KETs Impact: Self-assembling polymers enable efficient semiconductor fab

The recent SusChem White paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’ included a number of success stories highlighting publicly funded innovation involving KETs and the SusChem News blog is featuring a selection of these fruitful 'SusChem inspired' initiatives.

KETs are technologies selected for their ability to address global challenges, support the development of new products, and stimulate economic growth.

Sustainable chemistry is essential to the technological advance of KETs including advanced materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, industrial biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnology and photonics. SusChem's key enabling technologies provide the critical building blocks for the solutions needed to achieve a sustainable low carbon circular economy. You can find out more here.

Our ninth KETs success story highlights PLACYD, a FP7 project funded via the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL) Joint Undertaking, and led by Arkema to establish a dedicated material manufacturing facility to produce block copolymers meeting the rigorous standards required for use in industry as nanolithographic templates for electronics and semiconductors. PLACYD brought together leading researchers and industries to allow for the first time the integration of synthesis through to wafer scale production and system/device characterisation developing an industrial solution including all key technologies including Materials, Metrology, Integration Processes, and Design tools.

Pilot Line for Self-Assembly Copolymers Delivery

A disruptive technology breakthrough strengthened EU leadership in semiconductors

Public funding aligned an eco-innovation system. Synergies enabled a breakthrough development

The semiconductor industry economy relies on geometrical scaling of transistors to insure performances improvement, power consumption reduction and cost per transistor reduction. Therefore, the well-known Moore’s law, relating to the reduction of devices’ critical dimensions by a factor of two every 18 months, has been driving the semiconductor roadmap. Up to now, devices scaling has been enabled by continuous improvements of optical lithography. Directed Self Assembly (DSA) lithography is a disruptive patterning technology that no longer relies on optics but on the polymer’s characteristics (composition and molecular weight). In DSA technology, the pattern is included within the material as the molecular weight defines the critical dimensions and the pitch the composition of the pattern.

How was the breakthrough innovation achieved? 

PLACYD project relied on a strong consortium gathering companies and academic laboratories that covered the full eco innovation system and all necessary skills from material to end-users including process and equipment manufacturers. The success of the project was established through synergies and complementarities of the partners along the value chain.

In DSA technology “the pitch is in the bottle”, the polymer and resists quality and reproducibility were key to the success of the technology. Therefore, specific efforts in developing new processes as well as new metrology techniques have been carried out leading to excellent performance and the state of the art in this sector. The metallic contamination of the resist is bellow 10ppb for all metals, the organic purity of the polymer is greater than 99.9% thanks to a unique proprietary technique that allows to discriminate homopolymers from copolymers and the copolymer dispersity has been reduced to less than 1.05.

On the patterning quality aspect, CEA-Leti developed new integration schemes that allows a wide range of configurations while insuring optimum pattern performances. 

Impact

• Increasing European leadership in microelectronics and more specifically in lithography both in terms of academic recognition (more than 60 papers and conferences), Intellectual Property position (i.e. more than 25 patent families were applied for within the project, half of them are already public) and in terms of industrial leadership.
• Commercial products have been launched based on PLACYD results. On the material side, ARKEMA launches its Nanostrength EO material suite that includes a full range of DSA resists for both lamellar and cylindrical patterns ranging from 20 nm to 50 nm pitches. On the design side, project partner MENTOR commercialises the DSA module within its EDA CALIBRE software suite. 

In summary, PLACYD allowed the development of a full DSA solution that covers all key axes of the technology (material, process, metrology and design) strengthening European leadership in semiconductor technology and demonstrating the compatibility of DSA with manufacturing requirements. Moreover, commercial products have been derived from PLACYD developments: the DSA material suite by ARKEMA and DSA software module by MENTOR.

More information

PLACYD - Pilot Line For Self Assembly Copolymer Delivery (FP7 / ECSEL JU GA 621277)

Read the SusChem White Paper ‘Impact: Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) in Horizon Europe’

Spotlight on MAKE, CREATE and LEVERAGE at #suschem2018

Join us at the 2018 SusChem Stakeholder Event - #SusChem2018 - on 20 June 2018 your number one destination for innovation policy dialogue and debate this summer. The 2018 Stakeholder event takes place at the Thon Hotel City Centre in Brussels and will be a great opportunity to voice your priorities and help define SusChem’s input into the next EU Framework Funding Programme: Horizon Europe.

This year’s theme is "The Future of Research & Innovation in Europe: Defining Technology Priorities for Sustainable Growth" and will bring together global audiences, senior players from the chemical industry, academia, research technology organisations (RTOs) and EU institutions to address common innovation challenges and debate priorities crucial to the sustainability of the European chemical and biotechnology sectors.

At the event Stakeholder input will be collected through two carefully designed parallel breakout sessions: one on Advanced Materials (CREATE) and the other on Advanced Process Technologies (MAKE). Input from both sessions will contribute to our future strategic research and innovation agenda beyond 2020.These two technology areas are complimented by Digital Technologies (LEVERAGE) and will also feature at #suschem 2018. All three themes are described in the video above.

All three of these SusChem Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) featured in SusChem’s recent white paper on the potential for KETs in Horizon Europe. The white paper outlined the major technology developments and initiatives needed to ‘create’ advanced materials, ‘develop’ advanced process technologies and ‘leverage’ digital technologies.

See you at #suschem2018!

SusChem Stakeholder 2016: ICT and #DigitiseEU

This year’s SusChem stakeholder event takes place on 16 June in Brussels. One of the major areas for discussion at the stakeholder event will be advances and issues in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the process industries. Martin Winter, Cefic Innovation Manager responsible for this SusChem priority area, outlines some of the issues up for debate and where your input is sought.

ICT for process was one of the five priority areas for innovation identified at our successful 2015 Stakeholder event. The recent European Commission communication on ‘Digitising European Industry – Reaping the full benefits of a Digital Single Market’ highlighted the role of the SusChem supported PPPs - Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and energy Efficiency (SPIRE) and Bio-Based Industries (BBI) - to help industry seize the new opportunities offered by ICT enabled innovation.

On 10 March SusChem organised a workshop involving around 20 ICT experts from companies and academia to discuss ‘Digitisation’ on the European level and to build the base for future funding calls, projects and collaborations.

SusChem, Process ICT and #DigitiseEU

From new forms of production to innovative business models the process industry is about to experience a revolution enabled by digital technologies.  Digitisation is expected to have a high impact on modernising Europe's production capabilities and can boost European process industries in the race for global competitiveness and sustainability.

The European chemical industry is a strong contributor to the roots of the European economy. Digitisation is already present in all aspects of the sector’s activities as it is essential from logistics, product and process design, planning, plant operations and plant safety to marketing/sales and customer integration.

In addition, smart materials developed by the chemical industry enable new and higher performing  ICT developments in printable-, wearable-, nano-electronics or 3D printing techniques and also allow more sustainable manufacture of new electronic devices avoiding material losses and waste generation.

To remain competitive, future factories will need well-integrated ICT systems as production increasingly uses digital innovations such as data capture, planning and control, modelling and simulation, cloud computing and big data analysis enabled by high performance computers and data connections. Data analytics will allow enterprises to convert data into knowledge, and effectively contribute to more efficient and safer processes with less environmental impact by more efficient management of resources, water and energy.

Focus for chemicals

With a focus on the manufacturing environment, important categories for further development for the chemical industry include:

• Modelling, Simulation and Forecasting: Integration of modelling of single processes into production routes with modelling extended to all levels of automation, including scheduling and management systems as well as on-line decision making processes.
• Real Time Data Availability: Development of hard- and soft-sensors for continuous processes that are reliable, fast, accurate and contact-less for use in intelligent self-optimising measurement systems along the whole production route and fully integrated in the plant automation environment.
• Transformation of ‘Big Data’ into Lean Information: Identifying universal solutions for handling large amounts of data, methods to improve their reliability, techniques to assign them to product performance and explaining their practical meaning to all relevant applications.
• Intelligent Self-learning Systems: Building models based on data and results, which continue to learn and broaden the scope of the models, based on closed loop performance monitoring.
• Condition Based Advanced Maintenance: Developing tools and methods based on models, sensors, diagnosis and data analysis to allow remote control of equipment, prediction and prevention of failures, identification of trends and avoidance of efficiency losses and unwanted stoppages.
• Product Quality Monitoring: Implementing integrated quality control factory-wide systems to monitor the evolution of quality across the production route by calling on information technology to better link process operations and plant logistics to give production flexibility.
• Resource and Energy/ Lifecycle analysis (LCA): Enabling monitoring of environmental targets (energy / water use, CO₂-emissions etc.) in all control systems as an additional set of constraints to optimise the overall sustainable performance.
• Data Privacy: Developing advanced security solutions to prevent misuse of stored data and protect plant control systems or cloud-stored data from malicious attack.
• Human-Machine Interface: Developing intuitive and user friendly interfaces for (plant)-managers, operators etc., information and their interpretation have to be available at all times in all locations.

Digital potential

However, digitisation has even greater potential to improve the European chemical industry. By using the full potential of high speed connectivity, the internet of things, cloud computing and cyber-physical systems in and for manufacturing, Europe can create new high-skilled jobs, reduce its consumption of resources and energy, increase its production capacity and continue to create the innovative products which a changing society needs.

SusChem inspired initiatives such as SPIRE are helping to make digitisation of European industries a reality. Close cooperation and alignment in the definition phases of the funding calls available under Horizon 2020 across all PPPs and all levels of stakeholder involvement is necessary to ensure that all the needs of the process industries are fully considered.

Stakeholder discussions

A highly interactive debate is expected at the Stakeholder event on 16 June and your questions and expectations on the outcomes for the panel debates, in particular on ICT and process issues, are welcome in advance.

Registration for the 2016 SusChem Stakeholder event is now open. This dedicated registration website includes links to discounted accommodation at the Hotel Bloom in Brussels - the venue for the event.

You are invited to submit your questions and comments and also your expectations for outcomes as part of the registration process. You can submit your questions and comments when you register and there will also be a link for question submission sent with the registration confirmation email.

Meet the Manager – Martin Winter

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 joined 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. In addition a marketing and sales responsibility for one of Clariant’s start-up businesses brought him to Asia/Japan for a two year assignment. Since June 2015 Martin has been seconded from Clariant to Cefic in Brussels as an Innovation Manager responsible for driving the innovation agenda for the Chemical Industry.

His main area of responsibility is networking with the industry regarding their research and innovation priorities and connecting them with the European Commission’s funding instruments under Horizon 2020, for example, as the chemical sector’s representative in the SPIRE PPP. His main focus is on ICT, chemical process technologies and catalyst topics.

He likes to spend his free time with his family and is also an enthusiastic skydiver.

SusChem Stakeholder 2016: Draft Agenda published

The draft agenda for the SusChem Stakeholder 2016 event (#suschem2016) has been published and registration is still open! Under the overarching theme ‘Sustainable Chemistry Innovation for Competitiveness’ the event will take place on 16 June 2016 at The Bloom Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

The SusChem Stakeholder Event is the biggest annual event held by the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) and brings together the chemical industry, academia, Research Technology Organisations and EU policy representatives to address common challenges and debate priorities in the European chemical and biotechnology innovation sectors.

What’s happening?
This year’s event will include a number of exciting activities and present important new developments for the SusChem community, including two lively high-level panel debates to discuss the recently published European Commission Innovation Strategy packages: Circular economy and the Energy Union and Digitisation.

The doors of the event will open from 08:30 with the first presentation opening and welcoming delegates by SusChem Secretary Flavio Benedito at 09:30.

Strategic topics related to SusChem funding and its programme will then be described by Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General of DG Research and Innovation followed by SusChem chairman Dr Klaus Sommer presenting 'Implementing the new SIRA: Status and priorities'.

After coffee, delegates will receive updates from our working groups on the SusChem Priorities. The briefings will be given by the Cefic Innovation Managers with responsibility for the respective priorities. Henk Pool will update us on Water, Martin Winter will describe progress in two areas - ICT for processes and Processes & Catalysis, the work of the Sustainable Bioeconomy group will be outlined by Flavio Benedito and progress in Materials for Energy management will be described by Anne Chloe Devic. Just before lunch delegates can catch up with the latest news from SusChem's network of National Technology Platforms (NTPs).

Plenary debates
The afternoon sessions will be dominated by two plenary discussions. The first plenary will look at the “Circular Economy” and be moderated by Pierre Barthélemy, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cefic. Contributions from the European Commission will come from Reinhard Buescher, Head of Unit 'Chemicals' at DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW), Luisa Presta, Head of Unit 'Environmental Technologies' at DG Research and Innovation (RTD) together with a contribution from DG Environment (ENV).

On the industry side the panellists are Reinier Grimbergen, Director Science to Innovate at DSM, Gloria Gaupmann, Public & Regulatory Affairs Manager, Group Biotechnology at Clariant, Anton Valero, President at Dow Chemical Spain and Portugal, and Greet van Eetvelde, Head of Energy & Innovation Policy at INEOS.

The second plenary debate takes place after coffee and will cover “Energy Union & Digitisation.” Alexis Bazzanella, Head Research & Project Coordination at DECHEMA e.V. is the moderator and panellists for the Commission are Khalil Rouhana, Director for 'Components & Systems' at DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT), Marie Donnelly, Director for 'Renewables, Research and Innovation, Energy Efficiency' at DG Energy (ENER) and Helene Chraye, Head of Unit 'Advanced Materials and Nanotechnologies' at DG Research and Innovation (RTD).

On the industry side are Jens Rieger, Senior Vice President at BASF and Peter Nagler, Head of International Innovation at Evonik Industries AG.

#suschem2016 will conclude around 17:00.

Event objectives
The SusChem Stakeholder Event will be, as usual, a high-level initiative that aims to:

• Improve dialogue between our stakeholders;
• Identify innovation drivers for the future;
• Present the European chemical industry as a solution provider to address societal challenges;
• Promote a common view between the chemical industry and the European Commission to increase synergies and develop shared solutions on innovation priority areas.

Registration
A dedicated registration website has been set up for the event that includes links to discounted accommodation at the Hotel Bloom.

To ensure full, open and interactive discussions on current innovation priorities and to identify those that are missing from the European Commission packages, you are invited to submit your questions for the panels and also your expectations for outcomes from these two high-level panel debates as part of the registration process. You can submit your questions and comments when you register and there will also be a link for question submission sent with the registration confirmation email.

You can register here. For more information on registration, please contact the SusChem secretariat.

Sustainable Chemistry, Smart Industry and #Digital4EU

Today (24 February) the #Digital4EU stakeholder forum is taking place in Brussels. This one-day event organised by the European Commission includes four main workshops including one on Smart Industry. Sustainable chemistry has a major role to play in supporting the digital agenda in Europe.

ICT and digital innovation is an important technology area for the chemical industry. For decades the chemical industry has made extensive use of ICT systems throughout its value chain, from logistics, to modelling, design, control, monitoring and repair. In addition, the chemical industry is a key provider of materials and technologies that form the basis for many ICT and digital solutions.

Smart Chemical Processes
Within the total chemical industry value chain from product design to delivery to the customer, ICT plays a key role. ICT is key to a successful, efficient and competitive industry.

As chemical products, process and plants become ever more complex and resource usage and performance requirements become tougher, ICT can deliver a large portion of the innovation needed to keep the European chemical industry competitive on the global stage.

Process Control is a critical factor for sustainability in the production process. Advanced process methods allow production units to run at optimal operating points under appropriate constraints. Monitoring is a related area of importance for the process industry where improved digital modelling can contribute to increased plant availability, reduced costs and improved product quality.

Modelling for innovation is also a key topic. ICT-enabled innovation can significantly reduce (20-40%) time lines for product and process developments and save costs. Overall ICT technologies can enable increased resource efficiency, will enable new process and product capabilities, and strengthen the chemical industry and European competitiveness.

Smart Materials for smart industry
Sustainable chemistry is all about developing ‘Smart materials’ – materials that will enable the development of important ICT such as nanoelectronics and haptic devices. Sustainable chemistry also provides the specialty polymers and other materials that will be required for new 3D printing technologies to produce components with demanding specifications.

Sustainable chemistry is looking to develop polymers that enable nano-structured self-organisation for use as templates to support advanced nano-lithography or other nanoelectronic fabrication techniques for the fast prototyping and production of complex electronic devices. Such advanced fabrication techniques can reduce development time for microelectronic devices and boost the capability and competitiveness of the European ICT sector.

Polymers and polymer-based ink formulations are also essential for printed fabrication techniques, such as roll-to-roll lithography that allow mass production of low-cost microelectronic circuits for a wide range of applications including RFID tags, flexible displays and OLED lighting.

Future chemical developments include improved conductive polymers, piezoelectric and electro-active polymers that can inspire new and emerging end-use applications including wearable electronics.

Additive manufacturing aka 3D printing
3D printing will change the way society manufactures and its development heralds an era of mass-customisation. 3D printing or Additive Manufacturing produces a three-dimensional object from an electronic data set through an additive process making material layers in successive steps under computer control – truly digital manufacturing.

The global market for materials and services for 3D printing (excluding printer equipment) was estimated to be US$ 1.8 billion in 2013 and is projected to grow to US$ 10.8 billion by 2018.

The ability to produce small lot sizes and highly specialised added value products makes 3D printing technology a key technology for the next generation of industry: Industry 4.0. Innovation and pre-industrialisation, competitive small series production, improved time-to-market, custom made parts for personalised products, manufacturing of complex structures and geometries are all drivers for the development of additive manufacturing technologies. 3D printing also contributes to lower energy and resource use.

Polymers with appropriate end-use performances and adapted to specific 3D printing technologies are needed along with suitable metallic or ceramic materials. The European chemical industry already delivers many of these materials, but research is needed to widen the range of materials and mechanical properties of polymers available for 3D printing. Development of new electrically and thermally conductive materials will provide new opportunities for the development of additive manufacturing. Solutions to improve the surface finish of manufactured parts are also required.

Sustainable chemistry is key
Additive manufacturing is a key technology for fostering the European innovation and manufacturing industries. And its full development requires key inputs from sustainable chemistry.

Digital technologies, such as 3D printing technologies, can reduce the gap between innovation and manufacturing, stimulate the renewal of European manufacturing industry and boost industrial research and design opportunities too.

CRM Workshop at SEMICON Europa

The CRM_InnoNet project is holding a workshop at Europe’s biggest industrial event for the semiconductor and microelectronics sector: SEMICON. The workshop entitled ‘Critical Raw Materials – Importance for European Electronics Industry’ is being held on 6 October at the beginning of SEMICON Europa 2014 in Grenoble, France.

The electronics sector is an area that is vulnerable to supply issues for a number of critical raw materials (CRM) that are essential for the manufacture of the electronic products that are now characteristic of modern society.

In early 2014 CRM-InnoNet published a draft study that sought to identify applications in the ICT and electronics sector which are CRM dependent and are important to the European economy. The report can be downloaded from the project website.

The objectives of the CRM_InnoNet workshop in Grenoble are to:

• Highlight threats and opportunities related to availability of raw materials in the ICT and electronics sector
• Present a value chain analysis for key applications or the ICT and electronics sectors to identify critical raw material bottlenecks
• Discuss development of a European roadmap for substitution of critical raw materials in electronic components, and 
• Develop policy recommendations relating to substitution of critical raw materials for the sector

At the workshop Antonia Morales of Cefic will first define what makes a material critical, before the CRM_InnoNet project is described by Susanne Coles of the UK's Knowledge Transfer Network. Then David Peck of TU Delft and David Gardner of C-Tech Innovation will lead an interactive exercise on ‘Critical materials in the ICT sector’.

After coffee John Bachér of VTT will outline our current analysis of the supply chain in the ICT sector before the draft European Roadmaps for Substitution of Critical Raw Materials in the electronics and photonics sectors is described. This will be followed by a discussion on policy recommendations and a wrap up and closing session.

Registration
You can download a flyer for the workshop. The event is open to stakeholders from all parts of the electronics value chain with an interest in critical raw materials. To register today click here!

Once you have registered for this workshop, you must also register on the SEMICON Europa website as a visitor in order to gain access to the venue on the day.

Registration is free and funding may be available to support travel costs for SME participants. For more information contact the CRM_InnoNet secretariat.

SEMICON 2014
If you are also interested in the latest advances in semiconductors and microelectronics then you may wish to extend your stay in Grenoble to attend the SEMICON meeting on 7 to 9 October.

The SEMICON Europa technology and business programme addresses the critical issues and challenges facing the microelectronics industries today and provides information, education, and guidance to boost innovation in the sector and speed products to market. In 2013 over 4000 industry experts, professionals and executives attended the event making SEMICON the biggest microelectronics industry event in Europe.

What is CRM_InnoNet?
The project is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded under the European Commission’s FP7 programme that is creating an integrated community to drive innovation in the field of critical raw material substitution for the benefit of EU industry by:

• Mapping critical raw material substitution options and policy initiatives
• Developing a methodology for the prioritisation of applications which are under ‘threat’ and identifying opportunities
• Elaborating a roadmap for the substitution of critical raw materials
• Creating an Innovation Network as a dynamic, open and proactive platform for the entire stakeholder community
• Preparing recommendations on future initiative ideas and suggested actions for policy makers

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials aims to play a major role in securing a sustainable supply of raw materials for Europe and has set itself an ambitious list of targets to achieve by 2020. CRM_InnoNet’s goals complement those of the EIP on Raw Materials and the project will seek to align its outputs with those of the EIP.

The CRM_InnoNet consortium is comprised of recognised and experienced key actors across the value chain of substitution of CRM representing academic, research and industry bodies of relevant sectors that will ensure a wide European coverage and high potential to engage other necessary players across the European Research Area (ERA).

#SusChem10: SIRA, ICT and Combined Funding

The main topic of the 2014 SusChem Stakeholder event in Brussels on June 11 and 12 was the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). The underlying structure of the document is designed to match key societal challenges under Horizon 2020 with SIRA priorities and SusChem's enabling technologies. The SIRA covers some new topics and, with new combined funding possibilities envisaged by the Commission, will cover potential projects further along the research and innovation chain.

Parallel breakout sessions over the two days of the SusChem event explored priorities and issues in all the SIRA topics including two new areas: ‘Health and well-being’ and ‘Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)’. Brief descriptions of the current main SIRA priority areas are given at the end of this article.

ICT and process control
The ICT topic was the subject of a particularly useful discussion on June 12. ICT is essential for advanced process control in industry and will become even more important in the future as an enabler for improvements in resource and energy efficiency. It is therefore important that the sustainable chemistry community can articulate its needs, knowledge gaps and challenges to guide research and development in this area.

Topics discussed at the stakeholder event included:

• Fundamental and data-driven modelling (molecular, processes and equipment, applications)
• Material, product and process design
• Process engineering techniques
• Process and equipment monitoring and maintenance techniques
• Data handling and data analysis techniques
• Process control, including hardware and software

“ICT already plays a critical role in developing and maintaining chemical products and processes,” explains Pádraig Naughton, Innovation manager at Cefic. “However, in many cases the application of ICT is still conducted in a discrete way throughout the various development and production steps. Huge potential exists to apply ICT technologies across the complete development chain, in a closed loop, leading to an integrated, more efficient and more profitable approach.”

As new process technologies are developed, new ICT technologies will need to be developed and applied. For example, trends towards modular, flexible processing will require an innovative ICT approach to control and monitor variable systems. In addition, with the advent and growth of renewable feedstocks and energy, new challenges arise in the field of ICT to ensure sustainable development.

The session certainly stimulated discussion between industry, academia and the European Commission and a number of priority topics were outlined which will drive developments in this field for the chemical industry at European level. It was concluded that there is a clear window of opportunity for chemical process issues to be addressed in forthcoming Horizon 2020 calls coordinated by DG CONNECT.

Guide to combine funding
The second day of the event also looked at new opportunities for innovation through combined funding within the EU. Presentations described the new innovation investment eco-system in the EU focusing on funding instruments under Horizon 2020 and the opportunities for synergies with structural funds for investment projects that could provide funding instruments that can cover all stages of the innovation chain with optimal use of resources.

A new guide on the practicalities of combining funding described at the Stakeholder event has just been published by the European Commission.

The guide entitled ‘Enabling synergies between European Structural application: and Investment Funds, Horizon 2020 and other research, innovation and competitiveness-related Union programmes’ describes the synergies now available between ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds) and Horizon 2020 and other EU programmes for innovation and competitiveness.

The 125 page guide contains explanations on the basic rules and principles for obtaining synergies and combining the different funds, and contains recommendations for relevant actors. It is accompanied by descriptions of the various programmes (Annex 1) and guidance via a set of scenarios designed to “inspire programme designers and implementers” with respect to the potential to combine schemes (Annex 2).

The European Investment Bank (EIB) also described its new toolbox of instruments for investment in innovation (InnovFin) that was launched during the SusChem event.

SusChem already has experience of combining funding sources as Thomas Goergen from Bayer Technology Services explained at the event. In the our flagship F3 Factory project the project itself was co-funded via the European Commission FP7 framework research programme while the construction of its backbone infrastructure facility (INVITE) was partially funded by German regional government funds and remains a valuable asset for future collaborative research and innovation projects.

SIRA Outlined
SusChem has just published a new video interview with SusChem coordinator Jacques Komornicki. In the video (below) Jacques describes some of the thinking behind the new SIRA programme and the future direction of SusChem activities.



The SIRA is structured around seven sections:

• ‘Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials’ tackling priority areas in raw materials and feedstocks; water conservation, recycling and reuse; waste reduction and recovery; climate action through energy efficiency in the chemical industry; and the chemical plant of the future.
• ‘A sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy’ looking at sustainable agriculture and forestry; and the establishment of sustainable and competitive bio-based industries.
• ‘Secure, clean and efficient energy’ dealing with energy efficiency in the chemical industry; products for energy efficiency; competitive low carbon energy production; and enhanced energy storage technologies.
• ‘Health, demographics and well-being’ focusing on personalised diagnosis using imaging; responsive materials for prosthetic devices; and formulation technologies.
• ‘Smart, green and integrated transport’ covering green vehicles; materials for reduced energy consumption; materials and systems for sustainable design; and the achievement of a more sustainable internal combustion engine.
• ‘ICT and the chemical industry: smart processes and smart materials’ exploring the connections between the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) domain and sustainable chemistry that, on the one hand, could boost the overall performance of all the process sectors and, on the other hand, provide new technologies and materials for ICT exploitation.
• ‘Horizontal issues’ covering four important areas: building skills capacity in Europe; developing a robust definition of sustainable chemistry; accelerating societal uptake of innovation; and developing new innovative business models.

An executive summary of the SIRA can be downloaded here.

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

Register for the SusChem Stakeholder event now!

SusChem’s 12th Stakeholder event and 10th anniversary celebration takes place on 11 and 12 June at the Renaissance Hotel in Brussels. Have you registered yet? If not you need to hurry as places are filling up quickly – and with new features just announced (including a brokerage session) you need to act fast to secure your seat at the stakeholder event of the year!

You can download the latest programme for the event here. The theme of the event is 'Sustainable Chemistry: At the forefront of Innovation'. Activities on the first day will open with plenary sessions on SusChem’s achievements and future challenges and then focus on the presentation and discussion of the new SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA). The new SIRA will guide the platform’s activities for the next few years and is organised around six main topic themes:

• Resource and energy efficiency
• Biotechnologies and the bioeconomy
• Clean and efficient energy
• Transportation
• Health and well-being
• Horizontal issues

At the stakeholder event on 11 June you can participate in a round-table discussion on one of these themes and be one of the first to provide your views and input. Registered participants for the stakeholder event will receive a copy of the SIRA before the event.

Your input is important. We want to hear what you think about the proposed priorities. Are they relevant? Are there missing topics? What relative priorities should we assign to the various topics?

This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of European innovation in sustainable chemistry for the coming decade.

The first day of the event will close with a review of the role of SusChem’s National Technology Platform network in delivering the outcomes of the new SIRA and a networking poster session with cocktails.

Funding, ICT and chemicals
Opening the morning of the second day will be a panel discussion on innovation opportunities through combined funding with representatives of the European Investment Bank, DG Enterprise and Bayer Technology Services.

This will be followed by a presentation on the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme under Horizon 2020.

After coffee there are two parallel sessions to choose from. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is of great importance to contemporary concepts in chemical processing and SusChem is dedicating one event session to the topic. ICT will be considered in broad terms to include topics such as:

• Fundamental and data-driven modelling (molecular, processes and equipment, applications)
• Material, product and process design
• Process engineering techniques
• Process and equipment monitoring and maintenance techniques
• Data handling and data analysis techniques
• Process control, including hardware and software 

Break out for process KIC
A parallel session will address how the SusChem community can help shape a successful KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Communities) in advanced manufacturing. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) aims to enhance Europe’s ability to innovate by integrating higher education, research and business in areas of major concern to society through the establishment of appropriate KICs. Presentations will be made on the EIT and KICs and this will be followed by contributions from SusChem stakeholders already involved in the Climate KIC.

Just before lunch SusChem chairman Dr Klaus Sommer (right) will close the main stakeholder event with a summary of learning points and will outline the near-term way forward for the platform including the process for finalising and implementing the SIRA.

H2020 brokerage
After lunch on day two the brokerage session will focus on Horizon 2020 call topics with their call dates falling in the second half of 2014 or in 2015. The session offers a unique opportunity for industry, academia, SMEs and other actors to start developing consortia ready to submit funding applications.

You can download a list of SusChem relevant calls that will be subject of discussion at the brokerage session here. And new project proposals can already be submitted via the SusChem / Cefic Grant-It portal. Participants can also submit posters for the informal poster session and/ or register to take part in our popular ‘speed dating’ sessions!

Register today!
For more details on the brokerage session – and all other aspects of the stakeholder event – register today. For more information, please email the SusChem secretariat or visit the SusChem website.

See you in Brussels on 11 and 12 June!

Chemical Innovation to play a critical role in Smart Cities

Today (October 14) the High-level Group (HLG) of the Smart Cities and Communities (SCC) European Innovation Partnership (EIP) presented its Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) to the European Commission. Chemical innovation can provide a range of concrete solutions to the challenges of improving our urban built environment and infrastructure and enable the realization of the truly Smart Cities of tomorrow.

With about three-quarters of European citizens living in or around cities, it is essential that Europe gets this right. “We need more structured EU dialogue on how to balance the diversity and complexity of city requirements with the industrial needs for a broader market scale of integrated technological concepts, from the retrofitting of buildings to ICT-enabled buildings to create a European market of affordable solutions,” said Dr. Gernot Klotz, Executive Director for Research and Innovation at Cefic and a SusChem board member. “A potential 50 000 individual solutions for the needs of 50 000 individual cities is an unsustainable path. There is a clear need to bring cities together to enable industry to supply broader affordable solutions.”

Strategic plan
The Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) marks a major milestone achievement for the Smart Cities and Communities High-level Group. The group brings together cities, industries and stakeholders across Europe to discuss ways to improve the standardization of innovative new solutions for urban districts and to accelerate their deployment across European cities.

The meeting (above) was hosted by Commissioner Neelie Kroes (Digital Agenda) and statements were made by Commissioners Siim Kallas (Transport), Günther H. Oettinger (Energy) and Johannes Hahn (Regional Policy). The chemical industry is represented on this important policy group by Giorgio Squinzi, CEO of Maipei and recent past president of Cefic.

The SIP outlines eleven ambitious targets in three specific areas that are expected to contribute to the broader development of sustainable mobility, sustainable districts and built environments, and integrated infrastructures and processes across Energy, information and communication technologies (ICT) and Transport.

“We appreciate the efforts and the result of the High Level Group in having a strategic implementation plan delivered within six months, on an extremely diverse and complex topic such as the future of cities in Europe” continued Dr. Klotz.

Chemistry: concrete contributions
Chemistry lies at the very heart of the built environment in every city and provides the fundamental building blocks for ICT, Energy and Transport. For example, new advanced materials for housing such as smart coatings and insulations are making houses more energy efficient, while advanced light-weight materials and printed electronics for mobility are making cars more connected, safer and more energy efficient.

These applications are expected to make a significant contribution towards the EIP’s goals. It is hoped that the SIP proposals will be implemented in full to address the full scale of “smart” city enabling technologies and to prioritize the creation of jobs and growth in Europe.

The Chemical Industry is ready to engage longer-term in the work of the EIP 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 last Smart Cities and Communities Stakeholder Platform conference.

The five key chemistry-based products proposed by SusChem to help improve building efficiency and help reach the EU 20-20-20 targets are:

• High-reflectance indoor coatings
• High-reflectance and durable outdoor coatings
• High-performance insulation foams 
• High-performance vacuum insulation panels
• Phase-change materials (PCM)

These five key chemistry-based products have been adopted as a Key Innovation by the Smart Cities and Communities Stakeholder Platform. Combined these products can offer substantial energy savings of up to 40% at an acceptable investment.

“All these solutions are assessed for technical feasibility and impact. What remains is the real life testing of these technologies in European cities and the chemical Industry is ready for this next step,” said Dr. Klotz.

Urban opportunity 
This Smart Cities and Communities EIP offers a great opportunity to reduce the complexity of city requirements and creates a market pull along industrial value chains as well as accelerating the creation of jobs and growth in Europe.

“It is only by working together that we can bridge the innovation gaps and stimulate the convergence of industrial value chains in the Energy, Transport and ICT sectors to find and implement the best solutions for smart cities. This is Europe’s unique strength and competitive edge over other regions of the world” concluded Dr. Klotz.

The EIP still has to improve its potential by including manufacturing as well as services in order to stimulate innovation for a broader European economy. This can happen through creating market pull and improvement to the SIP by giving manufacturing a more prominent role.

A public launch event for the SIP is being planned for 26 November in Brussels that will outline European funding and business commitments.

This is just the beginning of a large scale programme of work by all the partners and many others. An important part of that work will be the "Lighthouse Projects" - cities which will demonstrate and deliver Smart City solutions on a large scale. These Projects will be partly financed by the European Commission's Horizon 2002 Research Funds. Further business and public funding will help to spread these new solutions to other cities and economies of scale will help to make these "innovative" and "high tech" solutions the norm and available more easily to all cities and neighbourhoods.

The Commission is expected to invest around €200 million to create Smart Cities projects in the next two years.

Smart Cities
The Smart Cities and Communities EIP (SCC) is a partnership across the areas of energy, transport, and ICT with the objective of catalyzing progress in areas where energy production, distribution and use; mobility and transport; and ICT are intimately linked and offer new interdisciplinary opportunities to improve services while reducing energy and resource consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) and other polluting emissions.

The HLG acts in an advisory role to the Commission and consists of senior representatives of industry, cities, civil society, relevant EU initiatives in this area and member s of the European Commission as members. The group is led by the three European Commissioners for Energy, Transport and the Digital Agenda.

For more information on SusChem activities in support of the Smart Cities and Communities initiative, or to discuss potential collaborations in this area, please contact SusChem Coordinator Jacques Komornicki at Cefic. The new SusChem report can be downloaded here.