From September 23-27, 2024, the first iteration of effects - the European Forum for Engineering & Catalysis Towards Sustainability took place at KIT in Karlsruhe, Germany. Organized as a joint event between YEuCat, the Young German Catalysis Society (YounGeCatS), the NachwuchsReaktionsTechnik (NaWuReT), the Priority Program 'DynaKat' (SPP2080) and the Collaborative Research Center 'TrackAct' (CRC1441), the event attracted 42 early-career researchers from 14 different countries. 

The topic of the first effects forum, Catalysis at the core of more efficient processes in the chemical industry, was addressed from different perspectives in the plenary lectures by Prof. Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Prof. Ulrike Krewer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Prof. Dmitry Yu. Murzin (Åbo Akademi University) and Dr. Dorit Wolf (Evonik Operations GmbH). The topic was also well represented in the poster and pitch presentation by the effects participants on the first day.

The second day of the effects was dedicated to a site visit at BASF and hte GmbH. This excursion allowed the participants to obtain a detailed understanding about the standpoint of the two global players in the chemical industry regarding the topic of the forum and various aspects of industrial catalysis research. The excursion was concluded by a joint dinner with industry representatives allowing the participants to network and further exchange on the topics of the effects.

In the following two days, the effects participants went through a design thinking process and applied various methods to understand a problem, define a challenge and develop ideas and solutions for the topics defined by the organizers together with input from industry: 

• Sustainability Strategies in the Chemical Industry – An Outside Perspective on BASF

• How to Transfer Ideas from Academia to Industry – Current Challenges and Opportunities

• Catalysis as an Important Toolbox for a Changing Raw Material Basis

• More Efficient Solutions in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering by Digitization

The whole process was moderated by members of the organizing team and culminated in the final group pitch presentations of the developed solutions on the last day. The jury consisting of representatives from academia (plenary speakers Prof. Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt and Prof. Dmitry Yu. Murzin) and industry (Dr. Nils Bottke and Dr. Katrin Friese) was deeply impressed by the quality and originality of the pitched ideas and had a hard time selecting the best two groups:

Best group pitches awards

• Ali Elwalily, Dominique Lumpp, Enrico Marchi, Sebastian Mößlacher & Veronica Piazza

• Simon Yves Djoko Tameu, Ushna Khalid, Wijnand Marquart, Mauro Andrea Pappagallo, Morteza Saedimarghmaleki & Büsra Sevdaroglu

We furthermore congratulate the winners of the pitch and poster presentation awards sponsored by ChemCatChem and Wiley for the participants' own research.

Poster & pitch presentation awards

• 1st place: Luca Mastroianni (Åbo Akademi University)

• 2nd place: Moritz Link (Technical University Denmark)

• 3rd place: Kerstin Wein (Ulm University)

• 4th place: Andrea De Giacinto (Karslruhe Institute of Technology) & Andrea Grespi (Lund University)

We thank all the organizing societies, industrial partners, plenary speakers  and sponsors for having made this event possible and are already looking forward to the next iteration!

Organizing team

• Dr. Ken Luca Abel, University of Oslo / YounGeCatS

• Lorena Baumgarten, MSc., Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / SPP2080

• Dr. Jens Friedland, Ulm University / NaWuReT

• Dr. Schirin Hanf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / YounGeCatS

• Dr. Linda Klag, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / SPP2080

• Lorenz Lindenthal, MSc., Montanuniversität Leoben / YEuCat

• Dr. Emanuele Moioli, Paul Scherrer Institute / YEuCat & NaWuReT

• Dr. Patrick Schühle, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg / YounGeCatS

• Dr. Vera Truttmann, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / YEuCat

• Dr. Sebastian Weber, BASF SE / YounGeCatS