The Supervision Award 2018/19 goes to Dr. Anita Loeschcke from the Institute of Molecular Enzyme Technology of the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and the leader of the BioSC FocusLab CombiCom.

On 12-13 November 2018, the 3rd International BioSC Symposium took place in Bonn, attended by around 170 participants. The event was opened by MinR`in Andrea Nooske from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. National and international speakers from academia and industry presented recent results and new developments for a sustainable bioeconomy. Besides the oral presentation, 48 posters, three of which were awarded, initiated lively discussions.

The BioSC Forum 2018 took place on November 12 at the conference hotel of Gustav-Stresemann Institute in Bonn with around 130 participants. All projects funded in the frame of the NRW Strategy Project BioSC in 2018 were presented. Moreover, four Core Groups presented their bioeconomy activities beyond the NRW Strategy Project. Dr. Anita Loeschcke, HHU Düsseldorf, received the BioSC Supervision Award 2018.

The fourth event in the “BioSC Spotlight“ series took place in Aachen on October 29, 2018. Scientists from academia and industry held a total of eight specialist lectures. The 47 participants took the opportunity for intensive discussion.

From June 26 to July 9, Prof. Gregory LeFevre, University of Iowa, stayed in the Core Group of Prof. Ulrich Schwaneberg, RWTH Aachen. Main topics of his research are biotransformations in relation to the impact and fate of various contaminants in the environment.

On 15th May, industry leaders and junior scientists were invited together to a one-day symposium. The event focussed on the research areas “Antibiotics research” and “Plant innovation”.