CLIB Focus Groups successfully launched

In January, we launched our new CLIB committees – the CLIB Focus Groups. CLIB members – from universities to large-scale industry – met on three different topics in Düsseldorf and online to get to know each other and to determine the topics and goals of the Focus Groups next year. To this end, the groups collaboratively collected, clustered, and evaluated ideas on a virtual whiteboard. All groups have also elected a leader who will moderate next year’s meetings.

 

In the “C1” Focus Group, 30 people from 14 organisations discussed sources, (biotechnological) technologies for implementation and potentially attractive products in the context of microbial gas fermentation. It has become clear that the technology offers great potential for industrial applications. For successful development, however, actors from different sectors must be actively networked with each other to identify and fully exploit new potential uses. In the first year, Heleen De Weever (VITO) will accompany the transfer of knowledge within and outside the Focus Group as well as the formation of project consortia.

In the “Food and Feed” Focus Group, 27 people from 21 organisations discussed which raw materials, technologies and products will be important in the future and what role regulation will play in the food and feed sector. Under the lead of Tobias Bunke (Leiber), the group will spend the first year exchanging ideas on technologies such as improved conversion or downstream approaches, both internally and with selected external stakeholders, and exploring how biotechnology can be used to design products that are attractive to customers and will be successful in the market.

The kick-off meetings concluded with the “Biomaterials & Recycling” Focus Group, which will approach this complex topic from a technology perspective. The number of registrations (35 people from 25 organisations) showed early on that the topic has a broad resonance among the membership, but that the terms must first be clearly defined. This made it all the more important to define “Biobased polymers & monomers”, “Methods for Circularity” and “Processing & Upscaling” as the first common areas of interest in the kick-off. In the coming months, these fields will be further elaborated by the specialist group and provided with concrete objectives. Martin Lindmeyer from Yncoris was elected as lead.

 

We would like to thank all members of the Focus Groups for their commitment and especially our three Focus Group leads for taking on special responsibility in the moderation next year.

The Focus Groups will regularly exchange information on the topics and work together towards their individual goals. CLIB members who are interested in joining one of these specialist groups can contact the CLIB office team at any time.