Chemistry for the World of Tomorrow - 23 October 2016

The International Solvay Institutes are pleased to announce the organisation of their annual public event on Sunday 23 October 2016 afternoon at the Flagey Studios in Brussels. The theme of the 2016 event is ‘‘Chemistry for the World of Tomorrow’’. The lectures are intended for the general public and will be given on fascinating subjects at the frontiers of sustainable chemistry.

The two featured lectures will be:

• Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development by Professor Robert Grubbs (Caltech), 2005 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and 
• The Art of Building Small  by Professor Ben Feringa (Groningen) 2015 Laureate of the Solvay Prize 

The lectures will be followed by a panel discussion of distinguished scientists led by Professor Kurt Wüthrich (ETH and Scripps Institute), 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions to the panel on the most pressing issues facing today’s chemistry.

The lectures and debate will be delivered in English with simultaneous translations to Dutch and French provided.

The event is free but participants are requested to register. Registration will be open at the beginning of September on the Solvay Institutes web site.

The International Solvay Institutes owe their existence to the vision of Ernest Solvay, who founded the International Institute for Physics in 1912 and the International Institute for Chemistry in 1913.

About the Solvay Institutes 
In 1970 the Solvay family in association with the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), founded an independent body, the International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, founded by Ernest Solvay, to continue that important quest for the advancement of scientific knowledge established by the Solvay Institutes.

Over the years, the International Solvay Institutes have become a symbol of scientific excellence, and one of the best known Belgian research institutions, consistently supported by the Solvay family (for more than 100 years now, spanning five generations).

Public attitudes to science and technology

The 2014 Public Attitudes to Science (PAS) survey has just been published in the UK. This annual survey is conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and shows that the UK public’s views on science and scientists are becoming ever more positive as science and technology play an ever growing role in our daily lives. 

The 2014 PAS generally shows a more positive perception compared to two years ago with the majority seeing science as beneficial to their own life, society, and economy, and agreeing with public funding for research.

A large majority (81%) of the UK public think that on the whole, science will make our lives easier, with 55% agreeing that the benefits of science are greater than any harmful effects (up from 43% in 2000).  Those feeling that science makes our way of life change too fast have dropped from half (52%) in 1996 to just a third (34%) today. This change is driven by the younger generations, rather than a shift in overall perceptions across all generations, with 34% of both Generation X (born 1966-1979) and Generation Y (born since 1980) agreeing science makes our way of life change too fast, compared to 71% of the Pre-War Generation (born before 1945).  Similarly Generation X and Y are also more likely than their predecessors to say that it is important to know about science in their daily lives

Positive role

People are also more positive about the role science has to play in the economy, with almost all (91%) agreeing that young people’s interest in science is essential for our future prosperity (up from 85% in 2008) and 38% strongly agreeing that the UK needs to develop its science and technology sector in order to enhance its international competitiveness (up from 25% in 2008).

Almost eight in ten (79%) agree that even if it brings no immediate benefits, scientific research which advances knowledge should be funded by the Government, and 65% disagree that government funding for science should be cut because the money can be better spent elsewhere.

The public’s perceptions of scientists are strongly positive, with 46% strongly agreeing that they make a valuable contribution to society, and 27% strongly agreeing that in general, scientists want to make life better for the average person.  Scientists are now third on Ipsos MORI’s veracity index of professions, behind doctors and teachers, with 83% of the public saying that they would generally trust them to tell the truth.  This shows a significant continuing increase and now places scientists ahead of priests and the clergy in terms of trust.

The survey also shows that the public have a desire to know more about science and scientific research. The proportion who currently feels informed about science has increased from 40% in 2005 to 45% in now. However, half (51%) still feel that they receive too little information. There is also a desire for the public to play more of a role. However, while 69% think that scientists should listen more to ordinary people, and 75% think that the Government should act in accordance with public concerns about science and technology, there is also a growing recognition of the need for expert advice on some aspects.  Seven in ten (70%) say that experts and not the public should advise the Government about the implications of scientific development, up from 61% in 2008.

Science and media

The following nuggets of information were teased out of the survey details by Fiona Fox, Chief Executive of the Science Media Centre in London.

People still use traditional media. 59% say TV is one of their most regular sources of information on science, 23% say print newspapers are one of their most regular sources, while only 15% say online newspapers or news websites are one of their two most regular sources.

 

However 40% think scientists are poor at communicating and 50% think scientists are secretive. 90% trust scientists working at universities compared to 60% who trust private company scientists and there is concern over independence of scientists.

Of the specific science and social science topics explored in the survey, people feel relatively well informed about climate change, vaccination, renewable energy, economics, and animal research, but most do not feel informed about nuclear power, genetically modified (GM) crops, clinical trials, stem cell research, nanotechnology or synthetic biology (see Figure below).

 

GM and energy questions

72% feel that ensuring the world has enough food to go around is a very big issue today. 36% of those who have heard of GM crops before say the benefits of GM crops are greater than the risks, while 28% say that the risks are greater than the benefits. 80% feel that no agricultural technologies should be ruled out to help increase world food production, and less than only one-in-ten (9%) reject this notion. 58% agree that GM crops are necessary to increase world food production, but one-in-five (20%) are neutral and 15% disagree.

Interestingly support for carbon capture and storage is lower than for fracking for shale gas in questions about emerging energy technologies (see Figure below).

More information

For more details see the Ipsos MORI PAS 2014 website. The survey was conducted through 1 749 interviews with UK adults aged 16+ and a booster survey of 315 16-24 year-olds. Interviews were carried out face to face between 15 July and 18 November 2013.

Get involved with the SPIRE Roadmap Consultation!

The European Process Industry, through its newly-created Association SPIRE (A.SPIRE), has launched a public consultation on the strategic multi-annual research and innovation roadmap developed for the proposed SPIRE Public-Private Partnership (PPP). SusChem is a major supporter and contributor to the SPIRE initiative.

This public consultation is a unique opportunity for all interested parties to have their say on this initial 92 page, cross-sectorial research and innovation roadmap. The document provides the pathway for Europe to decouple resource consumption from human well-being and achieve increased competitiveness in the European process industry. The consultation process will run until 1 October 2012.

The consultation survey must be undertaken online but a pdf preview of the questions can be downloaded here.

The consultation on the proposed SPIRE PPP is also accessible via the European Commission’s Industrial Technologies webpage on Public Private Partnerships in Research together with other open consultations on current PPPs Factories of the Future and Energy-efficient Buildings.

What is SPIRE about?
The realisation of SPIRE is essential in order to rejuvenate the European process industry and to ensure that economic growth is decoupled from resource impact – a key factor to enable sustainable economic growth.

The sectors, including the chemical industry, united in the SPIRE initiative represent a major part of the manufacturing base in the European Union involving more than 450,000 individual enterprises with over 6.8 million employees and generating more than €1.6 trillion annual turnover.

The cross-sectorial research and innovation roadmap produced by SPIRE provides the pathway for the European Process Industry to decouple resource consumption from human wellbeing and achieve increased competitiveness in the Europe. The roadmap is the result of an extensive process of collecting input from the eight process industry sectors actively participating in SPIRE, in consultation with other sectors such as glass, paper and pulp, and the European Commission through a provisional Ad hoc Industrial Advisory Group (AIAG).

The roadmap represents the collaborative efforts of public research and technology organisations and academia as well as industry stakeholders throughout Europe, along and across the value chain.

The SPIRE research and innovation roadmap was developed with two key resource and energy efficiency targets in mind and a time horizon of 2030:

• A reduction in fossil energy intensity of up to 30% from current levels by 2030 through a combination of, for example, cogeneration-heat-power, process intensification, introduction of novel energy-saving processes, energy recovery, and progressive introduction of alternative (renewable) energy sources within the process cycle, and
• Upto 20% reduction in non-renewable, primary raw material intensity compared to current levels, by increasing chemical and physical transformation yields and/ or using secondary (through optimised recycling processes) and renewable raw materials.

For both targets a full life cycle cost analysis is required to consider all effects along the value chain and to prove the sustainability advantage. In addition both targets will make a significant contribution to the political and societal objectives of drastic efficiency improvement in CO2-equivalent footprints of up to 40% by 2030.

Key components, key actions
SPIRE will implement its research and innovation roadmap through six Key Components that are at the core for a resource and energy efficient process industry:

1. Feed: Increased energy and resource efficiency through better preparation and product mix of raw materials, higher levels of alternative and renewable feedstock (including waste and waste water), as well as better managing increased quality variations in material resources.
2. Process: Solutions for more efficient processing and energy systems for the process industry, including industrial symbiosis.
3. Applications: New processes to produce materials for market applications that boost energy and resource efficiency up and down the value chain.
4. Waste2Resource: Valorisation and re-use of waste streams within and across sectors, including recycling of post-consumer waste streams and new business models for eco-innovation.
5. Horizontal: underpinning the accelerated deployment of the R&D&I opportunities identified within SPIRE through sustainability evaluation tools and skills and education programmes as well as enhance the sharing of knowledge and best practices.
6. Outreach: Reach out to the process industry, policy makers and citizens to support the realisation of impact through awareness, stimulating societal responsible behaviour.

Key Actions have been developed for each Key Component, enabling an ambitious, realistic and measurable agenda driven approach towards fulfilling the SPIRE objectives and consequently achieving impact overcoming technological and non-technological barriers.

The SPIRE roadmap will be updated through an open and consultative process during the lifetime of the PPP to reflect progress as well as possible changes in priorities. You can take part in the initial public consultation by clicking the survey button below.