On 26 and 27 March, the European Innovation Council brought together scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers in Brussels for a two-day event on scaling renewable fuels and chemicals for a resilient European industry. Co-organised with Hungarian start-up eChemicles, the workshop was structured around two themes: ecosystem thinking on Day 1, and fair assessment and benchmarking on Day 2.
The event was an arena for the EIC’s Pathfinder Challenge portfolios, including the Solar-to-X portfolio, to connect with the broader innovation ecosystem. Keynote speakers and panel discussions covered topics ranging from standards development for Solar-to-X technologies to business model considerations at an early stage of technology development.
Alongside the public programme, the Solar-to-X portfolio, including C5, held a dedicated get-together on the afternoon of 27 March. The C5 project was represented by María Agustina Domínguez Martín and Henning Kirst from the Universidad de Córdoba, as well as Sarah D’Adamo from Wageningen University. Joined by fellow researchers from the other portfolio projects, they worked on mapping synergies and a collaboration table.
“It was an inspirational event”, shared María Agustina (Tina) Domínguez Martín, the coordinator of C5. “We got to interact with key actors in the sector to help us understand where the market is heading and to envision how the outcomes of our project could evolve into a market ready product.
We also connected and exganged experiences with projects from other portfolios and exchanged experiences. It was amazing to see how well our Solar to X portfolio works together and how exciting synergies are emerging among us.
“This is an unique opportunity to engage directly with industrial partners and to connect with other consortia funded under the Pathfinder challenges,” said Henning. “We were inpired by the invited speakers delivered inspiring and had productive discussions on how to compare the effectiveness of different Solar to X devices across diverse technological approaches.”
We now have the groundwork sorted for future collabs within the Solar-to-X portfolio, so we can work together to boost the chances of success of the technologies we’re developing. I think this meeting was a really effective and productive way of bringing industry and scientists together!
The Brussels meeting is one of the first in-person opportunities for the Solar-to-X portfolio to take stock of shared ground. For C5, it reinforced that the path from cyanobacterial engineering to industrial-scale bio-isoprene production is one made of connections and community.