2007, 23 November: kick-off CatchBio

To celebrate the foundation of CatchBio and the start of the collaboration and research a succesfull kick-off meeting took place at 23 November 2007 in Grand Hotel Karel V in Utrecht (The Netherlands). During this kick-off meeting also the reaccreditation of the Dutch Institute for Catalysis Research (NIOK) by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) was celebrated.

see the photo impression

Invited speakers in the morning program were prof. Stoof, (Utrecht University, rector magnificus and vice president of the University Board), prof. Bliek (Utrecht University, dean Faculty of Science), dr. Laane (DSM, chairman of the Executive Board of ACTS) and dr. Geerken (head of Smart Mix Programme).

Prof. Weckhuysen (Utrecht University, scientific director CatchBio) introduced CatchBio in a nutshell to all the visitors.

Dr. Gallezot (Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse de Lyon) gave a guest lecture entitled ‘Challenges in the catalytic conversion of biomass to biofuels and bioproducts’.

In the afternoon program the CatchBio clusters were introduced by experts in the related cluster theme:

• Introduction to the CatchBio Socio-Economic cluster by dr. De Jong (Avantium Technologies)
• Introduction to the CatchBio Energy cluster by dr. Mesters (Shell Global Solutions International)
• Introduction to the CatchBio Bulk Chemicals cluster by dr. ir. Steijns (Dow Benelux)
• Introduction to the CatchBio Fine Chemicals/Pharmaceuticals cluster by prof. De Vries (DSM, cluster leader of Fine Chemicals/Pharmaceuticals)

Bert Weckhuysen ended the kick-off by explaining the role of NIOK and VIRAN as important network organizations in the field of catalysis in the Netherlands and by giving acknowledgements to all the people who helped CatchBio in the start-up phase.

Afterwards, everyone made a toast on NIOK and continued to discuss the future of CatchBio even more motivated than before. The prosecco did a good job!