Help shape the Future of European Industry

You can help the European Commission shape the industrial agenda of tomorrow at the Industry Day Conference that takes place on 28 February 2017. Some 400 participants, including key industrial players, global trend shapers and high-level policy makers, will inspire a full-day of debate on the future of European industry at the European Commission's Charlemagne Building in Brussels at the end of February.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, and Commissioners Elżbieta Bieńkowska (Internal Market, Industry, SMEs and Entrepreneurship) and Carlos Moedas (Research and Innovation) will all participate in the event.

Representatives of traditional and new, disruptive sectors will present their views on the future of their business. Entrepreneurs, innovators, start-ups and the tech community will share the stage with key EU political leaders.

There will also be speakers from the Committee of Regions, the European Investment Bank, the European Parliament, Business Europe, the European Roundtable of Industrialists and the European Trade Union Confederation.

You can find the draft programme for the event here.

Industry is changing

The nature of industry is changing, driven by rapid technological change. The evolution of industrial activity is characterised by digitalisation, clean and circular technologies, and a higher reliance on services. SusChem is actively engaged in shaping policy in all these industry-relevant areas – and others such as Key Enabling Technologies.

The Commission supports industry and makes a strong contribution to jobs and growth in Europe. Major policy initiatives for industrial competitiveness range from the Investment Plan and Horizon 2020 to the Single Market Strategy, from circular economy to Digitising European Industry. The Commission’s strategic approach to industrial competitiveness aims to empower businesses, citizens and entire regions to be fit for the future.

The European Industry Day event will take stock of existing actions and stimulate debate on a joint vision for the long-term future of European industry. Questions to debate include:

• What has been achieved by mainstreaming industrial competitiveness into EU policy?
• How will people find their place in the new industrial revolution?
• What is the role of regional ecosystems for industrial transformation?
• What are the key technologies for the future of industry?

The event will also aim to identify barriers preventing further progress towards  smart, clean and innovative industry that creates employment and high living standards for our citizens.

Registration for the event is via the event webpage. For more information contact the EU Industry Day team.

Bioeconomy: Challenges and opportunities

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has just issued a briefing paper on the Bioeconomy. The eight page document, entitled ‘Bioeconomy: Challenges and opportunities’ provides a background to the European bioeconomy before outlining a range of opportunities and challenges this present, the EU’s policy on bioeconomy, the European Parliament’s position and a range of Stakeholders' views. An edited summary of the paper is below. The full briefing can be downloaded here.

The bioeconomy refers to the production and extraction of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food and feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. The current notion of the bioeconomy emerged recently as a knowledge-driven concept aimed at meeting a range of today's challenges. In the European Union (EU), the bioeconomy sectors have an annual turnover of about €2 trillion and employ between 17 and 19 million people. They use almost 75% of the EU land area.

The briefing highlights the strong research and innovation dimension of the bioeconomy, which may be applied to improve the production of food, feed and fibre as well as to develop new applications and products in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and energy. This dimension, generally referred to as the 'knowledge-based bioeconomy', is in part driven by recent developments in bioscience and biotechnology, related in particular to bio-based materials and genetic engineering of crops. Recent applications include materials, textiles, cosmetics, furniture and food. A variety of products could be produced in integrated units, for instance integrated biorefineries producing fuels, chemicals, plastics, heat and electricity.

A stronger bioeconomy could trigger growth and jobs, and reduce dependency on imports. It could contribute to optimising the use of biological resources, which remain finite although they are renewable. However, it could also create competition between uses and technologies at various levels. Besides, the amount of available biomass remains disputed. A bioeconomy could contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving public health. However, it could also trigger new greenhouse gas emissions and induce adverse impacts on the environment.

The EU policy framework for the bioeconomy is spread across a number of policies (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, climate, circular economy and research). Although a bioeconomy strategy from 2012 aims to ensure policy coherence, inconsistencies remain. The EU provides funding to innovative bioeconomy activities through Horizon 2020 and a range of other instruments.

The European Parliament has been supportive of the bioeconomy strategy, while highlighting the need for sustainability and policy coherence.

SusChem and the Bioeconomy
A sustainable bioeconomy features in the SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) encompassing the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and associated waste streams into value-added products such as feed, food, biobased products and bioenergy.

Integrated biorefineries are central to the development of the bioeconomy and were one SusChem’s original flagship innovation concepts. They can deliver new sources of chemical building blocks that are either structurally similar to fossil-based feedstock or new with novel functionalities and improved properties. In order to unlock the full potential of a sustainable biomass supply, it is essential to consider all possible sources including second generation biomass and waste streams (such as municipal wastes). The bioeconomy can improve resource efficiency and is a key element in achieving the broader concept of a circular, integrated, renewable economy.

Innovation is also a key solution provider for the transition to a more Circular Economy and the development by the chemical sector of innovative advanced materials and process technologies is essential to enable a better use of existing resources along the whole life cycle, to develop new production and recycling paths.

About EPRS
The European Parliamentary Research Service is the European Parliament's in-house research department and think tank. Its mission is to assist Members in their parliamentary work by providing them with independent, objective and authoritative analysis of, and research on, policy issues relating to the European Union. It is also designed to increase Members and European Parliament committees' capacity to scrutinise and oversee the European Commission and other EU executive bodies.

The EPRS website is here and you can also follow EPRS on Twitter.

ECRN SME Workshop

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are of central importance to the European economy. They play a key role as providers of employment opportunities and serve an important function for the well-being and economies of local and regional communities. Moreover, they are often at the core of value networks and the creation of added value.

In this context European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) is organising a workshop: ‘Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – The Engine of the European Industry’ on 24 February from 14:00 to 17:00 at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

At the ECRN the workshop, the focus will focus on the important role of SMEs not only in the chemical industry but as an integral part of the overall European economic fabric. The event will bring together policy makers and practitioners to discuss how local authorities can design more efficient strategies to encourage the development of innovative SMEs. In particular, the workshop will provide substantive examples of how SMEs can be supported at the regional level and focus on the success factors and potentially transferable elements of such strategies or initiatives.

Cristina Gonzalez of SusChem Spain and Feique will be presenting at the workshop on behalf of SusChem. She will talk about “Chemical SMEs, making it happening” covering examples of innovative SMEs in Spain and how SusChem can help small enterprises to move forward, for example, by giving them support to get involved with European projects through information sessions, networking, etc.

Other presentations will include the ‘Key role of regional authorities in supporting SMEs’ from Thomas Wobben, Director of Horizontal Networks and Studies, Committee of the Regions and the ‘Importance of SME policy at all levels – European, national, regional’ by Joanna Drake, Director of Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission’s DG Growth.

Examples of good practise will be drawn from the regions of Bavaria, Wallonia, Flanders and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Further information
ECRN is committed to enhancing cooperation and exchange of experiences across regions and wants to draw attention to what can be achieved by leveraging regional competences and bringing concrete examples and experiences into European policy discussions.

You can view the event programme here and an ECRN background briefing on SMEs here. For more information and to register for the workshop contact the ECRN Secretariat by 20 February.

EU Week of Regions and Cities

The eleventh European Week of Regions and Cities is taking place this week (from 7 to 11 October) across Brussels. Jointly organised by the EU's Committee of the Regions and the European Commission’s DG for Regional and Urban Policy, the week highlights many areas of interest for SusChem – in particular Smart Cities and Mobility.

At the heart of European Week of Regions and Cities are the Open Days 2013 a series of events that takes place at venues around Brussels and feature examples of innovative initiatives to boost sustainability and competitiveness in regions and cities across the EU.

To coincide with the week a special issue of European Parliament Magazine’s Regional Review has been published with many articles focusing on regional policy from the Commission and parliamentary figures.

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn has invited all regions and cities to use this year's event to "learn more about the priorities of the next phase of the structural and investment funds". He underlined the aim to "ensure that the EU invests in key areas of growth to stay competitive in an ever more globalised economy".

The chair of the European Parliament's Regional Development Committee, former regional policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner, MEP, also called for the EU's regions to "be placed at the heart of the industrial renaissance process".

SusChem: innovation for growth
With the closer integration of structural and regional funds with research and innovation funding via Horizon 2020 it is clear that the opportunity for increased innovation –led growth in the EU regions will become a reality. And SusChem is willing to take a leading role in this exciting development.

In particular SusChem and the chemical sector have a portfolio of current and future solutions for the challenges of developing Smart Cities and the regeneration of the urban environment.

Coinciding with the EU Week of Regions and Cities our new website on Innovation-for-Growth has been launched. Within this website there are specific mini-sites on major societal challenges including Smart Cities for Europe and mobility.

The websites outline the challenges facing society in urban environments and regions and then describes the variety of solutions that chemistry and the chemical sector can or will be able to provide in the near future to boost EU citizen’s quality of life while also providing jobs and growth.

There is also a SusChem Smart Cities flier available.

More information
For more information on SusChem activities in the built environment take a look at the Innovation for Growth website or contact the SusChem secretariat.

R4R to build Regional Resource Efficiency

Mid December saw the launch of a new European project focused on regional initiatives for resource efficiency in the chemical sector. SusChem is taking an active role in the R4R project that is looking to spread innovative ideas that can lead the way to zero-waste and resource-efficient industries across Europe.

The chemical and process industries in Europe are geographically widely distributed and are also often fragmented in their approach to improving resource efficiency and addressing similar societal challenges.

However, R4R believes that addressing energy and resource efficiency offer significant opportunities to rejuvenate and transform the industry into an eco-efficient and high-tech solution provider across the continent. This can be achieved through switching to bio-based feedstock, by improving efficiency of industrial processes, by recycling and reusing waste materials and by looking at the sector as an integrated system as opposed to a collection of independent sites.

The project has some specific targets for resource efficiency achievements in the chemical sector:

• A 50% improvement in the process industry’s CO2 footprint by 2030
• A 10-fold increase in the use of bio-renewable raw materials as feedstock by 2030
• A 30% reduction in primary energy consumption by 2030
• A 20% reduction in raw materials net use per end application by 2030

The objectives of the R4R project are well aligned with the proposed SusChem-supported SPIRE (Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency) Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and will help build the basis of this ambitious multi-sector programme.

Regional focus
R4R brings together six complementary EU Regions (Aragon in Spain, Göteborg in Sweden, North Rhine–Westphalia in Germany, the Port of Rotterdam and the South-West regions in the Netherlands, and West Pomerania in Poland), each with their own public and private research and innovation expertise, for a three year project that will improve resource consumption and eco-innovation in the chemical sector. Participants from all six regions are pictured below at the Kick-off meeting.

Based on an in-depth mapping of innovation systems, research agendas, research, production and innovation capabilities and the stakeholders involved, the consortium will create a Joint Action Plan and related support measures. Special attention will be given to mentoring activities.

The project will achieve a major improvement in regional and transnational cooperation between the regions and leave a legacy of tools, case studies and good practice that can be disseminated and adopted by other regions across Europe.

R4R will also create a platform for international collaboration on resource efficiency issues in third countries to accelerate innovation and promote European eco-innovative technologies globally.

Get involved
The R4R project is funded by the European Commission’s FP7 programme. Its full title is ‘Chemical Regions for Resource Efficiency – Improving Research and Cooperation in the areas of Resource and Energy Efficiency in the Chemicals Industry’.

R4R aims to engage with a large number of chemical sector partners in regions across Europe. A website and partnering platform will be launched later this year, but if you want to get involved in the project right now contact project coordinator Anna Sager at SP Technical Research Institute in Sweden.