Coordinated by Siegfried R. Waldvogel (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) and Ulrike Krewer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), the ETOS network of academic and industrial partners has been formed with the aim of making the Electrification of Technical Organic Syntheses (ETOS) accessible to broad areas of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and operational on a technical scale. The ETOS network was able to convince the expert jury of the open-topic competition within the Zukunftscluster-Initiative of its high innovation potential, the social benefits and the current relevance of its topic. As one of 15 projects ETOS was recommended for the conception phase out of a total of 117 reviewed competition entries.
The use of electric power for the production of value-added products, such as fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, is an inherently safe, energy-efficient and sustainable method. Expensive, hazardous and often environmentally harmful catalysts can be avoided. The direct use of electrons as reagents also saves chemicals and reduces waste. ETOS therefore fits perfectly into JGU’s Top-level Research Area SusInnoScience, which focuses on sustainable, resource-efficient innovations and green chemistry.
As part of the High-tech-Strategy 2025, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has designed the Zukunftscluster-Initiative to increase knowledge and technology transfer. Relevant protagonists from academia, industry and society are to join forces and establish innovation networks that will lead to a strengthening of the local innovation potential, to benefit people’s everyday lives.
In the six-month conception phase, the 15 selected competition entries will now receive funding of up to €250,000 each to develop cluster strategies in their specific fields of innovation and to plan the implementation phase. Subsequently, up to 7 projects may be funded to realize their strategy.
Further Information can be found here:
https://www.bmbf.de/de/zukunftscluster-initiative-9195.html
https://www.bmbf.de/de/karliczek-wir-foerdern-die-innovationsnetzwerke-von-morgen-14401.html