ICIS Innovation Awards 2013 Result

The winners of the ICIS Innovation Awards for 2013 have been announced. The awards were launched in 2004 and celebrated their tenth anniversary this year. The overall winner is selected from the winners of five individual categories (see below) and for 2013 the winning company is the Cabot Corporation. 

“Energy efficiency and bio-based materials technologies were very much to the fore in this year’s ICIS Innovation Awards,” said John Baker of ICIS. “Of the 12 shortlisted entries, no fewer than half offered innovations in these two areas.”

The awards have grown in popularity with each succeeding year and SusChem has been proud to have contributed to the competition’s judging panels on many occasions. This year SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki was part of the panel.

SusChem believes that innovation is a key driver for growth and profitability in the chemical sector. And The ICIS Innovation Awards are designed to reward innovation, environmental advances and sustainability in the global chemical industry.

Smart Cities, smart materials
Cabot Corp received the award for its aerogel technology that can dramatically increase insulation in building and construction. The overall winner was unanimously selected by the judging panel of six innovation experts. The company also won the award for Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit.

Innovations like the Aerogel materials (see above - image from ICIS) developed by Cabot offer huge potential to improve the insulation values of a whole range of building materials and are typical of the type of chemical innovation that SusChem has been highlighting recently for the built environment.

Chemistry lies at the heart of the built environment in every city providing the fundamental building blocks for new advanced materials for housing such as smart coatings and insulations that are making houses, offices and factories more energy efficient and form the basis for the ‘Smart Cities’ of the future.

The Chemical Industry is already heavily engaged in this area and has offered five concrete solutions for Chemistry-based initiatives for energy efficiency in buildings, which were selected as top key innovation by city officials at the recent Smart Cities and Communities Stakeholder Platform conference.

Other category winners in the ICIS Innovation Awards 2013 were:

• Solvay Aroma Performance for Best Product Innovation for Govanil: pioneering the new reference of vanilla flavours
• Renmatix for Best Innovation by an SME with its advances in sugar conversion technology using supercritical hydrolysis to provide an economical bridge between upstream and downstream biochemicals
• Virent for Best Innovation for Sustainability with its process to convert plant sugars to paraxylene for renewable, recyclable packaging and fibres, and
• Archroma (until recently part of Clariant) for Best Business Innovation and its “One Way” sustainability service.

You can find full details of all the winning entries and the shortlisted innovations in each of the categories in a 16-page special ICIS publication celebrating the winners and chemical innovation in general.

What are the ICIS awards?
The annual awards are open to any chemical company or collaborative effort between industry and academia anywhere in the World. The judging panel looks for innovative projects that solve problems or provide solutions for the company or its customers or that demonstrate an innovative approach to business, the environment and sustainability.

In 2013 there were five prize categories:

• Best Product Innovation
• Best Innovation by a Small or Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)
• Best Business Innovation
• Best Innovation for Sustainability
• Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit

For more information about the ICIS Chemical Business Innovation Awards visit the website or contact John Baker at ICIS.

EFIB 2013 – Get your Brochure now!

The European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Biobased Economy 2013 (EFIB2013) takes place in Brussels from 30 September to 2 October at the Square conference facility. A full brochure for the event is now available – get your copy now!

With over 1,000 biotechnology professionals expected to attend, a growing exhibition hall with 50 exhibitors, over 14 hours of one-to-one networking available and a brand new Technology Showcase Theatre the EFIB has clearly continued to evolve for 2013.

"EFIB is the most important event on the calendar for the biobased economy," says Ian Hudson, President of DuPont EMEA and a member of the executive committee of Cefic and a board member at EuropaBio – joint organisers of the event with Smithers Rapra.

Diverse agenda
The new brochure shows the wide range of activities on offer at EFIB 2013 including:

• Choose the conference agenda to suit your interests with 8 dedicated conference sessions focused on policy, finance, innovation and including a dedicated session on BRIDGE: the SusChem supported  proposal for a €3.8 billion Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the biobased industries
• Be the first to witness the latest innovation and product development at the ‘new for 2013’ Technology Showcase in the Exhibition Hall
• Take part in CEO Question Time and put your questions to the ‘movers and shakers’ in strategic positions to move the industry forward
• Visit over 50 exhibitors and see for yourself first-hand what the European and wider industrial biotechnology industry has to offer
• Take advantage of the one-to-one Partnering at EFIB2013 to make efficient use of your networking time, during over 14 hours of active partnering sessions

Get the brochure
Find out more about EFIB2013 in the brand new event brochure including the full programme, workshop agendas, exhibition floor plan, Technology Showcase Theatre agenda, one-to-one Partnering, prices, event highlights and travel information.

SusChem Stakeholder: Presentations are online now!

The presentations from this year’s SusChem Stakeholder event are now online! The event which took place in Brussels on 14 and 15 May was the Technology Platform’s eleventh stakeholder event and demonstrated how SusChem is already working hard to engage with Horizon 2020 – the European Commission’s next major Research and Innovation Framework Programme.

The theme of this year’s SusChem Stakeholder event was ‘The root of EU Growth and Jobs: Innovative Materials and Processes’ and the meeting was held at the Sofitel Europe Hotel on Place Jourdan at the heart of Brussels’ European Quarter.

The presentations available include those given in the main plenary session as well as contributions to the parallel workshops on:

• Material Technologies / Smart Cities
• Resource Efficiency (SPIRE and BRIDGE PPPs)
• Critical Raw Materials
• Water

A selection of photos from the event are also posted on the website.

Next events

Over the rest of 2013 SusChem will be building on this work to be ready for the launch and first calls of Horizon 2020 in 2014. To support brokerage for the initial Horizon 2020 calls SusChem will look to provide a three step process:

• Defining strategic SusChem innovations via SPIRE and BRIDGE PPPs and other road mapping initiatives
• Stimulating project generation including the use of SusChem webinars to inform stakeholders on call content and possible areas of interest
• Full brokerage and proactive project follow-up. 

A first SusChem Horizon 2020 Brokerage event will be organised during Q4 2013 when the final timetable for the launch and initial calls is known.

Keep an eye on the SusChem website, news blog or follow SusChem on Twitter for announcements on these forthcoming events. For more information you can always contact the SusChem Secretariat by email.

2013 SusChem Stakeholder Event

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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