In 2023 EuChemS will once again participate in International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s Global Womens’ Breakfast (IUPAC GWB 2023) with an exciting topic, that investigates the intersection of conflict studies, inclusivity and women in science as well as chemistry.
The event, titled “Women scientists at the forefront of global conflicts” will be held online on 14 February 2023. It will look at the role of science in conflict through the eyes of women scientists, and science historians. Speakers will describe science’s role in minimising harm in conflicts and describe the often overlooked women scientists’ role in conflicts in context of history of chemistry. EuChemS finds the role of science and conflict relevant for the GWB event as just as women are often overlooked in the scientific field, conflicts scenarios tend to increase exposure to abuse and discrimination, therefore women represent one of the highly vulnerable groups in conflict.
We are happy to invite everyone to participate in this webinar, after registering here. As the key theme of GWB is inclusivity, and in addition, our event will investigate an overlap between a wide range of areas, we would be glad to see attendees from a similarly wide variety of backdrops – so we are happy to encourage everyone from every demographic background and professional field to join.
This event will mark EuChemS’ 3rd participation the IUPAC GWB for. In 2022, our international speakers examined the issue of the “leaky pipeline” amongst women in STEM, and in 2021, EuChemS focused on Leadership Development and women leaders amongst other topics.
EuChemS President Floris Rutjes announced the new EuChemS Publication – which will replace current EuChemS newsletters Brussels News Updates (BNU) and Chemistry in Europe (CiE) – in the editorial of the most recent CiE. This means that you are reading the last issue of Brussels News Updates – however, there are new and exciting things to come.
The new publication, EuChemS Magazine, will launch in January 2023. It will combine the contents of BNU and CiE in a more streamlined and modern format. The regular policy news bulletin written in-house will keep readers up to date with the latest developments just like BNU does while EuChemS Magazine Plus, releasing every three months, will provide in-depth research information and policy analyses, as well as interviews, and European chemistry collaboration updates, akin to what the CiE newsletter does now.
If you are subscribed to either of our newsletters, you don’t have to worry. Your existing subscription is automatically transferred to EuChemS Magazine, and you will continue to receive monthly updates. If you are not yet subscribed, we are happy to invite you to join our community.
We are looking forward to welcome you amongst the readers of EuChemS Magazine soon! Stay tuned for updates!
The Zero Pollution Stakeholder Conference was held in Brussels at the European Commission’s Berlyamont Building on 14 December. Representatives of the European Chemical Society, Executive Board member Ioannis Katsogiannis and Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj were invited to the conference, as EuChemS is a member of the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platfrom.
The main topic of the conference was the 2022 Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report, which consists of the results and future trajectories of the targets outlined in the EU’s Zero Pollution Ambition. The report uses an integrated approach to monitor a wide range of pollution metrics and their effects on health, economy and biodiversity. After demonstrating the report results, stakeholders could comment on them, leading to a lively discussion. Amongst other key themes, the role of scientific policy on a global level was further emphasized, and the creation of an UN Science Policy panel (which was called for by EuChemS at the Burlington Consensus, and discussed at the ECC8) was highlighted.
The second part of the conference consisted of three different “deep dive” sessions, each of which dealt with a specific subject related to pollution. The EuChemS delegation participated in the session on Zero Pollution and health. Executive Board member Ioannis Katsogiannis contributed to this session. After introducing EuChems to fellow stakeholders, he highlighted three key areas from a chemical standpoint. Firstly, he emphasized the high rate of European groundwater and surface water bodies which failed to achieve good chemical status. Secondly, he highlighted how waste reduction may cause other pollution-related issues due to waste burning, and lastly, he pointed out how the energy crisis may lead people to rely on hazardous heating materials, which is an issue that should be considered from a zero pollution standpoint. His contributions follows his intervention that he made on the previous Zero Pollution Stakeholder Meeting in October.
By being an active member of the Stakeholder Platform, EuChemS continues to work to ensure the sustainability of the chemical cciences, and to promote Scientific Policymaking, participating in future meetings that will follow in 2023.
The Executive Board of the European Chemical Society met online on 19 October.
President Floris Rutjes chaired the meeting, where the Executive Board members contributed to the discussion on follow ups from the General Assembly meeting in Lisbon. Many of the key points were of strategic nature. In addition, policy activities including EuChemS joining COARA and EuChemS contributions to the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform and High Level Roundtable on the implementation of the Chemicals Strategy stakeholder were considered by the attendees.
EuChemS Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj presented current state of EuChemS affairs. EuChemS Task Group Chairs were also invited to present recent activities of their respective Task Groups and bring up proposals for discussion regarding future activities.
The next meeting of the Executive Board is scheduled for February 2023.
The call for nominations for several awards from the European Chemical Society – namely, the EuChemS Gold Medal Award, the EuChemS Lecture Award, the EuChemS Award for Service, and the EuChemS Historical Landmark Award – are open and will close on 19 December 2022 18:00 CET.
The EuChemS Gold Medal Award is given to exceptional chemists every two years, the EuChemS Lecture Award honours the major achievements of junior scientists, and the EuChemS Award for Service acknowledges outstanding commitment to fostering Chemistry in Europe. Last but not least, the EuChemS Historical Landmark Award recognises historical sites of importance from a chemistry standpoint.
In addition, two EuChemS’ Professional Networks opened up calls for nominations. The Division of Organic Chemistry has two open calls: it’s Award for Research and its Award for Service. These calls are open until 31 December 2022. Finally, the call for the Division of Green and Sustainable Chemistry’s European Sustainable Chemistry Award (ESCA) is also open until 15 December 2022.
We are looking forward receiving your nominations by the indicated deadlines!
The key aim of COARA is the reform of the research assessment framework, turning it into a more impact-focused, transparent and qualitative metric. The long-term goal of this the improvement of the quality and impact of research.
By signing, EuChemS joins a growing number of organisations – academic and research associations, authorities and agencies that work with research implementation, universities and many more. The signatories subscribe to ten commitments related to conducting research assessment outlined in the document. These are, amongst other things, highlight that potentially misleading or arbitrary criteria, such as the ranking of the institution the research originates from should be avoided, and how innovative, evidence based frameworks should be encouraged, developed and constantly reviewed.
EuChemS offered the award for the best chemistry entry as a “specially donated prize” in the competition, which aims to highlight and reward the scientific achievements of young European students aged between 14 and 20. The recipients of the EuChemS prize, Ema Bojnec and and Daša Žuman from Slovenia, have worked on a linear structure notation for compounds for visually impaired in chemistry.
EuChemS supports the best chemistry contributions at the EUYCS with its specially donated prize since 2014 – we invite you to learn about past awardees and their projects here. You can also watch this year’s award ceremony here, to see all the successful projects of the invited young scientists.
Six additional community translations of the 2021 2nd version of the EuChemS Periodic Table were approved and published online recently. With the addition of Basque, Dutch, Galician, Hungarian, Italian and Ukrainian translations, the document can be accessed in a total of 14 languages.
The EuChemS periodic table aims to emphasize element scarcity, and the importance of sustainability in resource use through unique visual means: by demonstrating the available amount of each element on a logarithmic scale, and in addition, using colour coding to show how sustainable the societal uses of them are.
As EuChemS considers this as a critical societal message, we find it important to increase the visibility and accessibility of it beyond language barriers. We rely on our community of chemists, educators, students and others to assist in getting this document to as many people as possible in their native languages. While the translations are reviewed and approved by experts from EuChemS network, the bulk of the translation work is done by contributors from various backgrounds and countries. Therefore, we would like to express our gratitude to those who contributed with these translations, as well as invite all to submit a translation in their own languages.
You can see the new translations, and learn more about the EuChemS periodic table here.
The European Chemical Society was represented by Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj and Executive Board Member Ioannis Katsoyiannis at the 3rd meeting of the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform, held in Brussels on 11 October, at the European Commission. The platform, set up jointly by the Commission and the Committee of the Regions, aims to promote the Commission’s zero pollution agenda, and to allow stakeholders to influence its key policy aspects. The key topics of the 3rd meeting – co-chaired by Veronica Manfredi, Director of DG Environment, Markku Markkula, Member of the Committee of the Regions and Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General of DG Environment – were, urban and regional zero pollution actions, promoting the Zero Pollution Performance Scoreboard and phasing out pollution from pharmaceuticals in cities and regions.
During the most recent meeting, Ioannis Katsoyiannis contributed on behalf of EuChemS, with regards to the topic of regulation of pharmaceuticals in waters and wastewaters of Europe. He highlighted the importance of the metabolites of the organic pollutants existing in waters. In addition, he emphasized the capacity and willingness of EuChemS’ network of European chemists to contribute to the discussion and solutions on the topic.
You can learn more about the platform – which is one of EuchemS’s many policy advisory activities – here, and watch the recording of the 11 October meeting here.
Nominations for the EuChemS Gold Medal, the EuChemS Lecture Award, the EuChemS Awards for Service and the EuChemS Historical Landmark Awards are open.
The EuChemS Gold Medal rewards exceptional achievements of one scientist working in the field of chemistry in Europe every 2 years.
The EuChemS Lecture Award is a honour given every year to a junior scientist working in chemistry in a country with a EuChemS Member Organisation, and
The EuChemS Awards for Service, is looking for nominees who possess an outstanding commitment with regard to fostering chemistry and molecular sciences in Europe, and the goals of EuChemS.
We are looking forward to receiving all the excellent nominations. You will find the details on our website, as well as in the “calls for funding and awards” section of this newsletter.
All the nominations above are open until 19 December, 18:00 CET.
On the afternoon of 26 August, the key topics were, amongst others, updates on what is new at EuChemS, policy work, projects, communications, financial matters, Professional Networks and EYCN updates. In addition, the new President-Elect, Angela Agostiano and the new Treasurer, Hans Peter Lüthi were elected. EuChemS welcomes them in their new roles, starting in January 2023, Participants thanked for the service of Pilar Goya, current Vice-President and Eckhart Rühl, current Treasurer, whose mandates are approaching their end.
The following day, 27 August, participants discussed a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to awards and strategic issues. The day concluded with the Professional Networks’ annual meeting, which was attended by the representatives of EuChemS professional networks. Representatives introduced their respective PNs, and discussed various topics, and Celine Marmion updated the participants on the status of the ECC9, expected to be held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2024.
On the afternoon of 1 September, Floris Rutjes, President of the European Chemical Society, and Artur Silva, President of the Portuguese Chemical Society, formally closed the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress. We were glad to see that the closing ceremony followed a successful, large scale, international congress – finally in person, after a delay of two years.
Activities related to EuChemS played an important role from the beginning. The European Chemistry Gold Medal Awardees from 2020 and 2022, Michele Parrinello, and Dame Carol Robinson respectively, were receiving their awards at the opening ceremony of the congress, on 28 August. After the ceremony, the exhibition grounds opened, where participants could visit the impressive EuChemS booth to learn more about our activities.
Our booth was visited by high profile, international stakeholders from the chemistry world including, but not limited to representatives of ACS, RSC, GDC, EFMC and IUPAC, with whom we discussed agreements, avenues for future international cooperation and other strategic objectives. Apart from strategic meetings, many visitors were just interested in EuChemS – amongst them, activities such as the demonstration of the EuChemS Periodic Table and the EuChemS Quiz were especially successful.
Apart from our awards and booth, EuChemS also organised two successful sessions. During the Panel Discussion titled Chemists’ contributions to the global approach for tackling pollution, numerous high-profile speakers discussed the science policy implications of the 5th UN Environment Assembly, with a focus on chemistry. In the session Culture and Policy in Science, speakers from social science backgrounds used their unique lenses to examine the scientific process, which led to a lively discussion with the audience.
We were happy to welcome all participants, and we are looking forward meeting you all again at the ECC9, which will be held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2024. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date!
The European Chemical Society offers a variety of awards and honours to recognise and acknowledge the numerous outstanding contributions made to chemistry by researchers. The 8th EuChemS chemistry congress provides an apt opportunity for the recipients to accept these honours.
In addition, European Young Chemists’ Awards finalists will present during the congress if front of a jury and an audience. The winners of the competition will also be announced at the closing ceremony.
The 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress is almost about to begin. As a key participant in the congress, the European Chemical Society has numerous exciting activities scheduled.
The two key sessions of EuChemS will focus on chemistry’s role in reducing pollution and the unique cultural and policy characteristics of science. The former, titled “Chemists’ contributions to the global approach for tackling pollution” will be a panel discussion on chemistry’s role in 5th UN Environment Assembly resolutions. Floris Rutjes and Nineta Hrastelj of EuChemS, Camilla Alexander-White and Tom Welton from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Carla Seidel from the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and Angela Wilson from the American Chemical Society (ACS) will be present. During the latter, visitors will be able to take a look at science from a different perspective: EuChemS Science Communication and Policy officer Marton Kottmayer and Public Affairs Consultant Bruno Vilela will hold interactive talks about the unique role of science in a cultural and political context. Apart from EuChemS sessions, numerous events will also be held by the European Young Chemists’ Network.
Last, but not least, don’t miss the opportunity to meet the EuChemS Secretariat by visiting the EuChemS booth in the main hall. In our booth, you can learn more about EuChemS, meet our president, as well as participate in numerous brief, exciting activities such as quizzes and video demonstrations.
From 28 August until 1 September, Lisbon will welcome chemists from Europe and beyond at the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress, organised by the Portuguese Chemical Society (SPQ) on behalf of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS). The focus of this year’s Congress is Chemistry’s role as a central science.
The 8th European Chemistry Congress will provide opportunities for stimulating scientific discussions, international networking, and expanding the horizons of chemistry. During the five days of the event, numerous seminars, lectures, workshops and panel discussions will be held by high level academics and experts, centring around seven specific scientific topics. In addition, participants are welcome to attend award ceremonies and competitions, as well as visit poster exhibitions and the booths in the exhibition hall.
The series of EuChemS Chemistry Congresses started in Budapest in 2006, and are held biannually.
Located in the main hall of the Lisbon Congress center, near the poster exhibition and lunch areas, you will find our cozy booth with information on, and publications of EuChemS. There you meet EuChemS representatives, you can learn more about who is EuChemS, what do we do, gather insights into the structure of our organisation, and see what are our goals and priorities.
Apart from members of the secretariat, you will also have a chance to meet our president as well as participate in topical chats with experts from our networks – and perhaps we have some more surprise events up our sleeves.
Therefore, if you’re visiting ECC8, don’t hesitate, and say hi to us. We will be happy to see you there. To learn more, keep an eye on our webpage on ECC8.
The recipient of the 2021 EuChemS Lecture Award was announced this month. Sílvia Osuna will receive this honour, given in recognition of major achievements of junior scientists working in a country with a EuChemS Member Organisation.
Sílvia Osuna is an ICREA research professor at the Universitat de Girona, studying biochemical processes mainly related to enzyme catalysis. She is developing new technologies with her lab on this field, including computational tools for predicting which amino acid changes are required to the enzyme structure for allowing novel function. This has the potential to enable the routine computational design of proficient enzymes to boost their use in industry.
She will receive the award in person at the closing ceremony of the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress in Lisbon, alongside the winner of the 2020 Lecture Award, Victor Mougel. Both awardees will hold plenary talks upon receiving their honours.
You can read more about the award here, and the publications of Sílvia Osuna here.
In 2020, on the 50th Anniversary of EuChemS, the University of Chemistry and Technology (UCT), Prague – where the predecessor to EuChemS was founded – was designated to be a EuChemS Historical Landmark.
On July 3, 1970, the Federation of European Chemical Societies (FECS) held its first meeting in Prague, at the University of Chemistry and Technology. FECS, which is now EuChemS, started out with less than twenty members, from both sides of the iron curtain, to put scientific cooperation at the forefront, despite the political differences in the bipolar world. Since then, the organisation, now known as the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) kept expanding both in size and in range of activities.
Recently, on 1 July 2022, an EuChemS plaque commemorating this honour was inaugurated. The inauguration ceremony held at UTC Prague, was attended by representatives of EuChemS and the local host. During the ceremony, Pavel Matějka, UTC Prague Rector introduced the institution, Floris Rutjes, EuChemS President held a speech briefly summarising the history and future directions of EuChemS, and Tomáš Navrátil, President of the Czech Chemical Society discussed the importance of international and research-industry cooperation in chemistry.
The annual meetings of the European Chemical Society will be held in Lisbon, during the days preceding the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC8). The meetings fall into three categories: the closed session of the General Assembly, the open session of the General Assembly, and the Professional Networks meeting. The closed General Assembly session is to be held on 26 August, in the afternoon, the open General Assembly session is scheduled for 27 August in the morning, and lastly, the annual meeting of the Professional Networks will be held on 27 August in the afternoon.
Registration is compulsory for attending the meetings. We invite you to register here for the General assembly sessions (both open and closed), and here for the annual meeting of the Professional Networks.
We kindly ask you to check detailed information about the meetings found here.
As the beginning of the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC8) draws closer, so do the activities of the European Chemical Society at ECC8. To help those who are interested in them, we have collected all information on our awards and sessions on our website – you can take a look here.
At the opening ceremony of the ECC8 on 28 September, European Chemistry Gold Medal recipients Dame Carol Robinson and Michelle Parrinello will hold plenary talks after accepting their awards as well as 2020 and 2021 Lecture Awardees Victor Mougel and Sílvia Osuna. The recipients of the last 3 years’ EuChemS Awards for Service will also receive their honours on 1 September.
EuChemS will also host two science-policy sessions on 30 August. The panel discussion titled ‘Chemists’ contributions to the global approach for tackling pollution’ will centre around how chemistry can help the 5th UN Environment Assembly’s 14 resolutions aiming to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and will feature prestigious international panellists from major chemistry societies. The session ‘Culture and Policy in Science’ aims to demonstrate how natural sciences can be seen through the perspective of social and political sciences, and how understanding such a perspective can be useful for the scientific community.
Last, but not least, we are looking forward to welcoming you at the EuChemS expo booth – for more info on the booth, keep an eye on the ‘EuChemS at the ECC8’ page. We are very much looking forward to meeting you there.
The members of the European Chemical Society’s Executive Board met online on 1 June to discuss the future of, and the immediate issues concerning the activities of the organisation.
Decisions regarding EuChemS’ activities and governance were made in light of recent global events.
All the major conclusions made during this meeting will be communicated over the course of the following months, through different channels, such as on our website, social media channels as well as in our Brussels News Updates and Chemistry in Europe newsletters.
The next Executive Board meeting is expected to be held in October 2022.
EuChemS continues to carry out its policy activities by contributing to the high-level European Commission initiatives it was invited to.
On 25 April, EuChemS Secretary-General Nineta Hrastelj represented the organisation on the second meeting of the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform. This platform aims to gather stakeholders from various areas to assist in achieving the Commission’s Zero Pollution Ambition. The meeting consisted of a discussion between Commision Directorate General for Health & Food Safety (DG SANTE), Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), the European Committee of the Regions (ECR) and the representatives of the platform.
On 18 May, EuChemS president Floris Rutjes will take part in the 3rd meeting of the High Level Roundtable on the implementation of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability on behalf of EuChemS. This roundtable is focused on exchanging views between different stakeholders, and drafting policy recommendations to achieve a toxic-free environment. The meeting is planned to revolve around the draft report “Research and Innovation for the transition to safe and sustainable chemicals” – hence it will likely be attended and co-chaired by Joanna Drake, Deputy Director General DG Research and Innovation, alongside Patrick Child – however, the agenda is still subject to change at the time of writing.
You can find all information about past and present EuChemS policy advisory activities here.
A versatile group of experts from a wide range of backgrounds from academia to industry discussed sustainable agriculture and ammonia production during the most recent EuChemS policy workshop “The Nitrogen Element – Sustainable food production?” The event, held on 26 April, had a significant turnout, with participants attending from all around the world.
The workshop was chaired by Alessandra Quadrelli, and was opened by EuChemS president Floris Rutjes. In the morning session, Nicola Armaroli introduced the EuChemS periodic table, Nina Buchmann talked about the nitrogen cycle’s role in planetary boundaries, and Thoa Thi Minh Nguyen from Topsoe brought up the topic of a sustainable future in agriculture. In the afternoon, we heard much about innovative solutions, such as renewable fertilizers, from Rune Ingels, CTO of N2Applied, precision agriculture using drones from Wouter Maes, and the use of Annamox bacteria from Mike Jetten. Hydrocarbons, Earth System Sciences, and the UN environment committee’s policies in relation to nitrogen were also discussed by Bill David, Sarah Cornell and Mark Sutton respectively. Both the morning and afternoon sessions were concluded with enlightening panel discussions, polls and responses to the audience’s questions.
The recording of the event will soon be available on the EuChemS YouTube channel. Until then, you can refresh your memory by taking a look at the twitter thread recapping the events.
Prestigious EuChemS awardees will talk at the 8thEuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC8) late this August in Lisbon. Awardees of the European Gold Medal Dame Carol Robinson (2022 awardee) and Michele Parrinello (2020 awardee) will hold plenary speeches during the opening ceremony of the congress. You will also be able to listen to the speeches of the recipients of the EuChemS Lecture Awards, and last, but not least, EuChemS Service Awards winners will receive their honours at the event as well.
Alongside the award ceremonies, EuChemS is organising thematic sessions. On 30 August, a panel of high-profile participants from the Royal Chemistry Society, American Chemistry Society, GDCh, and EuChemS will discuss the contributions of chemistry to the Sustainable Development Goals during the discussion titled “Chemists’ contributions to the global approach for tackling pollution”. Later that day you will also be able to hear about chemistry – and natural sciences in general – from a different perspective: the following EuChemS session will be about the unique culture of the scientific community, and the effect this has on public policy.
In addition to events and ceremonies, you will be able to approach EuChemS representatives in the exhibition hall during the entire congress. In the EuChemS expo booth, you can learn about ongoing projects and initiatives. Keep an eye on updates about the stand in the next month’s Brussels News Update, as well as on the ECC8 website.
The ECC8 will be held from 28 August to 1 September, 2022 and we are very much looking forward to meeting you there. You can find deadlines, registration information and preliminary programmes at https://euchems2022.eu/ – and you can also follow the event on Twitter. Be sure to check back regularly to remain up to date with the events.
The upcoming science policy workshop “The Nitrogen Element – Sustainable food production?” is scheduled for 26 April, from 10:00 until 16:30 CEST. It is part of the series of policy workshops centred around specific elements of the EuChemS periodic table which shows the scarcity and sustainability of all natural elements.
Through the contributions of scientific and policy experts, these workshops aim to investigate how these elements can be used in a more viable way. Previous workshops investigated the carbon element through the lens of a sustainable society, and the lithium element in relation to the energy transition.
This month’s workshop assesses nitrogen and its role in agriculture. Via the Haber-Bosch process, nitrogen is used to produce ammonia, which sustains an estimated two thirds of global food production. However, the nitrogen cycle is nearing planetary boundaries, and innovative, alternative processes are called for.
In this workshop, a wide range of experts will discuss reducing nitrogen waste, precision agriculture, and numerous other nitrogen- and agriculture-related topics. The webpage of the event contains the detailed programme, information about the speakers, and instructions for registering. As it is regularly updated you can visit it to stay up to date on the latest speakers and finalised schedule.
