New Commission guide combines Strategic and Structural funding

The European Commission has issued a new guide on how European Funds for Strategic Investments (EFSI - a key element of the Juncker Investment Plan) and European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) can be combined at project and financial instrument level, for example as an investment platform, to support risky and innovation-driven European projects.

The 24-page guide entitled ‘European Structural and Investment Funds and European Fund for Strategic Investments complementarities – Ensuring coordination, synergies and complementarity’ will be of great interest to all SusChem stakeholders developing large scale investment projects under EFSI.

Through a number of illustrative examples, the Guide describes how combining funds is possible for projects supported either under the EFSI 'Infrastructure and Innovation Window' or under the 'SME Window'. In addition an in-depth example of a 'layered fund' is provided in one of the annexes of the guide combining ESIF and EFSI in the case of investment platforms.

In the next few years, EFSI and ESI Funds will be able to finance significant levels of investment in Member States and their regions. They are both set to play an essential role in the delivery of European policy objectives. While rationale, design, legislative framework and timeframe for implementation are different, there is considerable scope for ensuring coordination, synergies and complementarity for additional investments. This guide provides an overview of these possibilities so that stakeholders are well informed.

The funds
The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) was established by the European Commission in partnership with the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund (EIB and EIF – the 'EIB Group') to mobilise at least EUR 315 billion of additional finance for investment in higher-risk projects over three years.

Member States are also now starting the implementation of multiannual programmes co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for the 2014- 2020 programming period. In total, more than EUR 450 billion will be invested in Europe through ESIF in this period.

Consultation on shape of future Horizon 2020 SC5 calls launched

The European Commission has launched an external stakeholder consultation to help shape the Work Programme for 2018-2020 of Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 – 'Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials'. SusChem stakeholders are invited to participate in this consultation and express your views. Of particular interest is the topic: "Sustainable supply of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials". The consultation is open until Friday 8 April 2016. 

The European Commission is starting to prepare the next Horizon 2020 Work Programme and calls for proposals that will cover the period 2018-2020. Within Societal Challenge 5, research and innovation aims to "achieve a resource – and water – efficient and climate change resilient economy and society, the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems, and a sustainable supply and use of raw materials, in order to meet the needs of a growing global population within the sustainable limits of the planet's natural resources and eco-system."

Since Horizon 2020 was adopted the socio-economic and policy context has changed. For Societal Challenge 5, the budget to be allocated for 2018-2020 will be of the order of EUR 1 billion and to ensure relevance a new consultation of stakeholders is required for this final programming period.

Consultation questions
The consultation seeks answers to the following questions:

• What are the challenges in the areas of Societal Challenge 5 that require action under the Work Programme 2018-2020? Would they require an integrated approach across the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges and Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies?
• What is the output/impact that could be foreseen? Which innovation aspects could reach (market) deployment within 5-7 years?
• Which gaps (in science and technology, innovation, markets, policy, financing and governance, regulation etc.) and potential game changers, including the role of the public sector in accelerating changes, need to be taken into account?
• Which areas could benefit from integration of horizontal aspects such as social sciences and humanities, responsible research and innovation, gender aspects, international cooperation?
• In view of the recent evolution of the socio-economic and policy context, what are the emerging priorities for Societal Challenge 5? 

Responses should cite any available supporting evidence such as foresight and other assessments of research and innovation trends and market opportunities, across the six sub-challenges of Societal Challenge 5.

These are: Fighting and adapting to climate change; Protecting the environment, sustainably managing natural resources, water, biodiversity and ecosystems; Ensuring the sustainable supply of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials; Enabling the transition towards a green economy and society through ecoinnovation; Developing comprehensive and sustained global environmental observation and information systems; and Cultural heritage.

The consultation document is available here and background information on the whole Societal Challenge 5 programme is here.

All responses to the consultation should be send by email to the European Commission.

Indo-European Water Partnership to highlight Opportunities 7 March

As part of the Indo-European Water Partnership, the Indian Ministry for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the European Union are organising a meeting with EU businesses in New Delhi on 7 March 2016. The meeting takes place at 14h00 local time (09h30 Central European Time) in New Dehli at the Lalit New Delhi hotel and will be relayed via a video conference to enable wider participation by EU businesses.

The meeting will be attended by Shri Shashi Shekhar, Indian Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the EU’s Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski.

The meeting will examine a number of key water challenges for which the Government of India is seeking solutions. These include:

• Municipal Sewage 
• Industrial Effluents – in particular for Tanneries, Pulp and Paper, Distilleries and Textiles sectors 
• Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) for Industrial effluent monitoring (on discharge) and River Health (Over 113 WQM sites are to be established along the river Ganga)
• Geographical Information System (GIS) based Ganga river basin mapping 
• Micro-irrigation 

More information
More information on the event can be found here and you can register here.

Registration for the meeting and the video conference is free and will require provision of additional optional information for dissemination at the meeting and/or via the EIP Water website and the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) portal. If you have any comments or questions they should be sent to the Support facility to the Indo-European Water Partnership by 4 March 2016 at the latest.

Biobased Consortia Building in Manchester on 3 March

The UK's KTN (Knowledge Transfer Network) is organising a major event on Thursday 3 March to promote the 2016 calls from the Biobased Industries Consortium/ BioBased Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU). This free to attend event will give details about the new call for proposals from the BBI JU that opens in April.

The event is aimed at companies and research organisations that are interested in European Funding for Biobased Industries and who wish to work with European counterparts in collaborative research and innovation projects.  During the morning the event will highlight information about the 2016 call for proposals from the Biobased Industries Consortium including views from industry and an overview of the purpose and objectives of the BBI JU. In the afternoon a highly participative session will support consortia building and proposal development.

To find out more information and to register please click here.

Biobased focus
The event will focus in particular on consortia building for the following call topics:

• BBI 2016.R4 - Flexible biorefining technologies able to handle different feedstock, leading to new value chains or enlarging existing ones by using the same processing plant 
• BBI 2016.R5 - Advanced biomaterials for smart food packaging
• BBI 2016.R8 - Emerging technologies for conversion of the organic content of Municipal Solid Waste and improving waste-to-chemicals value chains 
• BBI 2016.R9 - Exploiting algae and other aquatic biomass for production of molecules for pharma, nutraceutic, food additives and cosmetic applications 
• BBI 2016.R10 – Industrial biotransformation for the production of bio-based chemicals

Many of the calls topics under the BBI JU require environmental and socio-economic assessments, such as LCA, therefore organisations with recognised strengths in this area are especially welcome to participate in this event.

The event will take place at the Chancellors Hotel (part of the University of Manchester) on the Fallowfields campus in south Manchester, UK.

Innovation Fusion goes to Barcelona

Cefic and SusChem are contributing as promotional partners for the 12th Annual Innovation Fusion event which is taking place on 19 and 20 April 2016 in Barcelona. ENG’s 12th Annual Innovation Fusion Summit brings together industry experts in research, development and innovation from both the specialty chemical and the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors. 

The 2016 edition of Innovation Fusion is designed to allow participants to benefit from the shared knowledge that networking and interactive sessions from a multi-industry perspective can bring.

This year’s event will provide delegates with the tools to handle current and future industry challenges and the inspiration to help connect with market demands. Participants will engage with real business stories, best practices and forums that will address issues including:

• Building and cultivating internal innovation culture 
• Developing strong communication with key stakeholders for alignment throughout the value chain 
• Setting and measuring KPI’s throughout the product portfolio 
• Creating value through incremental and disruptive innovation 

The Innovation Fusion event in Barcelona will allow participants to benchmark their experiences against like-minded peers from complimenting industries. The ENG’s 12th Annual Innovation Fusion: New Product Development (NPD) and Technology Excellence for Chemicals and FMCG Sectors Summit is organised in cooperation with BASF, DSM, Syngenta, Solvay, Barilla, Evonik, Dow and Mars Corporation amongst others.

More information
You can find the full Innovation Fusion 2016 programme here. For more information or to register please contact Joanna Serweta.

Cefic members and SusChem stakeholders can get 20% off the registration fee for the event by using the CEFIC20 promotional code!

To follow the event via twitter follow the ENG Events official twitter account @engfbevents or search for the event hashtag: #enginnovation

Call for Raw Materials Commitments open until 1 March

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials has an open Call for Commitments, but the deadline is approaching fast. This is the second call for Raw Materials Commitments launched by the EIP and the approaching deadline for submitting commitments is 1 March 2016. 

The EIP on Raw Materials was launched in 2012 and from the very beginning SusChem has been closely engaged in its work as sustainable chemistry has a clear role to play in ensuring the success of Europe’s Raw Materials strategy and enabling a fully functioning circular economy.

Preparing a Raw Materials Commitment can have multiple positive effects, starting with direct contribution and participation in the EIP, promoting your ideas in the area of raw materials, attracting useful suggestions or additional partners, and having the possibility to influence policy amongst others.

A Commitment is an undertaking by the partners to jointly commit to cooperate and take actions that will contribute to achieving the EIP's objectives. The first Call for Commitments in 2013 led to the recognition of 80 Raw Materials Commitments (RMCs).

RMC benefits
Getting recognition as a RMC provides the following benefits:

• It raises awareness of the commitment, not only within the EIP community but also more broadly
• It gives a quality assurance to the commitment at the European level
• It guarantees accordance with the EIP (as specified in the Strategic Implementation Plan or SIP) and with the EU raw materials policy framework on which the EIP is based
• It can facilitate access to finance from various sources (however the EIP is not itself a funding instrument)
• It creates opportunities to join forces with related commitments
• It gives access to the work of the EIP's Operational Groups
• It gives visibility and access to contacts outside the EU through opportunities to participate in EU raw materials diplomacy activities

How to apply
The EIP is seeking a wide participation from across the European Union and along the entire raw materials value chain from partners who will carry out actions contributing to the objectives of the EIP. To achieve this the European Commission will regularly launch "Calls for Commitments" to mobilise authorities, industry, academia and other relevant stakeholders.

In order to obtain recognition as an RMC under the EIP, a commitment should meet all the conditions set out in Call for Commitment's Guidelines and proposals must be submitted by using the online submission form.

All submitted proposals will then be evaluated by the EIP's High-Level Steering Group.
All the information on the 2015 Call for Commitments can be found here. For more information contact the EIP secretariat.

BBI and SPIRE work to increase coordination

The Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) ‘Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency’ (SPIRE) and ‘Bio-based-Industries Joint Undertaking’ (BBI) are both striving to improve the sustainability of European manufacturing industry in terms of global competitiveness, ecology, jobs and growth. On Monday 15 February participants at a joint workshop for the two PPPs explored ways in which the two entities could coordinate aspects of their work programmes and add value to European research and innovation outcomes in areas of common interest. The workshop was hosted by the European Commission at it Covent Garden offices in Place Rogier, Brussels, was organised under the SusChem banner and initiated and sponsored by Evonik Industries.

The two PPPs approach their common goals from complementary angles. SPIRE comprises projects that improve all aspects of resource and/or energy efficiency across a variety of manufacturing sectors, while BBI supports the establishment of a new bio-industrial structure in Europe, from the generation of biomass in the field or forest to its value-generating industrial conversion to biobased products.

When the two PPPs were being established in 2012 a joint narrative was developed which looked to establish coordination mechanisms between the two PPPs and to ensure that their respective activities were linked and harmonised whenever technically and economically reasonable. The workshop looked at how the ambitions of the joint narrative could be implemented in practice.

SusChem editor Tim Reynolds moderated the workshop that was entitled ‘Exploring the Synergies of SPIRE & BBI-JU’ and brought together stakeholders from both PPPs. The day was split into two sessions. In the morning the full group listened to perspectives from the European Commission, industry and the PPPs themselves. And in the afternoon two group discussions worked on possible actions and organisational issues.

Perspectives
Waldemar Kütt, Head of Unit for BioBased products and processing at the European Commission reminded the audience that both PPPs were industry led and driven and that both must provide important inputs to the development and implementation of the bioeconomy and circular economy.

Søren Bowadt, the Commission’s Programme Officer for SPIRE said that the Commission’s role was to support the PPPs’ decisions. He thought that the workshop was very timely and outlined a number of areas – such as waste water, industrial symbiosis, and the circular economy – where complimentary activities would be useful to both parties.

From industry Peter Nagler, Head of International Innovation at Evonik Industries AG and member of the SusChem Board, said that from the start SusChem had believed that the bioeconomy and biotechnology must play an important part in a future sustainable chemical industry. Both PPPs had launched a number of calls: it was now time to look at where complementarities could be leveraged and to identify any gaps that needed to be addressed in the short to medium term.

Christophe Rupp-Dahlem, Head of Global Public Affairs at Roquette, President of the Plant-based Chemistry Association and Vice-chair of the board of the Biobased Industries Consortium (BIC) representing the industrial partners behind BBI underlined the importance of cooperation and communication between the two PPPs and remarked that the BBI programme in 2016 will include a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) call for a Roadmap for relevant research and innovation activities for the Chemical Industry.

For SPIRE Executive Director of SPIRE’s industrial association, Loredana Ghinea, reminded the workshop that SPIRE worked with seven other large industry sectors as well as the chemical industry. She outlined a number of past calls that were of clear relevance to the bioeconomy and also announced that SPIRE was undertaking a gap analysis of past calls as part of the formulation process for future calls.  

Dirk Carrez, Executive Director of BIC reminded participants that BBI calls were open to all. He believed that the discussion should not be about competing technologies but about synergies between the two PPP programmes.

Fruitful discussion
Possible opportunities for early synergy was outlined by Nelo Emerencia of BIC who described upcoming 2016 BBI calls of potential interest to SPIRE participants, while Søren Bowadt similarly highlighted relevant SPIRE calls  for BBI stakeholders.

The two small discussion groups worked through the possibilities for the scope of a joint working group that could guide cooperation between the PPPs and also generated ideas and areas of common interest for future joint work through a brain storming session.

Key outcomes of the workshop discussion included:

• A small joint working group (JWG) should be established quickly to prepare a platform for coordination. Members of the JWG would be drawn from BBI, SPIRE and SusChem. The platform would work under the auspices of SusChem and its role would be to connect content and programme coordinators to help development of programmes / calls that are complementary. It could also help in organising further brainstorming sessions and motivate stakeholders to participate.
• Both PPPs have undertaken or are in the process of undertaking gap analyses of their current calls. Comparison of these analyses would be very useful in identifying areas of common interest and priorities for future content that could be taken up through the two PPPs' calls (attention should be paid to connecting TRLs and timings of deliverables).
• It was important that existing communication channels worked effectively to ensure that information on the calls in from both PPPs were effectively disseminated to all the stakeholders in both PPPs – perhaps with topics of specific interest highlighted. 
• In the short term, both PPPs will try to motivate their respective stakeholders to look for complementarity during project consortium formation.

The workshop concluded that enhanced cooperation between SPIRE and BBI should yield valuable synergies and that swift implementation of the JWG was important. Further discussions on areas of common interest would be undertaken at upcoming PPP events and a joint session could also be useful at the next SusChem stakeholder event on 16 June in 2016.

The discussion continued at a networking cocktail in the Sheraton Rogier Hotel.