The European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) and one of its founding members, the European Society of Applied Biocatalysis (ESAB), have now revitalised their cooperation. Prof. Dr. Andrés R. Alcántara, Member of the Scientific Committee of ESAB and also Member of SusChem-Spain, has joined SusChem as a new Board member. This aims to build new bridges between Industrial Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry to address current global challenges and further advance sustainable chemistry at a European and global level.
Horizon Europe and the Green Deal are of tremendous importance and require RD&I-focused activities and contributions towards Sustainable Chemistry, further benefiting competitiveness and the society. The area of biocatalysis, as applied to Sustainable Chemistry, is experiencing tremendous growth, from fundamental science to Iarge-scale applications. It is of central importance to overcome fragmentation within Europe as well as between scientific and technological disciplines. This revitalised collaboration will allow the development of new value chains and connections between chemistry and biocatalysis, allowing us to think and deliver ambitious concepts for the future.
The complementary activities from SusChem and ESAB will build on successful past achievements such as the earlier ‘Vision 2025’ and will aid in developing a long-term vision for the industrial application of biocatalysis. This will help define the bottlenecks and gaps between fundamental insight and practical application.
Background
ESAB, founded in 1980, has the mission of promoting the development of Applied Biocatalysis throughout Europe. The aims of ESAB are to promote initiatives in areas of growing scientific and industrial interest of importance within the field of Applied Biocatalysis. ESAB will the identify the key topics that are rate limiting for the development of scientific progress and technological prospects in Applied Biocatalysis and will take steps to stimulate these areas. ESAB has activities in the areas of actions, advice, initiatives, working groups, targeted educational activities and communication activities. 29 European countries are represented on the ESAB Scientific Committee by their national delegates (59 ordinary members and 8 honorary members). ESAB has arranged in the order of 400 meetings, conferences, workshops, seminars and summer schools, as well as publication of specific journals and books. These include 2 editions of ’Applied Biocatalysis’ and many abstract books with scientific presentations from our conferences.
SusChem ETP, founded in 2004, is a European Technology Platform established by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA), the European Federation of Biotechnology Section of Applied Biocatalysis (ESAB), the European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBio), the German Chemical Society (GDCh), and Royal Society of Chemistry (UK RSC). SusChem's main objective is to contribute to revitalising research & innovation in Sustainable Chemistry and Industrial Biotechnology in Europe. As a multi-stakeholders networking forum and a technology solutions provider, SusChem works towards advising on technology priorities, at a European level, with a long-term strategic research and innovation agenda SIRA. Connection to National priorities is achieved via its network of National Technology platforms. SusChem engages, consults and brings together representatives from larger Industry, SMEs, universities and research technology organisations – being open to the wider society. SusChem technology focus areas include: Advanced Materials, Advanced Processes, Catalysis, enabling Digital technologies as well as Horizontal topics.