For the fourth time in a row, the lecture series “Meet the Circular Economy” is taking place at RWTH Aachen University under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sandra Venghaus, with the support of BioSC and others. The first event on April 29 focused on the circular economy in the chemical industry, with Dr. Wolf Klöckner from Covestro and Dr. Balint Simon from the Mitsubishi Chemical Group. The lecture series will be followed by an Innovation Challenge, in which students will develop solutions to current challenges faced by the participating companies and present them to a jury on July 8.

At the opening of the new exhibition “The future grows back” in the Oecher Lab on 29 April, poetry slammer Oscar Malinowski spoke with BioSC members Prof. Dr. Andreas Jupke, process engineer at RWTH Aachen University, and Dr. Marcel Gaussmann, co-founder of the start-up re.solution. The entertaining talk focused on the prerequisites for the bioeconomy and the circular economy and the specific example of textile recycling. The combo of the RWTH BigBand provided musical support for the evening.

On April 1, the 11th BioSC Forum took place in the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich. After an overview of the last 15 years of the BioSC as a bioeconomy research hub in NRW, long-term developments in the fields of bioplastics, fibers, functional molecules and process technologies were presented. In breakout sessions and a subsequent panel discussion, the relevance of bioeconomy research for societal challenges such as climate change was discussed. In the afternoon, new results from ongoing BioSC projects on a wide range of topics were presented. Extensive networking rounded off the successful day.

With the funding commitment of 5.83 million euros from the federal and state governments, the Rhenish mining area can continue on its way to becoming a model region for the bioeconomy. NRW Science Minister Ina Brandes and Dr. Mandy Pastohr, President of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) as the responsible approval authority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection officially launched the project in Merzenich-Bürgewald on February 24, 2025.

Congratulations to the consortium around Nick Wierckx and Benedikt Wynands! Using deep metabolic engineering, guided by laboratory evolution, the consortium has optimized Pseudomonas putida to grow on nylon hydrolysates. This includes the expression of nylonases, explored in collaboration with Kenneth Jensen from Novonesis. The researchers enable the ultimate P. putida NYLON-PHB strain to convert polyamide hydrolysates into eco-friendly polyhydroxybutyrate.
Polyamides like nylon are amazing materials with numerous applications, but their recycling is currently almost non-existent. With the new nylon-eating strain, scientists now have a new option: to replace glucose with plastic waste as a feedstock for biotechnological processes.

The 8th International BioSC Symposium focused on how bio-based solutions can contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Almost 200 participants from science, business and politics spent two exciting days at lectures, panel discussions and poster sessions. Thorsten Menne, Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, opened the symposium and presented in the presence of the namesake the BioSC's Christian Patermann Award 2024 to Benedikt Wynands, Forschungszentrum Jülich, for his outstanding interdisciplinary supervision of doctoral theses on the bioeconomy.