In addition, a range of Restriction proposals, Testing proposals and Harmonised classification and labelling consultations are also available – we invite you to take a look at them here.
EuChemS is an official accredited stakeholder of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
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.
In partnership with Unesco, the IYSSBD 2022 organised its opening ceremony online. During the full-day event, audiences could hear a wide range of experts form UNESCO as well as from academia and external organisations discussing the importance of basic sciences -including, but not limited to mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology – in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The International Year, alongside being endorsed by the UN, is also supported by 90 international bodies, including international science academies, learned societies, scientific networks, research and education centres, and is co-sponsored by 36 countries.
The initiative aims to enhance awareness and education in the field of basic sciences, which contribute to improving general quality of life and sustainability. The organisers stress that the importance of these sciences became increasingly prominent in face of the recent global pandemic – which motivates the promotion of their cruciality and the role they play in reaching SDGs. Over the course of the year, events and activities will be organised worldwide to further this cause by numerous organisations – including EuChemS, which will dedicate some of its undertakings to mark this occasion.
Science ministers of the world’s advanced economies, the G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union – met on 12-14 June in Frankfurt. Amongst numerous significant topics, international scientific cooperation was also discussed in detail.
On a global stage, increasingly characterised by hostilities, as well as ideological and political incompatibilities, scientific cooperation may be in a tight spot. According to Science/Business, the leading countries’ growing focus on safeguarding their technologies may harm scientific progress.
High level officials recognised this issue, and while acknowledging the need for security, they confirmed their commitments to scientific openness. However, these pleas happened in the face of many complaints from researchers who perceive that geopolitical barriers are standing in the way of cooperation. To respond to these calls, G7 members founded a working group to develop a toolkit with the aim of advancing research freedom, scientific integrity and security among academics amongst the countries concerned.
On 17 June, at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), a Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway was launched. The high-level policy event was attended by Head of States of 20 countries. Amongst the participants were President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary General António Guterres and United States President Joe Biden.
The European Union and the United States published a joint press release, in which they pledged to reduce anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 percent by 2030 from 2020 levels, and commit to the Energy Pathway, which will enable the mitigation of methane emissions. The launch of a satellite-surveillance alert and response system by the UNEP International Methane Emissions Observatory was also announced.
Following the announcement of the pathway, in an online event, hosted by Rapporteur on the EU strategy to reduce methane emissions, MEP Maria Spyraki, stakeholders met to discuss methane reduction ambitions in context of the challenges the EU and the world faces. During this discussion, the invited speakers established that tackling methane emissions is an opportunity that must be taken to effectively limit global warming, tracking data is crucial to keep up mitigation actions, and the changed frameworks brought about by the war can be considered as opportunities. The closing remarks were delivered by MEP Spyraki – who also participated in the EuChemS workshop “The value is on circularity – Recycling-reusing-reinvesting on critical raw materials”-, summarising the urgency of regulating methane emissions.
The 2022 edition of the report has been largely influenced by the major global events of the recent years – the Coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In face of such crises, a key message of the report is putting emphasis on Europe’s resilience and preparedness for unexpected challenges. To ensure such resilience, the report highlights certain key policy areas to focus on. It also shows that, while the EU holds onto its strong position in R&D, major trading partners are closing the gap, as their innovation performance is improving faster than the EU’s. This may have economic and political implications; hence the report calls for improvements of the EU business infrastructure.
On 12 July, a virtual launch event was held for the report, where Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General for Research & Innovation addressed the audience, followed by the introduction of the report’s key findings and a panel discussion of experts on research innovation and economy.
The European commission launched a pilot project for a potential future Joint European degree label within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. Yann-Maël Bideau, Policy Officer at the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG-EAC) described the pilot, and the call for proposals open for institutions interested in it in detail, at the “Link EDU-RES 2nd Multiplier Event” organised by Young European Research Universities (Yerun) in Brussels.
The project, in its early stages, is looking for proposals from institutions willing to test deeper instruments of transnational cooperation in higher education, and thus, explore the policy and educational landscape, and determine the future of a joint European degree label. Such a label would recognise the experiences students could gather from international education, and provide a way to institutionalise the values inherent to this.
Institutions can apply to be part of this pilot until 6 October 2022. Erasmus+ allocated a total budget of 2.000.000 Euros for this “policy experimentation”, divided into two halves: 1.000.000 EUR for the Joint European Degree label pilot and 1.000.000 to explore institutionalised instruments and the feasibility for legal frameworks of cooperation.
On 1 July, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union began, following the end of the French Presidency. The country is the second over the course of the 18 month-long “trio presidency”, following France and preceding Sweden.
In “trio presidencies”, member states work closely together to achieve long-term goals, sharing a common agenda. However, alongside the foci of the initial programme – Covid recovery, digital sovereignty and the ‘One Health EU approach’- new, urgent priorities were introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In light of the conflict, the Czech presidency has announced that it will focus on managing the refugee crisis caused by the invasion and assisting Ukraine’s post-war recovery. In addition, achieving energy security within the EU will be of paramount importance. This is to be done through reducing dependence on Russian energy by accumulating reserves, and decarbonisation. The priority list also emphasizes strengthening the defence of the continent, as well as keeping the economy resilient.
In addition, a range of Restriction proposals, Testing proposals and Harmonised classification and labelling consultations are also available – we invite you to take a look at them here.
EuChemS is an official accredited stakeholder of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
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.
