Get Going with Grant-It

Use our Grant-it tool to find your partners for the 2016-2017 Horizon 2020 calls! Following the SusChem brokerage event on October 6 2015 in Brussels, more than 20 project proposals can now be found on the Grant-it website and are freely accessible to all SusChem members. You can also browse for calls of interest to you and post our own proposals.

Connect to Grant-it now!

The project proposals can be found here and range across the portfolio of SusChem inspired calls in the Horizon 2020 work programmes for 2016-17. The proposals include ideas to optimize biocatalysis and processing, recovery of high-value raw materials from waste streams, novel smart food packaging, and 3D printing applications amongst many, many more ideas. Just use your SusChem username and password to get access!

One-stop shop
Launched in 17 December 2013, the Grant-it portal 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.

The experience gained by SusChem in FP7 was used to shape the 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.

With 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.

For SusChem
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.

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.

BioHorizon Brokerage Event on 26 November

BioHorizon will host a Brokerage Event in Brussels on 26 November 2015 dedicated to Horizon 2020’s Societal Challenge 2: ‘Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy’. The event will be hosted in connection with the European Commission’s Open Info Day.

The objective of the BioHorizon Brokerage Event is to assist you in finding the right project partners for the SC2 calls for 2016. The new work programme for 2016 - 2017 has just been launched and the first proposal submission deadlines will be at the beginning of 2016, making this the perfect opportunity for your institution to begin building a consortium.

The main part of the day is dedicated to bilateral meetings between participants interested in the same topics. On the basis of the registration form inputs, the organisers will prepare an individualised schedule of bilateral meetings for participants. The programme for the event will also see attendees provided with information on what makes a good consortium, and provide a selection of researchers and entrepreneurs a platform to present their project ideas during a series of five minute flash presentations.

The partnering event will target a wide spectrum of stakeholders, from companies (including SMEs), universities, research organisations and other interested parties, from Europe and beyond, seeking to share new project ideas and to find collaboration partners for the Horizon 2020 SC2 work programme for 2016.

Registration for the event closes on 2 November 2015 so be quick! Places are limited. For more information and to register click here. The brokerage event is a full day event and will take place at the Sheraton Hotel in Place Charles Rogier, 1210 Brussels.

About BioHorizon
BioHorizon is a network of specialised NCPs (National Contact Points) for Horizon 2020 within the scope of the Societal Challenge 2 (SC2) “Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy” and the Key Enabling Technology (KET) “Biotechnology” (KET-B). The network consists of officially appointed Food Security NCPs and Contact Points in International Cooperation Partner Countries coordinated by the Instytut Podstawowych Problemów Techniki Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IPPT PAN) in Poland.

The mission of BioHorizon is to facilitate transnational cooperation within the network of BIO NCPs with a view to identifying and sharing good practices in order to improve general standard of support to programme applicants taking into full consideration the diversity of stakeholders and actors involved in SC2 and KET Biotechnology.

Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking now fully operational!

On 26 October the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) became fully autonomous, enabling it to manage its own budget and launch its own calls for proposals, grants and public procurement. The €3.7 billion public-private partnership has remained under the European Commission’s supervision since its formal launch in July 2014. But now the BBI JU will function as an independent body, with its own staff and offices.

The European Commission, which provides €975 million of the overall budget for the BBI JU, welcomed the new status. Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “This is great news for the EU’s efforts to develop a more sustainable economy. Once again, we are joining forces with industry and investing together in the huge potential of the bioeconomy. BBI will help expand our knowledge of how we can convert Europe’s untapped renewable resources and waste into greener everyday products and biofuels".

BBI JU Executive Director, Philippe Mengal, commented that it was a proud moment for the Joint Undertaking. "It has only been a year since it was formally set up, but we have worked hard to launch calls for proposals and grants, identifying promising initiatives across Europe,” he said. Philippe Mengal became Executive Director on 1 October 2015. He has some 25 years’ experience in green technologies, engineering and the food/life sciences industries.

Important role
The BBI JU plays an important role in supporting business models that link economic actors all along the entire bioeconomy value chain. The BBI JU’s second call for proposals, published on 25 August 2015, aims to improve cooperation between the different economic sectors: from the biomass supply (breeding and plant production, forestry, farming) to biorefineries and consumers of bio-based products.

Marcel Wubbolts, Chief Technology Officer at DSM, commented: “This marks a vital step in the BBI JU’s evolution: innovate in products from locally grown feedstocks, invest in regional value chains and inspire citizens in Europe that the biobased economy creates jobs, growth and a sustainable future.” Marcel Wubbolts is chairman of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) - the private partner in the public-private partnership BBI.

About autonomy
Under Article 19 of Council Regulation (EC) 560/2014 of 6 May 2014 that established the BBI JU, the European Commission is responsible for the establishment and initial operation until the JU has the operational capacity to implement its own budget. The budget of the BBI JU must be established and implemented in accordance with the principles of unity, budgetary accuracy, annularity, equilibrium, unit of account, universality, specification, and sound financial management which requires effective and efficient internal control and transparency.

More information
Along with the SPIRE PPP the BBI JU is one of two public-private partnership (PPPs) under Horizon 2020 that can be said to be ‘SusChem inspired’. The BBI JU PPP is part of the EU’s plan to move its economy to a post-petroleum era. It is expected to help make the EU’s economy more resource-efficient and sustainable, while supporting growth and employment. The BBI is dedicated to realising the potential of the European bioeconomy and contributing to a sustainable circular economy, by turning biological residues and wastes (from agro-food, forestry and municipal) into greener everyday products, through innovative technologies and biorefineries, which are at the heart of the bioeconomy.

MATCH for Materials

The latest newsletter of the MATCH Horizon 2020 project has been published.  The MATCH project was initiated to strengthen and deepen the Alliance4Materials strategy by building a broader stakeholder network. The project is coordinated by Italian Centro Sviluppo Materiali and the consortium consists of 18 partners from nine countries representing the six related European Technology Platforms (including SusChem) and several major European material research organisations.

This second issue of the newsletter highlights some recent European materials research and innovation news including features on research group activities, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Raw Materials initiative, and events. You can download and subscribe to the MATCH newsletter here.

Material foundation
The European Commission has set the ambitious goal to re-industrialise Europe and to raise industry's share of the GDP to 20% by 2020. Innovation in cross-cutting applications of advanced materials, including in the transportation, health care, energy and consumer goods sectors, provides an opportunity for Europe to reindustrialise and secure jobs. One of the key objectives of MATCH is to enable the connections between the scientific creativity represented by academia and European enterprises focusing on market needs.

Another important objective of MATCH is to promote the alignment of national and European materials research policies and funding. MATCH has the goal of creating a single interactive and informative platform for the international materials research community.

MATCH is pushing for the creation of a strong, sustainable, inclusive network where any European Materials players, whether from Industry, Research or academia, can feel comfortable and gain real value for their interests and expectations in respect of materials research, development and innovation. The MATCH partnership promotes the integration of concerted and strategic challenges of national, regional and European needs in the field.

Material targets 
MATCH focuses on four main targets, crucial for the promotion of European sustainable development and innovation actions. These are:

• The enlargement and improvement of the Materials network at EU level
• The multidisciplinary connection of Materials to a large number of fields relevant for European growth and where concerted management actions are needed
• The integration with existing and/or promotion of new Materials networks at National and Inter/Regional levels
• The integration of EU and national and regional networks in sustainable and effectively aligned network hubs

Through the MATCH project all organisations interested in materials research in Europe will have a single reference network through which to obtain information, contacts and guidance in an efficient and transparent way. Established and well-connected material research stakeholders will be able to intensify their activities and extend their collaborative activities at European level, realising the A4M concept for the “The Materials Common House”.

The project started in January 2015 and will continue for 30 months until June 2017. MATCH is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It follows on from the previous Alliance4Materials initiative, the MatVal project, in which SusChem was also an active partner.

2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: A breakthrough for DNA Repair research and cancer treatment

This year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 has been awarded jointly to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair" – they mapped, at a molecular level, how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information. The work has provided fundamental knowledge of how a living cell functions and is, for instance, used for the development of new cancer treatments. Nature Magazine is calling “The Nobel Prize 2015: The year of DNA repair”. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. To date, the prize has been awarded 107 times to 172 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2015.

About the study - The cells’ toolbox for DNA repair
Each day our DNA is damaged by UV radiation, free radicals and other carcinogenic substances, but even without such external attacks, a DNA molecule is inherently unstable. Thousands of spontaneous changes to a cell’s genome occur on a daily basis. Furthermore, defects can also arise when DNA is copied during cell division, a process that occurs several million times every day in the human body.

The reason our genetic material does not disintegrate into complete chemical chaos is that a host of molecular systems continuously monitor and repair DNA. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 awards three pioneering scientists who have mapped how several of these repair systems function at a detailed molecular level.

In the early 1970s, scientists believed that DNA was an extremely stable molecule, but Tomas Lindahl demonstrated that DNA decays at a rate that ought to have made the development of life on Earth impossible. This insight led him to discover a molecular machinery, base excision repair, which constantly counteracts the collapse of our DNA.

Aziz Sancar has mapped nucleotide excision repair, the mechanism that cells use to repair UV damage to DNA. People born with defects in this repair system will develop skin cancer if they are exposed to sunlight. The cell also utilises nucleotide excision repair to correct defects caused by mutagenic substances, among other things.

Paul Modrich has demonstrated how the cell corrects errors that occur when DNA is replicated during cell division. This mechanism, mismatch repair, reduces the error frequency during DNA replication by about a thousand fold. Congenital defects in mismatch repair are known, for example, to cause a hereditary variant of colon cancer.

The Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2015 have provided fundamental insights into how cells function, knowledge that can be used, for instance, in the development of new cancer treatments.

Interesting fact
Frederick Sanger is the only Nobel Laureate who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, in 1958 and 1980. This means that a total of 171 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

For more information about this year’s prize (including scientific background and some illustrations), click here.

The Nobel Prizes in Chemistry won during the last decade by:

• 2014 Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy
• 2013 Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems
• 2012 Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors
• 2011 Dan Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals
• 2010 Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis
• 2009 Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome
• 2008 Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP
• 2007 Gerhard Ertl for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces
• 2006 Roger D. Kornberg for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription
• 2005 Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis

More information
You can find more information about each study here.

EFIB 2015: The Chemical Industry and ‘Biobased’

The European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy (EFIB) 2015 takes place on 27-29 October at the Square in Brussels and the eighth EFIB promises to be bigger than ever. SusChem and Cefic are organising a dedicated session on biobased chemical value chains as part of the conference on 29 October. In advance of the session Cefic’s Executive Director Research and Innovation Pierre Barthélemy and Dr. Henrike Gebhardt of Evonik Industries AG have been interviewed by EFIB organisers.

With major chemical players looking to move into biobased products and processes the interview focuses on key questions surrounding the session: ‘Is the chemical industry catching up with biobased’. The interview covers changing attitudes and approaches by the chemical sector to biobased, the measures needed to accelerate uptake of renewable feedstocks, views on the most significant recent developments in the biobased industry sector and what they hope the EFIB session will achieve.

Pierre (right) says: “It is important to keep looking at success stories and achievements in the chemical industry, but it is even more important to highlight the challenges faced by the chemical industry to embrace the bio-based approach more widely.  Switching to different feedstock is not just a technical challenge.  It creates new value chains with different stakeholders that have to understand each other.  It is essential for the chemical industry to explain its expectations and challenges in order to make progress in building the connections between stakeholders in these new value chains.”

“EFIB is an excellent platform to network with stakeholders from academia, finance, governments, industry, and NGOs,” comments Henrike (left). “This year I am especially looking forward to getting a insight into the approach of several brand owners to bio-based products, because they are closest to customers’ needs.”

Joining Pierre and Heinrike at the EFIB session will be Reinhard Buescher, Head of Unit for Chemicals Industry at DG Grow giving the view of the European Commission. Further insights from industry will be presented by François Monnet, Exec VP for Renewable Chemistry at Solvay, Dr. Stefan Lundmark of Perstorp AB, and Dr Marcel Wubbolts from DSM who was recently awarded CTO of the Year 2015. The presentations will be followed by a group discussion.

The session will cover topics such as differentiation in times of barrel price volatility, meeting changing consumer needs and connecting uncommon partners in new biobased value chains.

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 has the potential to become the dominant technology of tomorrow’s chemicals industry - and represents a huge future opportunity.

SusChem and the bioeconomy
The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) includes 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 on-going 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
The conference kicks off with a set of pre-conference Workshops on 27 October with the full conference programmes on 28 October and 29 October.

Register your place today here!

European CTO of the Year 2015 Award

Dr. Marcel Wubbolts of Royal DSM has received the European CTO (Chief Technology Officer) award of the Year 2015, an award for excellence in technology and innovation leadership, for laying the foundation for the growing number of bio-based manufacturing processes in DSM’s businesses.

Dr.Wubbolts has a central role in Royal DSM, a company that over the past two decades has transformed itself completely from a petrochemical to a life and materials sciences company active in health, nutrition and materials.  Royal DSM is also a leading player in the biotech industry. “The frontrunner development and commercialization of lignocellulosic ethanol technology is only one very relevant example of many in which Dr. Wubbolts is intimately involved. His enthusiasm and drive for science and sustainable innovation for society is an inspiration for many”, praises Gert-Jan Gruter of Avantium, jury member and European CTO of the Year 2014

in SME category.

“The European CTO of the Year Award is a unique way to recognize outstanding individuals whose vision and passion have made a big difference in keeping their companies at the forefront of innovation. All the winners have shown exemplary leadership as technology managers, we’re happy and proud to recognize them for their impressive accomplishments.”, states Dr. Carlos Härtel, jury member and Managing Director Europe

The other two winners of the CTO of the Year 2015 are Martin Curley of Intel Corporation and Jonathan O’Halloran of QuantuMDx.

  

About the CTO of the Year Award

European CTO of the Year is the leading European award, awarded by EIRMA (European Industrial Research Management Association) and Spinverse (Nordic leader in innovation consulting). The concept is Pan-European and, as Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission says: “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”.