Research & Innovation shaping our future: LabFabApp

The European Commission has published today the report from the High Level Group on maximising the impact of EU research and innovation. The group was led by Pascal Lamy and included eminent personalities from research, innovation and education. The report entitled ‘LAB – FAB – APP Investing in the European future we want’ delivers a main message that investing in research and innovation is increasingly crucial for shaping a better European future in a rapidly globalising world. 

Our success depends ever more on the production and conversion of knowledge into innovation. SusChem agrees.

The report was launched by Research and Innovation Commissioner Moedas and Pascal Lamy (below) at the Research & Innovation: Shaping our Future conference in Brussels today (3 July) and focuses on proposing guiding principles for designing a post-2020 EU programme for research and innovation. However, it does not propose priority themes or subjects such as health, energy, security, space or oceans.

The 11 recommendations of the report are addressed to the European institutions, national governments as well as to other stakeholders: companies, universities, research institutes, non-governmental organisations and all others engaged in research and innovation within the EU and beyond.

Citizen science

However the report also reaches out to a wider public. The report states that ‘Our society should increasingly become a living laboratory for innovative solutions to the many challenges we face in Europe – be they economic, environmental or social.’ Through broad-based, impact-focused research and innovation policy and investments, society can turn these challenges into innovation opportunities. This requires action and participation by many, if not all of us.

The report believes that we need to get rid of the notion that research and innovation is not relevant to society. To shape our future together, we need to imagine, invent and create. We need research (“Labs”), innovation (competitive fabrication (“Fabs”) and applications for the benefit of all (“Apps”). Hence the title of the report: ‘Lab, Fab, App: investing in the future we want.’

Commissioner Moedas said: "I am extremely grateful for the work of the independent group chaired by Pascal Lamy. The recommendations put forward are a very solid basis for our reflection on the orientations of the programmes that will succeed Horizon 2020."

Eleven recommendations

The report’s recommendations are aimed at maximising the impact of future EU research and innovation programmes and each is exemplified by a key action.

1. Prioritise research and innovation in EU and national budgets - Action: double the budget of the post-2020 EU research and innovation programme.

2. Build a true EU innovation policy that creates future markets - Action: Foster ecosystems for researchers, innovators, industries and governments; promote and invest in innovative ideas with rapid scale-up potential through a European Innovation Council.

3. Educate for the future and invest in people who will make the change - Action: modernise, reward and resource the education and training of people for a creative and innovative Europe.

4. Design the EU R&I programme for greater impact - Action: make the future programme’s pillars driven by purpose and impact, fine-tune the proposal evaluation system and increase flexibility.

5. Adopt a mission-oriented, impact-focused approach to address global challenges - Action: set research and innovation missions that address global challenges and mobilise researchers, innovators and other stakeholders to realise them.

6. Rationalise the EU funding landscape and achieve synergy with structural funds - Action: cut the number of R&I funding schemes and instruments, make those remaining reinforce each other and make synergy with other programmes work.

7. Simplify further - Action: become the most attractive R&I funder in the world, privileging impact over process.

8. Mobilise and involve citizens - Action: stimulate co-design and co-creation through citizen involvement.

9. Better align EU and national R&I investment - Action: ensure EU and national alignment where it adds value to the EU’s R&I ambitions and missions.

10. Make international R&I cooperation a trademark of EU research and innovation - Action: open up the R&I programme to association by the best and participation by all, based on reciprocal co-funding or access to co-funding in the partner country.

11. Capture and better communicate impact - Action: brand EU research and innovation and ensure wide communication of its results and impacts.

You can read the full report here.  

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.

SPIRE already making a big Impact!

On 21 and 22 April the SPIRE consortium and the European Commission organised a workshop on the impact of the SPIRE PPP and associated FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects. The workshop took place at Committee of the Regions offices in Brussels. This event was billed as the first in a series of annual impact workshops and saw some 40 process-related projects represented: 12 from Horizon 2020 and 28 from FP7. SusChem News will be looking to follow up on some of these projects and investigate their outcomes and potential impact in more detail.

Chairing the opening session  José Lorenzo Vallés from the European Commission said that PPPs offer a framework to encourage projects to work together and supports transfer of results to the market. But key issues remain: What impact is actually achieved? How can impact be improved? And specifically for SPIRE how is it adding value?

Søren Bøwadt of the European Commission outlined the current status of SPIRE projects in Horizon 2020. “SPIRE is an integral part of the circular economy,” he stated. “As development of the circular economy requires significant RTD and Innovation investments.”

Project presentations
The first day of the workshop saw presentations on project clusters with the aim of assessing the impact achieved, the potential uptake and exploitation, the benefits of clustering and identifying good practise to maximise impact.

The first session covered efficient processes. Prof Andrzej Gorak of TU Dortmund presented results from eight projects in the domain of process optimisation: COPIRIDE, F3-Factory, INCAS, POLYCAT, SYNFLOW, MAPSYN, INNOREX, and ALTEREGO.

Prof Gorak highlighted a range of technical impacts from the development of highly selective hydrogenation catalysts through new synthesis methodologies, and novel modularised processes, process intensification and advanced design of integrated technologies, to combined reaction and separation processes. Cost reduction, better safety characteristics and improved resource and energy efficiency were also targeted.

Adaptable processes

Denilson da Silva Perez of Institut Technologique Foret Cellulose Bois-construction Ameublement (FCBA) based in Bordeaux presented a cluster of projects looking to enable the use of renewable resources, such as biomass and residues from different EU regions, and increase the efficiency and economic viability of the transport of pre-treated  biomass from decentralised rural locations.

The projects were AFORE, EUROBIOREF, FASTCARD, BIOGO, CASCATBEL, STEAMBIO, MOBILE FLIP, and PRODIAS.

Five projects in the domain of modelling and elements of process control were described by Sebastian Engell of TU Dortmund. All were of high industrial relevance and covered process control and resource efficiency monitoring. Projects COOPOL and OPTICO focus on control: OPTICO examining multi-scale, multi-phase phenomena to enable new technology and processes with process improvements of ~17%, while COOPOL worked on control and real-time optimisation providing a framework for intensification of chemical processes within a limited timeframe.

MORE looked at near real time monitoring of resource efficiency indicators (REIs) producing novel analytics, and a new process dashboard including visualisation of multi-dimensional REIs. Similarly TOP-REF looked to develop homogeneous audit and diagnosis tools based on thermo-economics techniques. Finally REFFIBRE modelled the impact of innovations on the circular economy for improved resource efficiency.

Integrated process control

Peter Singstad of Norwegian company Cybernetica AS described four SPIRE projects covering control, instrumentation and mathematical modelling with potential to transfer technology and knowledge between sectors.

RECOBA covered real time sensing, advanced control and optimisation of batch processes that could save energy and raw materials. From an economic standpoint the project could lead to material savings of typically to 1-5% and up to 25%. The DISIRE project also used integrated process control based on distributed in-situ sensors to optimise belt conveyor transportation schemes used in minerals, mining and industrial combustion processes. Similarly CONSENS (website under construction) used integrated control and sensing for sustainable operation of flexible intensified processes. The ProPAT project was also developing an integrated process control platform able to utilise individual sensors and methods for multi-sensory inputs leading to more efficient control of processes.

Sebastian Engell noted that for control solutions there was a huge gap between proven technology and what is actually applied broadly in industry. Technical innovation was slow to permeate through to the factory floor despite the relatively low investment required and low risk. This needed to be improved to maximise impact.

Sustainability and Circular Economy

The first domain discussed in the field of sustainability and the circular economy was integrated management of resources. Anna Sagar of SP Technical Research in Sweden described four projects E4WATER (developing and implementing more efficient and sustainable water management in the chemical industry), R4R (improving research and cooperation between chemical regions in Europe), MefO2 (using waste CO2 to make methanol) and TASIO (demonstrating a modular approach to waste heat recovery in the cement industry).

Jan Meneve of VITO then described projects involved in waste recovery. He defined three waves of waste management: first remediation driven by health and safety concepts; then commodity recycling driven by volume issues; and now specifity recycling driven by value considerations. This last wave was the focus of nine projects: RECLAIM, REMANENCE, HydroWEEE, RECYVAL-NANO, REEcover, RecycAl, ReFraSort, C2CA, and BIOMETALdemo. Jan stated that recycling by definition represented the use of smart green technologies that reduced waste generation while improving resource efficiency.

Life cycle Management

The final set of three projects on day one were presented by Amy Peace of BRITEST Limited and concerned lifecycle management. All focused on developing recommendations on the current use of sustainability indicators, tools and methodologies. There was close cooperation between the three projects: SAMT was gathering industrial best practise; STYLE was a pragmatic project looking to see what can be achieved on a day-to-day basis; and MEASURE had the most academic focus to develop an in-depth cross-sectorial Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) methodology. The joint aim is to ensure that the sustainability impact of new SPIRE technologies can be evaluated on a consistent basis.

Plenary and panel discussion

The second day of the workshop was opened by Clara de la Torre, Director ‘Key Enabling Technologies’ (KETs) at DG Research and Innovation (below, right). She noted that SPIRE was now the second largest PPP in Horizon 2020 after the Factories of the Future initiative and she stressed the importance of financial leverage in PPPs. “PPPs follow the same processes as the normal Horizon 2020 programme, but represent a long-term commitment by the Commission to support, and by industry to invest,” said Ms de la Torre. But she emphasised that “Impact is the name of the game!”

This theme was taken up by Dr Klaus Sommer, Chairman of A. SPIRE (above, left). “[SPIRE] must focus on the ‘wow’ factor,” he said. “Finding good stories to promote in terms of impact and outcomes.” The integrated character of SPIRE allowed for a systematic approach to impact from raw materials to end user industries and R&D to the market.

He summarised the expected impacts of SPIRE: to integrate and demonstrate at least 40 innovative systems and technologies. This meant every SPIRE member needed to contribute. He also emphasised the need to make it easier for SMEs to get involved. “The advantage of being in SPIRE is that you can contribute to shaping the future,” concluded Dr Sommer. “Rather than just experience it.”

The instruments available from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for financing investments in KETs were outlined by Piermario Di Pietro with a specific focus on the InnovFin scheme. He also sought views on access-to-finance experiences, current or past, from established larger SMEs or small mid-caps firms (minimum € 5 million annual turnover).

The next session highlighted four projects that have made high impact: SYNFLOW (looking at innovative synthesis in continuous flow operations in particular to reduce waste in the production of pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals); COOPOL (looking at control of emulsion polymerisation; specifically intensifying this 100 year-old process); E4Water (looking at increasing eco-efficiency in industrial water management); and R4R, (involving analysis of innovation systems and research agendas in six regional clusters).

The workshop’s formal sessions concluded with a wide ranging panel discussion on maximising impact and successful innovation strategy.

Concluding remarks

The meeting rapporteur, Keith Simons (below), remarked that the FP7 projects presented had clearly developed new technology and methodologies. But he also noted that there was a need to communicate success in terms of hard economic figures. He knew that some excellent process technology success stories were out there that could be used to promote SPIRE. He thought that SPIRE as a concept had been a political masterstroke and that European process community has taken up the challenge. He believed that SPIRE had already had an impact, but needed to better recognise and exploit success.

Loredana Ghinea, chief executive of the A.SPIRE consortium, outlined the objectives for SPIRE in the coming 12 months. These included preparing for the Horizon 2020 work programmes in 2016-17. There will be a SPIRE brokerage event on 29-30 June and a SPIRE knowledge and dissemination platform was planned to be available by January 2016. This would help to forge connections between businesses and connect the work programmes with actual projects to enable a continuing discussion on future programme development.

A thematic workshop will be held later in 2015 bringing together the different SPIRE sectors to identify and tackle common challenges. The PPP also aims to follow up with all SPIRE projects and provide support for communication and dissemination activities.

EuroNanoForum 2015 in Riga!

The Latvian capital of Riga will host the European Commission's bi-annual EuroNanoForum Conference from 10 to 12 June. Organised under the Latvian EU Presidency EuroNanoForum 2015 is expected to attract more than 1200 visitors from over 50 countries during its three-day programme. And Sus Chem will be there of course.

The main focus for EuroNanoForum 2015 (ENF2015) is European re-industrialisation including demonstrations of how European SMEs can profit from applying advanced nanotechnologies and materials. The programme includes presentations from a range of exciting European SMEs, such as WaterSprint, with CEO Anders Ruland talking about nanotechnology based water purification systems, Graphenano's Professor Jose-Luis Valverde, discussing pilot lines for the construction industry, and Wendelin Stark of Turbobeads GmbH & Nanograde AG showcasing how to successfully commercialise nanomaterial-based solutions for industrial and medical markets.

Clara de la Torre, the European Commission's Director for the Key enabling Technologies Programme in DG Research & Innovation, describes the EuroNanoForum event as: "the most significant European forum in the field of nanotechnologies and advanced materials. The 2015 edition will focus on Europe's competitiveness and the renewal of its manufacturing industries."

ENF2015 will be the seventh EuroNanoForum. Organised biannually since 2003 it is a meeting point for industry, science and policy and has grown into the most significant European networking conference focusing on innovations across the full spectrum of nanotechnology fields and associated industrial sectors. SusChem's coordinator Jacques Komornicki is on the event's steering committee.

Programme, prizes, exhibition and more
The conference will feature industrial nanotechnologies and advanced materials in support of European re-industrialisation, look at socio-economic trends and innovation demands on nanotechnologies and advanced materials, and the infrastructures and framework conditions required for rapid deployment of nanotechnologies.

Three main conference tracks are envisaged:

• Nanotechnology in industrial applications
• Advances in enabling nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing
• Collaborations and policies for accelerating innovation and uptake of nanotechnologies and advanced materials based solutions

In addition there will be an extensive Nanotech Europe 2015 exhibition area, poster session and on June 12 a full day for project brokerage.

Two prizes are on offer at ENF2015 for Best Poster and FutureFlash! the Best Project Competition. But if you want to enter for these two competitions the deadlines for the Poster abstracts and FutureFlash! Best Project are very soon.

The best of the research posters submitted will be presented throughout the event and at the specific poster sessions, and one will be rewarded as the Best Poster 2015. But you need to submit your abstract by 20 February 2015!

Entries to The FutureFlash! Best Project competition will also be assessed and ten will be selected and provided with a mini stand to showcase their innovation at the Nanotech Europe 2015 exhibition. The most successful of the submitted projects launched under the EU Framework Programmes in the field of nanotechnologies and materials will receive the FutureFlash! Best Project award. But you need to apply by 27 February 2015.

More information

You will find full information about the conference, exhibition and much more at the dedicated ENF2015 website. You can also follow the event on twitter via @ENF2015 

SPIRE at European PPP InfoDays

October 21 saw a capacity crowd at the Charlemagne Centre for the European Commission’s PPP Info Day. The day saw presentations on the Horizon 2020 programme for contractual Public-Private-Partnerships (cPPPs): Factories of the Future (FoF), Energy efficient Buildings (EeB), the European Green Vehicles Initiative (EGVI) and, of course, Sustainable Process industries (SPIRE). Following plenary presentations separate project brokerage sessions for each cPPP were organised.

Jose –Lorenzo Valles of the European Commission (below) related the cPPP initiatives and their work to the priorities of the new Commission. He stated that the objectives of the cPPPs related directly to priorities one, two, three, four and nine in Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s ten point agenda for jobs and growth.

He highlighted Horizon 2020’s stronger emphasis on innovation and outlined the objectives of all the cPPPs – all represented industrial sectors that were essential for both competitiveness and sustainability. He described SPIRE as the “new kid on the block”.

SPIRE brokerage
The 2015 SPIRE call will receive €87.2 million of funding. After lunch the brokerage session was introduced by Andrea Gentili of the Commission (below). He outlined the objectives of the calls and gave some hints for preparing better proposals. “Relevance and excellence were important,” he said. “Good science proposals are needed - but are they relevant? Do they match the call text and PPP raison d’etre?”

Another area that needed consideration was the potential impact of your project including how it would stimulate collaboration at national, regional and EU level and – most importantly – how exploitation of the results was envisaged.

The state of play of the implementation of SPIRE’s Multi-annual Roadmap was described by the PPP’s technical leader Ignacio Calleja, TECNALIA (below).

He announced that SPIRE is not a closed club. “We now have  some 120 members in SPIRE and we are always open to new members,” he said. “And SPIRE calls are open to everyone – not only members.”

SPIRE is aligned with main EU vision on 2020 strategy and resource efficiency and its main objectives are to enable Europe to be more competitive and more sustainable – and provide more and better jobs for its citizens.

Calls and brokerage
A series of presentations were then made by Commission officers on the various SPIRE 2015 calls and other SPIRE relevant calls in areas such as Water and Energy Efficiency. You can access the joint presentation here.

Following the afternoon coffee break a session for one-to-one brokerage and networking commenced with delegates getting down to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of project formation (below). This was the third SPIRE brokerage session since the start of Horizon 2020.

For more details of the presentations made at the PPP Info days click here.

To access recordings of the sessions and presentations from the plenary and parallel sessions at the PPP Info Day, please click here.

To access a database of SPIRE relevant project presentations made on the day click here.

For more information on the SPIRE PPP and the SPIRE 2015 calls under Horizon 2020 contact the SPIRE secretariat.

The 12th SusChem Stakeholder Event celebrating 10 Years of Sustainable Chemistry at the Forefront of European Innovation!

The 2014 SusChem Stakeholder event was a special meeting for the European sustainable chemistry community: celebrating 10 years of the SusChem European Technology Platform and looking forward to the next 10 years of success with the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). Some 200 delegates joined SusChem at the Renaissance Hotel in Brussels on June 11 and June 12 to reflect on our joint achievements and to toast a sustainable future.

Since it launch in 2004, SusChem has made many significant achievements - including the initiation of projects worth more than € 1.5 billion in FP7, its visionary flagship projects such as the Smart Energy Home, the F3 Factory and Integrated Biorefinery, and more recently the launch of two large Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) under Horizon 2020 : SPIRE and the BBI JTI.

Chairman of the SusChem board, Dr. Klaus Sommer summed up the first decade of SusChem saying: "When we started SusChem we had a lot of ground work to cover, but we were successful in establishing SusChem as a voice to be taken seriously." He also reminded delegates that: "The 3Ps of sustainability - Planet, People, Profit - are at the heart of everything that we do at SusChem."

The SusChem event was opened by the screening of a specially made SusChem 10th Birthday video (see below) featuring many personalities from the SusChem community past and present.



Looking forward Dr Sommer stated that SusChem would need to fight continuously to ensure that the competitiveness of the European chemical and biotech industry remains strong. The platform must continue to drive and develop SusChem strategy and foster the SusChem national technology platform network to establish an excellent strategy that can really improve European competitiveness.

Praise for SusChem
Praise for SusChem was also reflected by Clara de La Torre, Director of Key Enabling Technologies at the European Commission DG Research and Innovation who said: "SusChem has achieved outstanding results and was a great success story" and concluded her presentation declaring: "Long life to SusChem!"

The SusChem event also generated some great media coverage including articles in IHS Chemical Week, Chemical Watch and Specialty Chemicals magazine.

More to come!
And SusChem is putting together a longer video message on our achievements and the way forward that will be released around the actual tenth anniversary of the launch of SusChem on 6 July 2004.

We will also be publishing overview articles on various chapters of the new SusChem SIRA over the next few months.

As Klaus Sommer concluded at the Stakeholder event. "Lets start the success for the next 10 years now!"

For more information on SusChem activities and the new SusChem SIRA contact Jacques Komornicki, SusChem Coordinator at Cefic.

Second SPIRE Brokerage Event in May!

The second Brokerage event to be organized by the Public Private Partnership (PPP) on Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) will be held in Brussels on 23 May. The objective of the meeting will be to look more closely into preparations for the SPIRE 2015 calls and to consider the first ideas for shaping SPIRE and related Horizon 2020 work programmes for 2016-2017. 

Following the very successful first SPIRE brokerage event held on 22 October 2013, the initial SPIRE calls under Horizon 2020 were published on 11 December 2013. The 23 May event will look at future calls under the theme of: ‘Outlook and perspectives in the forthcoming Horizon 2020 work programmes.’

The brokerage event will be held at the the Sheraton Brussels Hotel. The event is free of charge, but participation is subject to registration and restricted to members of A.SPIRE aisbl: the body that coordinates industrial contributions to the SPIRE PPP. Membership of A.SPIRE is open to all organisations with an interest in research and innovation activities for improving resource and energy efficiency in Europe.

Due to limited capacity and to ensure fairness the number of representatives from A.SPIRE  members will also be restricted to two each from A.SPIRE industry and research members and one each from A.SPIRE associations members and associate members. Registration will close on 25 April and it is strongly recommended that coordination takes place between representatives within member organizations before registration.

Agenda 
Soren Bowadt of DG Research and SPIRE’s R&D chair Ignacio Calleja of Tecnalia will open the brokerage proceedings with some feedback on the first 2014 SPIRE calls in Horizon 2020 and give a presentation on the upcoming 2015 calls.

There will then be parallel sessions of potential project ideas for 2015 in SPIRE’s Key Component areas: PROCESS, APPLICATIONS, FEED, WASTE2RESOURCE, and HORIZONTAL. The deadline to receive project idea submissions for presentation is 8 May 2014. All project presentations must be submitted via the SPIRE website.

After lunch the discussion will move on to the first ideas for 2016 and 2017. This will include work on the evolution of the SPIRE strategic research and innovation roadmap, discussion of gap analysis and presentations on the outcomes of recent Working Group days.

Attendance at the brokerage event will allow participants to exchange the latest information on relevant 2015 calls of Horizon 2020 in the areas of resource and energy efficiency. It will allow participants to present innovative project ideas to potential partners and to meet prospective partners and start building consortia involving both industry and academia. And the event will allow A.SPIRE members to present and exchange ideas about what technologies could inspire the development of 2016-2017 call priorities.

More information
For more information, including how to become a member of A.SPIRE, please contact the SPIRE secretariat or visit the SPIRE website.

SusChem Horizon 2020 Brokerage Success

The SusChem Brokerage event on 31 January was a great success with around 200 participants actively building useful projects and consortia to respond to the first calls in Horizon 2020.

The event was introduced by Jacques Komornicki and Padraig Naughton from Cefic before Soren Bowadt (below) of the European Commission kicked of the presentations with a description of the concepts behind the Industrial Technology calls in Horizon 2020. He called on participants to “use the calls wisely” describing Horizon 2020 as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and a chance to induce a real “paradigm shift for sectors in Europe like the process industries.”

He praised the results that had come from SusChem inspired ‘lighthouse projects’ during previous research framework programmes (FP7 and FP6) including the F³ factory and COPIRIDE projects.

Soren concluded with some tips for submission of projects including the concept of pre-registering project proposals prior to the submission deadline as this give the project some visibility within the Commission and therefore time for them to find appropriate independent experts to assess the project’s viability and impact. And, of course, not to be late in submitting the proposal – the call deadlines were fixed and not negotiable.

The first full session in the morning saw some eight existing project proposals presented who were looking for one or more additional partners. These ranged from projects on gasification technology for energy intensive users to process analytical concepts and sodium ion battery development.

There then followed nine brand new project idea proposals including biobased automotive adhesives, novel chemical reactor design and an interesting project on biobased aromatic chemicals from sugars or cellulose.

Top proposal tip
Just before a networking lunch Pablo Tello of PNO Consultants (below) gave some entertaining insights of his experience helping many projects to write their proposals. He gave many practical hints and tips, but his single most important tip was: “to ensure you grab the interest of the evaluator in first page of the proposal.”

In a short question and answer session before lunch Soren Bowadt reminded participants that under Horizon 2020 proposals needed to be fully complete. Unlike FP7 there would not be extended negotiation between project evaluation and grant. This meant that “If something is missing [in a proposal] then it is out!” He also underlined that the first page of the proposal was essential

The afternoon saw a great buzz of networking, speed-dating and individual consortia meetings. A poster exposition enabled additional stakeholders to showcase their project proposals to potential partners.

The event also saw the trial of the Evenium ConnexMe system. All registered participants had received a web address to this dynamic tool that aimed to link participants during the day and could enable networking and individual meeting/ speed dating arrangements. The system could also stream of the presentations in real time and allow participants to go back and review slides during a presentation. In addition, of course, the normal human-based meeting facilitation was also in place.

During the meeting 128 users registered with the system, 98 meetings were arranged using the virtual system and 1013 private messages were made in addition to those made through the conventional 'manual ' system.

Wrapping up the event Jacques Komornicki urged participants to make full use of the Grant-it facility (see below) to assist project preparation and to return the feedback survey on the event so that the SusChem secretariat could analyse how things had gone. You can also access the feedback survey here if you didn't have time to fill it in on the day.

Jacques also gave advance notice of the twelfth SusChem Stakeholder Event that will take place on 11 and 12 June at the Brussels Renaissance Hotel. The main topic of the event will be ‘The SusChem Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda Towards 2020 and Beyond’ and will celebrate ten years of SusChem success for sustainable chemistry.

Grant-it
The plenary presentations made by Jacques, Padraig, Soren and Pablo can be accessed via links on their names above. Information on all the projects presented at the brokerage can be accessed via the Grant-it web portal.

Launched in 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 in the field of sustainable chemistry.

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.

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. Find out more about Grant-it here.

National Technology Platforms, Horizon 2020 contacts

SusChem National Technology Platforms (NTPs) help to connect SusChem thinking with national and regional programmes, to facilitate trans-national collaboration and to advise SusChem on national priorities and programmes. SusChem NTPs are key to the involvement of national stakeholders including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large companies and academic groups, in our European initiatives.

The SusChem network, formed by the European and the National Platforms, aims to capitalize on the synergies of its members to reach the critical mass to achieve its goals at European and National level, while avoiding duplication of efforts.

Currently, SusChem NTPs have been created in 12 countries and the NTP page on the main SusChem website has now been updated to include links to all national websites (where they are established) and the latest email details for principal contacts for each of our national platforms.

Common objectives
The common objectives and mutual benefits of SusChem ETP and SusChem NTPs include:

• Working under the common label of "sustainable chemistry”
• Bringing together industry, academia, civil society and national governments to address European societal challenges and improve industry competitiveness
• Contributing to a EU-wide common strategy to support the position of the Chemical sector with the European Commission ("bottom-up” approach)
• Aligning priorities of ETP and NTPs in order to gain broader support (a complementary "top-down” activity)
• Promoting SusChem vision and main priorities at both EU and National level (complementary perspective)
• Facilitating trans-national collaboration within research and innovation projects and the international transmission of skills
• Facilitating networking, cluster creation, project teams, etc. to enhance participation in EU funding programmes, especially for SMEs

Horizon 2020 - national contacts, reorganisation
Liaising with national contact points for Horizon 2020 is also an important role for NTPs and the Commission has published a calendar of national launch events for Horizon 2020 that also includes a list of the national websites for national contacts. This website will be updated throughout the duration of Horizon 2020 the Commission promise.

As the Horizon 2020 research programme gets underway, the European Commission is starting to reorganise DG Research and Innovation to boost its efficiency in managing grants and to make more time for policy planning.

In a recent interview for Science|Business Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General for Research and Innovation (above), said he is introducing radical simplification, moving to a trust-based approach in the management of projects, avoiding micro-management by the Commission, and separating the machinery of grant management from the policy making activities.

Of the eleven directorates within DG Research, three are being reinforced: Directorate A - for Policy Development and Coordination; Directorate B - for Innovation Union and the European Research Area; and Directorate C for International Cooperation. In addition, the policy units in the Directorates dealing with the Grand Societal Challenges are to be strengthened since they define the multi-annual work programmes and content of the calls.

“The idea is that we are going to focus much more on policy issues like the Innovation Union, with its initiatives to create a unitary patent, speed up standardisation and develop innovative public procurement; and on the completion of the European Research Area, which includes measures to abolish barriers to the mobility of researchers, a full roll out of open access to publications and open recruitment in universities,” Smits said in the interview.

D-G Research currently has around 1800 staff. This core staff will shrink substantially (by one third by 2020) with those staff remaining focusing on policy issues rather than grant administration. Four new executive agencies will focus on administering the programmes and are:

• The Research Executive Agency (REA)
• The European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)
• The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA)
• The Executive Agency for Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (EASME)

As the agencies will also be handling programmes from other parts of the Commission, a Common Support Centre (CSC) has also been set up to ensure a coherent interpretation of rules and procedures across Horizon 2020. The CSC will be located within DG Research and Innovation.

SusChem starts Horizon 2020 project prep!

SusChem started its preparations for Horizon 2020 with a brokerage event that attracted almost 200 participants to the Crown Plaza Le Palace Hotel, Brussels yesterday (October 23). Horizon 2020 is scheduled to kick-off on 1 January 2014 and SusChem, as the most prominent European Technology Platform (ETP), is ready to support the programme and ensure it achieves its goals of boosting competitiveness, jobs and growth in Europe.

Following on from briefings on the scope of the new European Commission programme, delegates spent the brokerage day outlining project proposals, describing their skills and experience, and meeting in 150 scheduled one-to-one meeting plus more informal and spontaneous networking.

Commenting on the event Jacques Kormornicki, SusChem Programme Manager at Cefic (left) said: "I want to thank all the participants for their involvement in this active participation from the industry which is key in the future success of Horizon 2020."

"We are now focusing on turning this success into the building of consortia to submit proposals when the calls come out in December 2013," he continued. "We will be organizing either webinars or another brokerage event in January 2014.

The final decision on this will be taken when the calls are out and based on the feed-back from participants. The new Grant-iT tool, which is designed to help SusChem stakeholders to participate to the calls and find partners will also be ready end 2013."

The event continued the atmosphere of intense collaboration and innovative zeal that had been evident at the SPIRE PPP brokerage event on 22 October and is typical of the vision and innovation leadership that SusChem has shown since its foundation in mid-2004.

SusChem success
SusChem board member Prof Rodney Townsend got things started with an outline of SusChem’s achievements. He praised the dedicated support work of SusChem’s national technology platforms (NTPs) that have mobilised stakeholders in 12 Member States and he welcomed SusChem Switzerland as our latest NTP.

He noted the success that SusChem had achieved in FP7 with an estimated €300 million of EU public funding per annum for projects that aligned with the SusChem strategic roadmap. He looked for similar achievements in Horizon 2020. He said that SusChem had been actively engaged in discussions on Horizon2020 since 2011 to ensure that sustainable chemistry and industrial biotechnology remain a major part of it, to successfully work with key European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs), and in particular to help launch two public-private-partnerships in Horizon 2020: SPIRE and the BioBased Industries JTI.

SusChem was also actively involved in identifying areas in the Future Emerging Technologies theme for sustainable chemistry and biotechnology. The full scope of SusChem activities is illustrated below.

The starting point for the brokerage activities was the draft Horizon 2020 work programme for the first two years. With the first calls to be published in December it was now time to start preparations! And there was also a need to think about calls for 2015. Rodney wished everyone a fruitful meeting and indicated that, if stakeholders required it, SusChem will organise another brokerage event early in 2014.

Prominent ETP
Soren Bowadt of the European Commission DG Research and Innovation also praised SusChem for its success with major projects such as the F3 factory project and its ability to set up two PPPs for Horizon 2020 describing SusChem as “the most prominent of the ETPs.”

He then outlined the Horizon 2020 programme with its emphasis on innovation and demonstration activities. A key part was the deployment of Key Enabling Technologies (KETS) that were strategic technologies that could drive competitiveness and growth based on knowledge.

He described the Commission’s wish for an impact orientated approach and their likely focus on Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) in the range 3 - 8 for projects to be funded under Horizon 2020. A set of definitions of TRLs to be used under Horizon 2020 is given below.

In Horizon 2020 KETs would be used to address the whole innovation chain from research to TRLs preceding commercialisation. He said that the PPPs would be important. It was important to promote the involvement of industry and also ensure synergies between research and industry. The PPPs would be used to implement KETs in many areas.

He concluded by thanking SusChem for its contributions to the development of the work programme saying: “this would not have been possible without the vision of SusChem and your intense and constructive collaboration with the Commission.”

Impact
The plenary briefing session was completed by Jacques Kormornicki. He also praised SusChem’s impact, for example, SusChem priorities were found in 30% of the NMP calls in FP7 and SusChem also had significant impact in two other fields: KBBE and Energy.

In addition to SusChem’s energetic direct activity in EIPs (Water, Smart-Cities and Communities, Raw Materials) and the SPIRE PPP, it was supporting the Bio-Based Industries JTI and the Energy Efficient Buildings PPP. There was also strong activity in Materials Technology along the “value chain” including membership of the umbrella Alliance for Materials (A4M). SusChem had also taken up the role of promoting innovation early on and had been heavily involved in the formulation of the KET concept that is the basis of the Horizon 2020 pillar on Industrial leadership.

Jacques showed an analysis of the draft Horizon 2020 work packages from its societal challenges and industrial leadership pillars (see below). Some 200 work packages already mapped onto SusChem priority areas.

This showed the opportunity in Horizon 2020 said. Jacques. Delegates had the full analysis ‘matrix’ of the Horizon 2020 work programmes versus SusChem priorities and a full list of participants and presentations in today’s meeting – it was now up to participants to identify relevant topics and find partners for fruitful collaborative work.

Brokerage bonanza
Esther Agyeman-Budu of Cefic outlined how the various brokerage activities during the day. A first plenary set of project presentation was made before lunch and then three parallel sessions were organised after lunch on Materials, Resource and Energy Efficiency, and Water and Biotechnology.

In total 45 Project Idea or Areas of Interest presentations were made including 12 presentations from the chemical industry including two made via through SusChem NTPs.

After project presentations an intense session of ‘speed-dating’, one-to-one meetings and other networking opportunities took place.

To complete the day and wrap up proceedings Jacques Komornicki described the likely process and the tools available to SusChem stakeholders to assist project formation.

He highlighted the SusChem – PNO ‘matrix’ tool to check for relevant Horizon 2020 call topics and the revised GRANT-IT service for Horizon 2020 that would be launched at the end of 2013. This would be freely available for the whole SusChem community following registration.

The GRANT-IT tool will provide a searchable database of relevant funding programmes, project searching for partners, the ability to search for past and present European projects, and the opportunity to ask for personalised advice on a project idea. There will also be a facility for interaction via forums and comments as part of a brokerage process to develop some sound project ideas and consortia.

Further details of the GRANT-IT tool and how to access it will be covered by the SusChem newsblog when it is ready for launch.

Jacques reiterated that a second brokerage event could be organised in January 2014 if there was demand and in addition, again if there was a perceived need, SusChem could also organise webinars on specific programme areas.

Get involved!
SusChem stakeholder who wanted to get more involved with the brokerage activities around Horizon 2020 should contact either Jacques Komornicki and Pádraig Naughton at Cefic or Ron Weerdmeester at PNO Consultants. And watch out for announcements on the SusChem website and SusChem News!

National Platforms get ready for Horizon 2020

With the SusChem Europe’s forthcoming Brokerage event fast approaching two SusChem National Platforms, in the UK and Spain, are organising events in early October to ensure their industrial and academic stakeholders are ready to get the most out of the new EU Research and Innovation Framework programme when it launches on 1 January 2014.

On 1 October SusChem’s coordinating partner in the UK, Chemistry Innovation, is organising a Horizon 2020 Brokerage event on nanotechnologies, advanced materials, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing and processing (NMBP). Chemistry Innovation is coordinating the event on behalf of the Technology Strategy Board – the UK’s lead Innovation Strategy body - and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

This all day event takes place at the National Composites Centre in Bristol and is free, but places are limited. The main objectives of the event are to:

• Hear first-hand from the European Commission the content and detail of the first NMBP related calls within Horizon 2020
• Formulate partnerships with attendees for proposals that will be submitted to Horizon 2020

In order to encourage the formation of partnerships, attendees will have the opportunity to pre-book 1:1 meetings with attendees in addition to the option of attending parallel workshops in the afternoon.

For more information on this event, please visit the event web page or contact Tracy McCarroll by email.

Spanish preparations

The next day, 2 October, sees SusChem Espana starting its campaign to facilitate the participation of Spanish chemical industry stakeholders in the new Horizon 2020 programme by promoting and stimulating dialogue on innovation and project ideas.

The brokerage event takes place in the ACCIO Building in Barcelona and will be the first step in building highly innovative and competitive projects in cooperation with other stakeholders both within Spain and at European level including via the SusChem Europe brokerage event in Brussels on 23 October.

The active participation of the audience will be encouraged through the presentation of project ideas and through bilateral meetings between potential project partners.

More details (in Spanish) on the Barcelona event can be accessed here and you can download the event programme, which also includes a link to on-line registration.

The event is free if you are presenting a project proposal or if you have attended the preceding seminar on ‘Successful Preparation for Horizon 2020’ that also takes place in Barcelona at the Instituto de Química on 1 October. Otherwise registration costs €90 (VAT inc).

More information on the 1 October seminar on Strategies for Horizon 2020 ‘Cómo prepararse con éxito para el Horizonte 2020?’ can be found here.

SusChem shaping Horizon 2020 material innovations

SusChem held its first Materials Technology workshop within the frame of the platform’s new strategy on 5 March 2013. Bringing together experts and knowledge from several European chemical companies and research and technology organizations, the workshop aimed to define SusChem’s key priorities for materials research proposal development in the forthcoming Horizon 2020 programme.

The goal of the meeting was to identify the areas of high interest for SusChem stakeholder in materials technologies whether linked to a specific value-chain or of more widespread or cross-cutting interest.

With the underlying objective of updating the SusChem Implementation Action Plan (IAP) on materials technology, the workshop addressed those themes with high market prospects for the chemical and process industries with a strong focus on sustainability and the potential to guarantee excellent science, European industry leadership and tackle societal concerns.

To fulfil these goals under Horizon 2020 Dr Helge Wessel, from the European Commission’s DG Research Industrial Technologies Directorate, stated the need to maintain and reinforce the fruitful collaboration with European Technology Platforms (ETPs), such as SusChem, to define research needs and highlight material priorities. Furthermore, Dr Wessel indicated a number of focus areas where the chemical industries could play an active role in ensuring innovation in sustainable materials.

Value chain strategy  
In preparation for Horizon 2020, SusChem has designed a new strategy based on a value-chain approach that encourages collaborative innovation with stakeholders along the chain to accelerate time to market.  SusChem intends to enhance collaboration between companies and value chain sector experts by the creation of specific teams within the materials working group.

These teams will tackle four key areas where the sustainable chemical industry can play a leading role:

• Building and construction
• Automotive
• Energy, and 
• Cross-cutting areas with a wide range of application. 

In this context, the working group will identify a series of domains where the chemical industry can develop ambitious targets. These breakthrough targets, some with a clear cross-cutting character and others at an early stage but with strong innovation features, will help to feed the “focus areas” of Horizon 2020.

At this initial workshop some 35 themes within the chemistry application areas of construction, automotive, energy and some general areas were reviewed. The areas with highest interest were highlighted and further work will incorporated them into a revised SusChem IAP for submission to the work programme formulation process for the early calls (2014-2015) of Horizon 2020.

Specific themes 
Within the area of construction, refurbishment was felt to be the highest priority in terms of application demands with also potential to work on specific materials solutions for stationary energy storage. A highly strategic area was defined as 'the circular economy' which would need to be applied to various value chains including the construction / refurbishment value chain, energy and other sectors.

For automotive a variety of material projects were discussed including advanced (carbon) reinforced composites for lightweight structural parts of vehicles, exploration of possible combinations of polymer-based products and metallic solutions. Fibre reinforced materials are considered a cross-cutting technology useful for other value-chains like construction and can include the use of natural fibres and other biobased materials. Another key area of interest is the development of renewable source polymer applications in automotive.

In energy, several challenges were identified in the wind turbine industry, while solar photovoltaic also has major requirements. For thermal solar energy the opportunity lies in ‘third generation solar cooling systems’. For solar concentrated power plants, the challenge for materials is the design of high performance thermal fluids.

The area of waste energy recovery was also highlighted as an important area: both for the potential role of enabling materials and also a process opportunity for chemical industry facilities with substantial excess heat that could be recovered.

What’s next?
The SusChem materials working group will now prepare a revised Strategic Research Agenda for Materials Technologies and will present this to the European Commission in the coming weeks.

If you want to join the SusChem materials working group and share your expertise and knowledge to enhance the materials of the future then please get in touch with SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki at Cefic.