“Our general impression is that CatchBio is an excellent, and well managed programme.” Thus chairman Dr Kees van der Wiele summarizes the recent CatchBio mid-tem review. “It shows what catalysis might contribute to sustainable production in chemistry. It also shows the beneficial effects of close interaction between academia and industry.”
“A collaboration with several industrial parties involved is still quite rare from an international perspective”, Van der Wiele says. “Industry contributes in three ways to the programme. It helped selecting the individual research proposals. It closely follows their progress and provides expert feedback. And thirdly: the fact that industry values the project outcome stimulates researchers within academia and knowledge institutes.”
Concepts accepted
Now that the programme is almost halfway, Van der Wiele and his international committee members have a positive general impression of the progress that has been made throughout the projects. “Given the circumstances, of course. At this stage you cannot expect fully functioning concepts in this fundamental, pre-competitive and exploratory programme. The chemistry of biomass is extremely heterogeneous and therefore complex. The relative modesty of the programme size has to be taken into account as well.”
This being said, Van der Wiele surprises with the announcement of a breakthrough. “The remarks I just made apply to the clusters Energy and Bulk chemistry. As to Fine chemicals and Pharma, the programme aims at reducing the footprint of present synthetic routes, rather than aiming for biomass feedstock. Bull's eye was hit here. Three new concepts have already been taken over by the DSM development people.”
Socio-economic aspects
Van der Wiele highly values the inclusion of socio-economic evaluation studies in the programme. “Economic feasibility and societal acceptance of new technology is all-important. And it is far from simple to take the integral value chain of a product lifecycle into account from this perspective. The methodology and parameters are still being discussed, but it is clear the programme can come up with a valuable tool set for future feasability studies.”
On the Dutch R&D agenda
Van der Wiele notices that CatchBio has had impact on popularizing the concept of using renewable feedstock in chemistry in the academia. “It now is on the agenda of research groups and universities.” For the near future Van der Wiele pleads for linking CatchBio to the BE-Basic programme. “Biotechnology & fermentation and catalysis both hold the promise of breakthroughs towards biobased chemistry. Mutual benchmarking is therefore a logical thought: to find the best technology for future products.”
Strengthening the programme
CatchBio’s scientific director Bert Weckhuysen reflects on the mid-term review: “A review process implies some reflections on the process of setting up the research programme and its roadmaps for the different clusters, the technical deliverables to be reached, as well as the personal growth of the young researchers involved in the individual research projects. I am happy to read that the international peer review committee has a very positive impression of our research programme and of all the efforts done so far to bring this exciting, although difficult research field further.On behalf of our management team I am very thankful for their useful advice, which will certainly strengthen CatchBio in defining the third phase of the programme.”
Strengthening the programme
CatchBio’s scientific director Bert Weckhuysen reflects on the mid-term review: “A review process implies some reflections on the process of setting up the research programme and its roadmaps for the different clusters, the technical deliverables to be reached, as well as the personal growth of the young researchers involved in the individual research projects. I am happy to read that the international peer review committee has a very positive impression of our research programme and of all the efforts done so far to bring this exciting, although difficult research field further.On behalf of our management team I am very thankful for their useful advice, which will certainly strengthen CatchBio in defining the third phase of the programme.”