On 11 September 2024, we officially launched our program's second funding phase (2024-2028) at Welle7 in Bern with our PIs and group delegates! The meeting served to initiate discussions on our grand research and structure-related challenges and to strengthen collaborations.



We started with input on and insights into program operations and gender balance, plans for higher educational programs, and our network-wide data strategy.



We then enjoyed interactive sessions prepared by our WP Coordinators and colleagues on the standardization of methodologies, strategies for bridging activities in renewable platforms and complex molecules, long-term stability challenges and opportunities in catalysis, and ways to leverage data within our program. We wrapped the meeting up with perspectives on the definition and integration of sustainability and plans for strategic partnerships and the upcoming months.

Group photo of the ETH Zurich-NUS CHI meeting participants taken at NUS on 3 September 2024.
In a recent visit to the National University of Singapore (NUS), delegates from ETH Zurich met with members of the Centre for Hydrogen Innovations (CHI) for a symposium on Replacing Fuels by Chemistry. The symposium was held to strengthen Swiss-Singaporean exchanges in this area, in particular between NCCR Catalysis and NUS-CHI.


Panel discussion at the NUS CHI-ETH Zurich symposium with ETH Zurich professors Victor Mougel, Christophe Copéret, Javier Pérez-Ramírez, Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez and Christoph Müller.
The ETH Zurich delegation included NCCR Catalysis members Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez (Program Director), Dr. Sharon Mitchell (Program Advisor), Prof. Christophe Copéret (co-coordinator of WP3 Advanced tools), Prof. Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez (co-coordinator of WP5 Sustainability), and Prof. Christoph Müller (Principal Investigator), and Prof. Victor Mougel.


Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez with NUS hosts professors Dan Zhao (CHI), Ning Yan (CHI Program Director) and Jason Yeo.
As Program Directors of CHI and NCCR Catalysis, respectively, Prof. Ning Yan and Prof. Javier Peréz-Ramírez gave welcoming addresses to kick off the meeting.

The ETH Zurich delegation contributed talks on:


Prof. Javier Pérez-Ramírez: Catalysis and Sustainability: A Journey from Atom to Planet
Prof. Christophe Copéret: Preparation and Characterisation of Heterogeneous Catalysts, One Atom at a Time
Prof. Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez: Sustainability Metrics for Chemicals Within Planetary Boundaries
Prof. Christoph Müller: CO2 Capture and Thermocatalytic CO2 Conversion: Model Materials and Their Characterisation
Prof. Victor Mougel: Bio-Inspired Strategies for the Design of Electrocatalysts for Small Molecule Activation


They also contributed to a panel discussion on the role of science, education and policy in decarbonizing the chemical industry.

In addition to the symposium, the visit also included sightseeing and meeting with NUS students, and exchanges with the Singapore-ETH Centre. We thank the delegation’s hosts for their warm welcome and look forward to further fruitful exchanges!


Members of the ETH Zurich delegation with their hosts, visiting the Gardens by the Bay with NUS students and the National Orchid Garden Singapore Botanic Gardens.

In Spring 2024, we gathered our amazing community and supporters to celebrate our program's continuation to its second funding phase (2024-2028) and our many achievements in sustainable chemistry and beyond during the past four years!
We had a lovely evening at Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, where we had a short toast, food and drinks, lots of cake, and karaoke.
We're grateful for the continued support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, ETH Zurich, and EPFL, and we thank our Review Panel for continuing to challenge us to be at the forefront of sustainable chemistry.

The 2023 SCNAT Platform Chemistry Ethics Series at ETH Zurich is organized by SCNAT, ETH Zurich, and its Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, D-CHAB. With the union of the doctorate students, postdocs, and scientific staff of D-CHAB, VAC, and the Society for Women in Natural Sciences, WiNS, NCCR Catalysis supports this year’s workshop on Recognizing and Overcoming Bias.

The opening talks are given by Prof. Lee Penn, University of Minnesota (“Images as Representations of Reality”) and Kaila Yallum, UniBe (“Implicit Bias in Experimental Research”). Prof. Lee Penn will then address “How to Overcome Implicit Bias Everyday”, followed by interactive discussions.

We have the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Fernando Gomollón-Bel for a science communication seminar on Beyond publishing papers: learn some Sci Comm tips and tricks. Fer is a well-known science communicator in the field of chemistry and materials, and co-founder of Agatha Communications, a small science communication agency based in the UK.
The seminar is open to all, and you can still sign up here.

On March 27-29 2023, NCCR Catalysis held its Annual Retreat in Lucerne, Switzerland. We welcomed 150 members of our network and spent three exciting days filled with sustainable chemistry research presented by our talents, brainstorming on program activities and exchanges. It was wonderful to have our second network-wide meeting, and to connect in person!



We heard excellent presentations by the 2022 Young Talents Fellowship recipients, and talks and posters by PhD students and researchers across all five WPs. We're excited to announce the following awards:

Best Talks: Andrea Ruiz, Lopez group, ICIQ and Kevin Rossi, Pérez-Ramírez group, ETH Zurich; Ludovic Zaza, Buonsanti group, EPFL and Bojana Ranković, Schwaller group, EPFL
Best Poster: Maxime Hedou, Marti group, HES-SO
Best Poster Runner-Ups: Nieves Ramirez, Waser group, EPFL; Sebastiano D’Angelo, Guillén-Gosálbez group, ETH Zurich; and Stephan Pollitt, Nachtegaal/Safonova group, PSI
Congratulations to all awardees and many thanks to all participants for making this a fantastic community-wide event!

The group of Prof. Jérôme Waser at EPFL hosted Prof. Mark Lautens as visiting professor in early 2023, where he gave a seminar on Reversible catalytic reactions.
Prof. Mark Lautens has been the J. Bryan Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto since 2013 and AstraZeneca Professor of Organic Synthesis since 1998. His group's research focuses on asymmetric catalysis with focus on rhodium, nickel and palladium catalysts, and heterocycle synthesis using metal catalysts.

We have the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Heather J. Kulik for an open-to-all lecture on Addressing challenges of data scarcity and quality in ML-accelerated computational materials discovery, co-organized with the Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry (LAC) at ETH Zurich.

Prof. Heather J. Kulik is an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her research group focuses on computational chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science for a wide range of applications from fundamental biochemistry to data-driven discovery of new molecules and materials.

The 2022 re-launch of the SCNAT Platform Chemistry Ethics Series at EPFL was organized by SCNAT, EPFL, EDCH (its doctoral program in chemistry and chemical engineering), and NCCR Catalysis.
The event started with talks by Prof. Edward Constable (president of the Swiss Academies' Committee for Research Integrity, Prof. University of Basel) and Prof. Antonio Togni (former Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies, Prof. em. ETH Zurich) on "Surely it doesn’t apply to me? Equating integrity with best practice"and "Orchestrating relevance: A questionable trait of modern publication culture", respectively, moderated by Prof. Jérôme Waser from EPFL, substituting for Prof. Shana Sturla from ETH Zurich. The speakers and panelists then led interactive discussion rounds, on which participants reported to the plenary. The afternoon concluded with an apéro.
The organizers included Prof. Shana Sturla and Dr. Leo Merz, SCNAT; Prof. Berend Smit and Anne Lene Odegaard, EPFL and EDCH; and Dr. Marie Francine Lagadec, NCCR Catalysis.

The 2022 re-launch of the SCNAT Platform Chemistry Ethics Series at ETH Zurich was organized by SCNAT, ETH Zurich and its Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, D-CHAB. Together with the union of the doctorate students, postdocs and scientific staff of D-CHAB, VAC and of the Society for Women in Natural Sciences, WiNS, NCCR Catalysis supported this year’s workshop on responsible conduct of research.
The event started with talks by Prof. Edward Constable (president of the Swiss Academies' Committee for Research Integrity, Prof. University of Basel) and Prof. Antonio Togni (former Vice Rector for Doctoral Studies, Prof. em. ETHZ) on "Surely it doesn’t apply to me? Equating integrity with best practice" and "Orchestrating relevance: A questionable trait of modern publication culture", respectively, moderated by Prof. Shana Sturla. The speakers and panelists from VAC, WiNS and NCCR Catalysis then led interactive discussion rounds, on which participants reported to the plenary. The evening concluded with an apéro.
The organizers included Prof. Shana Sturla and Dr. Leo Merz, SCNAT; Prof. Christophe Copéret, D-CHAB; Moritz Bernhardt, VAC; Dr. Monika Colombo, WiNS; and Dr. Marie Francine Lagadec, NCCR Catalysis.

On June 9-10 2022, NCCR Catalysis held its first Annual Event at ETH Zurich, Campus Hönggerberg. We welcomed 145 members of our network and spent two exciting days filled with catalysis and sustainable chemistry research presented by our talents. It was a wonderful to have our first physical meeting after 22 months of operation, and to connect in person!
We saw excellent presentations and posters by PhD students and researchers across all five WPs and are excited to announce the following awards:

Best Talk: Anastasiia Komarova, Luterbacher group, EPFL
Runner Up Talks: Thomas Moragues, deMello group, ETH Zurich and Mojmir Mutny, Krause group, ETH Zurich
Best Poster: Alessandra Toniato, Laino group, IBM Research Zurich
Runner Up Posters: Ludovic Zaza, Buonsanti group, EPFL and Lukas Spiekermann, Bardow group, ETH Zurich
Congratulations to all awardees and many thanks to all participants for making this a fantastic community-wide event!

We had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Abigail G. Doyle for an open-to-all seminar on Development of data science tools for synthetic chemists, co-organized with Dr. Teodoro Laino.
Prof. Abigail G. Doyle is the Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry at UCLA since 2021, previously the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University. Her group's research focuses on the interface of organic, organometallic, physical organic, and computational chemistry. They develop catalysts, catalytic reactions, and synthetic methods, also applying mechanistic and computer-assisted techniques to understand the principles guiding these catalytic reactions.

On May 12 2022, NCCR Catalysis held its first Sustainability Day. The morning session combined lectures from experts bringing industry and academic perspectives on sustainability assessment with a panel discussion.
The afternoon covered the status quo within NCCR Catalysis and provided an opportunity for brainstorming on how to address sustainability moving forward. We thank all speakers, moderators and participants for their contributions and lively discussions!

We had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Bert M. Weckhuysen for two tutorial lectures held in hybrid mode. In part 1, Prof. Weckhuysen led us through the history, social network of the community, trends and practical aspects of operando spectroscopy of catalysts.
In part 2, he discussed cell design suggestions, and advances towards capturing molecular movies of real-life catalysts. We thank Prof. Weckhuysen for the insightful lectures, the group of Prof. Christophe Copéret for organizing, and all attendees for joining us! You can find the lecture recordings on our YouTube channel: part 1 and part 2.
Prof. Bert M. Weckhuysen is a full professor at Utrecht University, where his group focuses on the development of structure-activity relationships and expert systems in the field of heterogeneous catalysis and materials science. His research group places special emphasis on the development and use of advanced in situ characterization techniques. He is currently a visiting professor in Prof. Christophe Copéret’s group at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich, and member of the NCCR Catalysis International Advisory Board.

We brought together our Industry Panel for the first time with an online meeting. Here, we could gain industry perspectives from our Panel members, including how they think about sustainability. We thank our Industry Panel for their time and valuable insight!

In this seminar, the NCCR Catalysis Project Office will present the program's strategy for fulfilling SNSF's requirements on data sets and publications. Prof. Nicola Marzari, NCCR Catalysis Associate PI from EPFL, will give an outlook on data accessibility and re-usability, which will be followed by demonstrations on how to upload data sets to the Zenodo and Materials Cloud Archive repositories, and a Q&A session.
This event on February 17 2022 is for NCCR Catalysis members.

Management Team members Lauren Gamp, Dr. Marie Francine Lagadec and Dr. Sebastiaan Huber represented NCCR Catalysis at the 2021 ILMAC Forum, a chemistry, pharmacy and biotechnology platform. We had the pleasure to connect with members of the flow, sustainable and digital chemistry communities, from Switzerland and abroad!

Our program turned one in August 2021, and we wrapped up the first year with an in-person evaluation meeting in October, held in Bern. We warmly thank all consortium members for their efforts in summarising 77 research projects and the work of more than 200 people. We also thank our review panel, and the SNSF, ETH Zurich and EPFL representatives for the constructive discussions!

In this seminar, Dr. Christoph Fik from ETH transfer will overview how and when to valorize research results, and Prof. Wendelin Stark, NCCR Catalysis Core PI from ETH Zurich, will give insights about his vast experience in creating and sustaining spin-offs. Each talk will be followed by a discussion.
This event on June 23 2021 is for NCCR Catalysis members.

The 12th Wädenswil Day of Life Sciences hosts the 3rd Competence Center of Biocatalysis Symposium on Industrial Biocatalysis on June 10 2021 as a virtual event. The event is organized by ZHAW with Prof. Rebecca Buller - a core member of NCCR Catalysis and Professor at ZHAW - as scientific lead, and with NCCR Catalysis as a partner. In a transdisciplinary environment, this symposium will provide a platform for scientific knowledge transfer and dialog for participants from industry and academia, and bring together renowned researchers to discuss recent advances and future directions of the field. Interested? You can find more information and register here.

The Summer School on Big Data and Machine Learning for Chemistry is co-organized by EPFL and ETHZ and co-sponsored by NCCR Catalysis, and will take place from June 7-9 2021 as a hybrid live/online event. The summer school will provide an overview on machine learning models through presentations and hands-on tutorials, and discussions on specific applications for computational chemistry, catalysis, and high-throughput screening. The speakers will give both theoretical and experimental perspectives, and the program targets chemists and chemical engineers. Interested? You can find more information and register here.

In this seminar, members of NCCR Catalysis will demonstrate a variety of electronic lab notebooks (ELN) they use in their labs, and show how these helps them to be more efficient and produce better science. The different ELNs represent a range of solutions - from free to paid and from being designed for use-cases in chemistry to biology to domain-agnostic. Demonstrations will be given for OpenBIS, Cheminfo, Chemotion, MBook and Jupyter. Developers of some of the ELNs will also be present to answer technical questions from attendees during the discussion.
This event on May 11 2021 is for NCCR Catalysis members.

Nature Nanotechnology will host a virtual panel discussion with panelists from industry and academia. The panel will discuss emerging catalytic materials with industrial-relevant performance, the opportunities and challenges of applying state-of-art nanocatalysts in industry, and the strategies for overcoming challenges and commercializing materials. Tune in to follow the discussion between Nanfeng Zheng from Xiamen University, Kendra Kuhl from Opus-12, Javier Pérez-Ramirez from ETH Zurich and Director of NCCR Catalysis, and Kensaku Kodama from Toyota Central R&D Labs. The panel discussion Nature Nano Talks - Nanocatalysts: a dialogue between academia and industry will take place on Monday, March 8 2021 from 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM CET. Interested? You can sign up here for free.

The NCCR Catalysis was invited to attend the virtual NCCR MARVEL Sector Day 2021 on Chemistry and Catalysis, and given the opportunity to present our community to the NCCR MARVEL and to industry representatives. Thank you for inviting us, NCCR MARVEL, and for the great discussions with the participants!