Tailored biocatalysts for a sustainable bioeconomy are the area of research of Anna Joëlle Ruff. Rational and evolutive protein design help to develop enzymes that perform under the conditions in chemical industry. One focus are enzymes that recover valuable substances from agricultural residues.

On 28th November 2017, the 2nd International BioSC Symposium took place in Cologne and bundled different expertises on the topic „Towards an integrated Bioeconomy“. Around 160 participants were attracted by national, European and international speakers and researchers from the BioSC network, contributing their perspectives and recent research results concerning the bioeconomy.

The project partners of the BioSC project InducTomE successfully applied for a follow-up project at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. TaReCa started in November 2017 and evaluates the potential of biomass residues of bell pepper production as a source of valuable bioactive compounds.

More than 130 BioSC members joined the internal retreat 2017, the fourth BioSC Forum, to learn about latest developments from BioSC projects and to network with other BioSC members. While the focus of the morning session was on projects financed in the frame of the NRW strategy project BioSC, the afternoon presentations included as well talks about externally funded projects of BioSC consortia and information about national and international funding programmes in the framework of bioeconomy.

What is bioeconomy and what are the career opportunities within this modern and interdisciplinary field? These questions were in the focus of the 2nd PhD Day NRW „Future Bioeconomy“ that took place on 1st of December in Bonn. The goal of this meeting was to gather young scientists from different scientific fields and locations in NRW. About 50 PhD students from Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Jülich and Münster came together.

The workshop „Discussing (in) Science – Basics of Interdisciplinary Communication and Collaboration” addressed doctoral researchers who particularly wanted to improve their communication skills in interdisciplinary discussions, meetings and debates, as well as their individual presentation style. All together 8 PhD students of the BioSC attended the 3rd PhD Training Day on November 29th 2917 in Cologne.

Save the date: The 3rd International BioSC Symposium takes place on 12th and 13th November 2018 at the Gustav Stresemann Institute in Bonn. Moreover the 5th BioSC Forum (internal retreat) takes place on 12th November before the symposium.

On 15th June (Please note: change of date!) the 3rd BioSC Spotlight „Phosphorus recovery and cycling“ takes place at RWTH Aachen.

More information on events and calls can be found here.