the transformation of our excellent European research into relevant business opportunities by connecting industry, SMEs, academia and technology organizations with the funding instruments under Horizon 2020. 

How do you see your new role contributing to your view on Sustainable Chemistry? 

I will contribute to the already existing strong momentum with my personal commitment to relevant topics and discussions in the chemical and process industry, including Cefic contributing to Horizon 2020 projects.

What do you hope to achieve by the end of your three years at Cefic? 

To support our European Industry to improve their competitiveness and economic growth and at the same time contributing with concrete innovation actions to the key societal challenges we are facing. In addition, and through my involvement in these activities, I will, of course, also enlarge my own network and be able to support my company Clariant when I return after my time at Cefic. 

What areas are you looking to collaborate with others and how do you prefer to be contacted? 

All topics relevant for the chemical and process industries with an initial focus on ICT aspects. I can be contacted by email or phone and of course lets meet personally at SPIRE, SusChem and other events to exchange our thoughts.

SusChem introduces: Flavio Benedito

Cefic Research and Innovation has recently recruited two new Innovation Managers who will be heavily involved with SusChem activities over the next few years. Flavio Luiz Benedito and Martin Winter both started their secondment to Cefic in June and many members of the SusChem community will have met them at the 2015 SusChem Stakeholder event. In this and a subsequent article we introduce both managers and ask them about what they are expecting to achieve for Sustainable Chemistry in Europe during their time with the platform. 

In this article we talk to Flavio. You can find the interview article with Martin here.

Career highlights

Flavio got his bachelors degree in Chemistry in Brazil and moved to Germany in 2003 to finish his Masters degree at Bayer. There he had the opportunity to be involved in the research and development of new fungicides.

Following this he was awarded a full scholarship to do a PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry. His fascination for interdisciplinary research continued in 2009 when he joined the group of Prof. Ferdi Schueth as a post-doc fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research working in the field of nanomaterials and solid state Chemistry.

Seeking broader international experience he moved to Austria in 2010 to work as a research scientist in the field of natural product synthesis at the Innsbruck University. To combine and apply all this acquired know-how, he returned to Germany in 2011 and joined BASF in the Organic Electronics project cluster developing research in organic photovoltaics, OLEDs, as well as other upcoming technologies. This background in very innovative and sustainability-focused topics helped him to join the Cefic Research and Innovation team on secondment from BASF in June 2015.    

In his spare time Flavio likes sports, travels, plays the piano and helps to organize and play in benefit concerts.

What is your view on Sustainable Chemistry?

Sustainable Chemistry enables a better use of natural resources applied to fulfil societal needs for chemicals and services. One of the main key points of Sustainable Chemistry is to enable the development of safe, effective, and eco-efficient chemical processes that have benign environmental impact. 

But in my opinion Sustainable Chemistry goes far beyond this; it stimulates innovative research, opens several opportunities for new value chains favouring economic growth, boosts the chemical sector as a whole, generates new jobs, and is able to offer a better life quality for society.   

How do you see your new role contributing to your view on Sustainable Chemistry? 

The role of a Research & Innovation Manager is to find synergistic pathways that both industry and government can align their interests in order to address societal needs. One good example is the coordination of PPPs (Public-Private-Partnerships) that combines public funding and industrial initiatives to promote projects for the development of new innovative and sustainable technologies and processes. 

What challenges do you foresee? 

Nowadays the majority of chemical production relies on oil and the migration to a more biobased production is seen as an evolution and not a revolution. A significant change in the mind-set is needed. To influence and promote this change, intermediate governmental interests and industry willingness towards sustainability are some of the greatest challenges I foresee.   

What do you hope to achieve by the end of your three years at Cefic? 

After three years at Cefic I hope to have generated solid results, contributed and participated in several projects, helped the chemical industry in representing their interests, expanded my network and enjoyed a great time and experiences with my wonderful colleagues in the team.

What areas are you looking to collaborate with others and how do you prefer to be contacted? 

In the beginning I will mainly be involved in bioeconomy and rare raw materials projects, but I will also have the chance to work on other topics in the future. If you want to contact me please e-mail me directly.