The 2018 EuChemS Lecture Awardee Webinar will be held online on Friday 13 November, from 10:00 to 11:30 CET. During this event, Raffaella Buonsanti, EuChemS 2018 Lecturer, will give a talk on “Colloidal chemistry for tunable nanocrystals as CO2 conversion catalysts’’. This event is organised by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).
More information is available HERE.
The value is on circularity – Recycling-reusing-reinvesting on critical raw materials
The webinar is jointly organised by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) and Maria Spyraki, Member of the European Parliament.
The event will be held online on Thursday 5 November 2020, 13.00 – 15.00 CET
More information is available HERE.
The call for the International Award Committee for the EuChemS Lecture Award (IACL) is now open.
Deadline: 31 December 2020
Submit a nomination HERE (please scroll down to the Submission form “Jury Nomination for the International Award Committee for the EuChemS Lecture Award (IACL) 2020”).
The EuChemS Historical Landmarks Award, which aims to celebrate the important link between history, cultural heritage and chemistry, is open to submission.
Find out more about the award and enter your submission HERE.
Deadline: 31 December 2020
EuChemS Award for Service aims to acknowledge the outstanding commitment of an individual to fostering chemistry and molecular sciences in Europe, as well as to the goals of EuChemS.
If you know somebody who has made a difference for Chemistry in Europe and for EuChemS’ image and activities, submit your nomination HERE.
Deadline: 31 December 2020
Each year, EuChemS celebrates the major achievements of a junior scientist working in chemistry. The winner of the EuChemS Lecture Award is awarded a statuette and is also invited to give a lecture at the next European Chemistry Congress or the major conference of a EuChemS Professional Network.
Everything you need to know about the award and how to submit available HERE.
Deadline: 31 December 2020
The European Chemistry Gold Medal aims to reward the exceptional achievements of one scientist working in the field of chemistry in Europe. The winner is awarded a gold medal and the opportunity to give the opening lecture at the next EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC).
You can submit a nomination HERE (no self-nomination accepted!)
Deadline: 31 December 2020
‘EU Green Deal (carbon border adjustment mechanism)’ public consultation, put forward by the European Commission, is currently open.
Deadline: 28 October 2020
You can take a look at it here.
The European Research and Innovation Days is the European Commission’s annual flagship event, bringing together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and citizens to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond.
The second edition of the event will take place online, on 22-24 September 2020. More information is available HERE.
The EuChemS European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN) will take an active part in the event and contribute to the session on “Sustainability by Design – Embedding sustainability criteria throughout life cycle of products and processes” (HUB 2: European Green Deal). During this session, young scientists will challenge senior experts on sustainable-by-design approaches in different fields, contribute to the discussion and shape together a safe, carbon-neutral and resource efficient industrial eco-system.
The session will be held online on 22 September 2020, from 17:00 to 17:45 CEST.
Check out the final program and register HERE.
Half online, half on-site, the scientific event EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2020) was hosted in Trieste, the European City of Science 2020. The event took place from 2 to 6 September 2020. ESOF is a biennial, pan-European, general science conference dedicated to scientific R&I. For 5 days, hybrid conferences on the latest advancements and discoveries in the sciences, humanities and social sciences were held in the Northern Italian city and online.
During this event, researchers and university leaders expressed their concern regarding the budget allocated to Research and Development in the European Union and the potential brain exodus that could ensued. They called for governments and the EU to keep investing in R&D.
On a different note, MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho (ITRE Committee) warned the ESOF 2020 participants about the geographical imbalance in funding awards in Europe. She pointed out that the private sector participation remains an important problem for EU public-private research partnerships in the EU research and innovation framework programme, Horizon 2020: a high percentage of grants allocated to scientists and researchers are going to a small number of member states. In this regard, MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho called for geographical equality for the next research and innovation framework programme starting in 2021, Horizon Europe.
The EuroScience Open Forum 2022 will be hosted in Leiden/The Hague, Netherlands.
Sources:
– ESOF 2020: https://www.esof.eu/en/home.html
– Science Business: https://sciencebusiness.net/framework-programmes/news/closed-clubs-eu-public-private-partnerships-need-more-geographical
– OggiScienza: https://oggiscienza.it/2020/09/01/trieste-esof-2020/
On 11 September, the European Parliament ENVI Committee (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) adopted the report on the EU climate law with 46 votes for, 18 against and 17 abstentions. This legal framework proposed by the European Commission in March 2020 aims to implement the 2050 climate neutrality goal and prepare the EU climate target update for 2030.
In addition, MEPs called for a more ambitious 2030 emissions reduction target: emissions should be reduced by 60% in 2030 compared to 1990, instead of “at least 50% towards 55%”, originally proposed by the European Commission. MEPs also want both the EU and all member states individually to become climate neutral by 2050.
Sources:
– Press release: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20200907IPR86512/eu-climate-law-meps-want-to-increase-emission-reductions-target-to-60-by-2030
– ENVI highlights : https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/one-step-closer-to-climate-neutrality-en/product-details/20200907CAN57042
On 7 September 2020, European Research Council (ERC) President, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, addressed the European Parliament ITRE Committee (Industry, Research and Energy) on the Future of EU R&I and the long-term EU budget.
The ERC President pointed out the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the reprioritization of the EU political agenda that ensued. In his regard, he highlighted the necessity to focus on long-term actions to tackle the crisis.
“What the pandemic has proved is the importance of preparedness built over the long term. It has also shown the reactivity and flexibility of researchers was key to get us through the pandemic.”
– ERC President, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
Speech given at the EP before the ITRE Committee
7 September 2020
Jean-Pierre Bourguignon expressed vividly the global disappointment of the scientific community concerning the cuts that had been made to the budget of the next research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe. The ERC President asked the European Parliament to reconsider the budget allocated to EU Research for Horizon Europe.
“For the ERC budget, the absolute minimum is €14.7 billion in 2018 prices (€16.6 billion in current prices) that was the 2018 European Commission proposal for Horizon Europe for the ERC representing 17.64% of the total budget of the programme. It barely guarantees €2 billion a year to the ERC. It is far from the ambition of the ERC founders had for it to represent 5% of national funding. A minimal interpretation of it would mean that, in Horizon Europe, the ERC receives €17.7 billion in 2018 prices (€19.9 billion in current prices), a legitimately ambitious goal.”
– ERC President, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
Speech given at the EP before the ITRE Committee
7 September 2020
Sources:
– ERC News, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon’s speech: https://erc.europa.eu/news/hearing-itre-european-parliament
On 3 September 2020, the European Commission presented an Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials. The aim of this plan is to secure the European Union’s access to critical Raw Materials by reducing its dependency on primary critical raw materials and strengthening domestic sourcing of raw materials in the EU to reduce its dependency on third countries.
With the Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials, the European Commission outlines ten actions to achieve these ambitions, the first being the establishment a European Raw Materials Alliance. The European Raw Materials Alliance will bring together relevant stakeholders and will focus on building EU resilience and open strategic autonomy for the rare earths and magnets value chain, such as renewable energy, defence, and space, before extending to other raw material areas.
Vice-President Šefčovič and Commissioner Breton have also presented the 2020 List of Critical Raw Materials. The updated list adds 4 new critical raw materials (Bauxite, Lithium, Titanium and Strontium), making it 30 in total. In EuChemS Periodic Table of Elements Scarcity, published on the occasion of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT19), Lithium and Strontium were already listed as elements in “serious threat in the next 100 years”.
Sources:
– EC Press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1542
On 3 July 2020, at the celebration of 50 years since the European Chemical Society has been founded, EuChemS had the honour of welcoming not one, but two winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Professor Jean-Marie Lehn and Professor Ben Feringa. They both gave a memorable speech, which are now available on the EuChemS YouTube channel. Subscribe to stay up to date with the videos we will be posting!
Watch their speeches here!
Use the hashtag #50yearseuchems on your favourite social media channel and do not miss out any EuChemS 50th anniversary-related posts!
On 26 August, the 12 finalists presented their research results in front of the European Award Committee for the EuChemS Award (EYCAC) and the whole audience during the EYCA Competition Session at the e-YCN@ECC. The event was organised by the European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN).
The European Award Committee for the EuChemS-EYCN Award (EYCAC) has selected the European Young Chemists’ Award (EYCA) winners for the Early Career Researcher level and the PhD level, in recognition of the exceptional research in various fields of chemical sciences. For both PhD level and the Early Career Researcher level, two awardees were selected: one Gold Medal and one Silver Medal.
At the Early Career Research Level, the EYCA 2020 Gold Medal was awarded to Maria Chiara Sportelli (National Research Council/Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies – CNR-IFN, Italy) and the Silver Medal to Grégory Chatel (University of Savoie Mont Blanc, France). At the PhD Level, the Gold Medal was awarded to Eoin Murray (T.E. Laboratories, Ireland) and the Silver Medal to Emilia Paone (University of Reggio Calabria, Italy).
EYCA 2020 has been sponsored by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS), the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) and the Federazione Nazionale degli Ordini dei Chimici e dei Fisici in Italy (FNCF).
More information about the European Young Chemists’ Award (EYCA) is available HERE.
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