European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service Final conference

The European Commission and the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) invite you to the final conference of the European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service entitled: 'Boosting regional investments in sustainable chemicals' that is taking place on 14 September in Brussels. The Sustainable Chemicals Support Service initiative was organised by a consortium of Cefic, PNO and CIRCE.

The event aims to present the results of the European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service initiative 'Six Model demonstrator regions for sustainable chemical production', that was funded by the European Commission. It will feature success stories and best practices from the six regions, selected by the European Commission as 'model demonstrator regions' in Europe for a sustainable chemical industry.

The regions are:

• Andalusia (Spain)
• Groningen-Drenthe (The Netherlands)
• Kosice (Slovakia)
• Scotland (United Kingdom)
• South and Eastern Ireland
• Wallonia (Belgium)

The Conference will also present the publicly available self-assessment tool, developed by the initiative, which aims to support all European regions to assess their investment readiness level to produce chemicals in a sustainable manner.

This event is free of charge and will be held in English.

You can get more details and register here.

Sustainable chemicals

The aim of the European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service initiative was to encourage investments in sustainable chemicals production in Europe that will contribute to the development of the circular economy, for example by taking advantage of domestically available feedstock such as biomass, waste or CO2.

Cefic and SusChem have been very supportive of collaboration within and between chemical regions based on concepts such as Industrial Symbiosis. This was demonstrated by Cefic-SusChem participation in the Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency (R4R) FP7 project and expressed in the 2015 SusChem position paper on Circular Economy.

Get Going with Grant-It

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

Connect to Grant-it now!

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

One-stop shop
Launched in 17 December 2013, the Grant-it portal is your ‘one-stop’ shop for information and project building tools for Horizon 2020 and a range of other financing initiatives for collaborative research and innovation projects in Europe.

The experience gained by SusChem in FP7 was used to shape the Grant-it portal to enable SusChem stakeholders to successfully engage with the new opportunities presented by Horizon 2020. The Grant-it website is your ‘one-stop’ access to funding opportunities from the European Commission and from selected national and regional governments in the field of sustainable chemistry.

With Grant-it you can search for funding opportunities, search for and identify project opportunities, propose project ideas, and search for potential project partners. The system also allows searches of past funded EU projects including FP5 to FP7 and other initiatives.

For SusChem
Grant-it is a password protected free service offered by Cefic to its members and SusChem stakeholders to further boost industry participation in collaborative research and innovation activities. SusChem members can log-in with their SusChem username and password.

Grant-it is based on the cloud-concept of sharing innovation knowledge, projects and funding between stakeholders in Europe and has been specially developed by Cefic for the SusChem community working with PNO Consultants and its software partner Innovation Engineering.

Grant-it: your portal to EU funding schemes

Launched on 17 December, the Grant-it portal was an early Christmas present from SusChem to the European sustainable chemistry community. Grant-it 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.

“During FP7, SusChem initiated and inspired sustainable chemistry projects with a total funding in excess of € 1 billion,” says Jacques Komornicki, SusChem coordinator and Innovation Manager at Cefic. “We have used this experience and expertise to shape the new Grant-it portal to enable SusChem stakeholders to successfully engage with the new opportunities presented by Horizon 2020.”

“The Grant-it website is your ‘one-stop’ access to funding opportunities from the European Commission and from selected national and regional governments in the field of sustainable chemistry,” agrees Pádraig Naughton, Innovation Manager at Cefic, who was heavily involved with the development of the site. “Using Grant-it you can search for funding opportunities, search for and identify project opportunities, propose project ideas, and search for potential project partners. The system also allows searches of past funded EU projects including FP5 to FP7 and other initiatives.”

Grant-it is a password protected free service offered by Cefic to its members and SusChem stakeholders to further boost industry participation in collaborative research and innovation activities.

“SusChem members can log-in with their SusChem username and password,” says Jacques. “While Cefic members can log-in with their click-in username and password.”

Cloud concept
Grant-it is based on the cloud-concept of sharing innovation knowledge, projects and funding between stakeholders in Europe and has been specially developed by Cefic for the SusChem community working with PNO Consultants and its software partner Innovation Engineering.

Grant-it includes a number of dedicated features, such as specially selected Horizon 2020 funding topics that are particularly relevant for the SusChem community.

Experts from CEFIC and PNO screen all relevant project calls that come in and provide support to consortia to further promote participation in EU programmes through partner search and project feedback on request.

“In addition, there are some unique search features that enable users to search on key words across European programmes,” says Ron Weerdmeester of PNO. “This not only covers Horizon 2020, but also covers programmes such as LIFE+, COSME etc, as well as national programmes in a number of LIFE+ countries.”

“Searches will return comprehensive summaries of the relevant grant programmes,” explains Ron. “Alternatively the system allows the user to directly do a free text search in the EU funding programme documents (i.e. the work programmes), quickly read the texts in these work programmes, and download the document of interest.”

“We will continue to improve the system,” says Ron. “And we invite the SusChem community to actively use the system for searching information and partners. The more it is used the better it will get!”

Since its launch the site has received some 17 new potential project ideas and Grant-it is growing in popularity as the web resource for EU funding information amongst SusChem stakeholders.

Prepare for Brokerage!
The SusChem Brokerage and Project Submission Workshop will take place on 31 January, but the deadline for registration is fast approaching: 20 January. Already more than one hundred participants have registered.

This important event takes place at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel, Place Rogier 3, Brussels and the draft agenda for the event is available here.

“The Brokerage event is the best occasion for SusChem stakeholders to present their Horizon 2020 project proposals,” says Pádraig. “And the ideal way to prepare for the event is to input your project proposal through the Grant-it website.”

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.

“Participants in the workshop will also have the opportunity to work with SusChem’s Innovation Managers and EU funding experts who can advise and guide them on how to further develop project consortia and proposals,” explains Jacques.

In addition the event will include a number of other unique features that will facilitate the development of projects and consortia perfectly suited to the Horizon 2020 calls:

• A poster exposition that will enable stakeholders to showcase their project proposals to potential partners. A few places are still available if you want to promote your project or competences to the SusChem community
• A ‘speed dating’ session to enable matching of potential project partners. 
• A Workshop on Writing a Proposal led by experts in the field of European-financed research and innovation projects.

More information
A link and further information on how to enrol in the ‘speed dating session will be provided to registered workshop participants. If you would like more information on any aspect of the 31 January Brokerage event, including poster display, please contact the SusChem secretariat.

Strategy for Substitution

Ensuring that European industries can access Critical Raw Materials (CRM) is a major strategic objective for the EU’s political and economic agenda. The recently launched Critical Raw Materials Innovation Network (CRM_InnoNet) FP7 project aims to support this objective with the creation of a strategic innovation network for individuals and organizations working on the substitution of CRM. This network was initiated at a workshop in Brussels on 15 April. The workshop was an important event for the CRM research and innovation community and attracted some 110 participants.

This first strategic workshop launched the project ‘Innovation Network’ on Monday 15 April 2013 at the Diamant Conference complex in Brussels. The Network provides an identity and focus for researchers and businesses with an interest in substitution by drawing together a community which contains representatives from different disciplines and sectors together with a focus on CRM substitution for the first time.

Interviews with CRM_InnoNet project coordinator Claire Claessen of CIKTN and Pablo Tello of PNO Consultants were recorded at the workshop (see below).



The workshop included a general panel discussion to allow participants to get involved with the structure and mission of the network. This was followed by breakout sessions around strategic sectors such as Energy, Transport and ICT, as well as cross-cutting application areas to allow participants to exchange ideas about the challenges and opportunities in those sectors.

What is CRM_InnoNet?
The project is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded under FP7 that will act to create an integrated community to drive innovation in the field of critical raw material substitution for the benefit of EU industry.

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 ERA.

More information?
For more information visit the CRM_InnoNet website that includes a blog, news and events, or the contact project secretariat at CIKTN.