Max Planck Institute successful in competition for large-scale research center
Prof. Peter H. Seeberger has received a grant of 500,000 euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for his project draft “Chemresilience”. The task now is to develop a viable concept for a new large-scale research center that is ready for implementation in six months. If successful, a subsidy of 1.25 billion euros beckons. “Chemresilience – Research Factory in the Central German Coalfield” aims to establish a sustainable circular economy for chemical products.
Sustainable circular economy
Peter Seeberger’s project aims to strengthen the resilience of the German chemical landscape through renewable raw materials, short transport routes and local, cost-effective and sustainable production processes, thus ensuring important industrial sectors such as health, transport, energy, agriculture and consumer goods. “The new research center in Saxony will completely redevelop chemical production, which is currently based on fossil raw materials, and will have to catch up 150 years of ‘head start’ in order to make an important industry sustainable. There are currently approaches in this direction in industry and science worldwide, but no comparable research center. This center will be a globally visible beacon of cutting-edge research and a crystallization nucleus for settlements and spin-offs,” says Peter Seeberger. At the same time, he strives to comply with the highest occupational health and safety and environmental standards. A total of two concepts will be implemented from summer 2022. Up to and including In 2038, each centre will receive funding of 1.25 billion euros from the federal government.
From an international two-stage competition organised by the BMBF, the six most convincing concepts for the first funding phase have been selected by an independent commission. The BMBF press release states that new economic prospects and jobs are to be created in Lusatia in Saxony and the Central German mining area. This is intended to contribute to structural change in the traditional lignite mining areas. The aim is to create two locations for excellent research with effective knowledge transfer into application. Following the elaboration, the concepts will be reviewed by an independent commission of experts, including the chemists Wolfgang Herrmann, Joachim Sauer and the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Stefan Hell, Saxony’s former Prime Minister Georg Milbradt and astronaut Alexander Gerst. On this basis, the Federal Government and the participating states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt decide which two concepts will be implemented from summer 2022.
background
For the regions affected by the coal phase-out, the “Structural Strengthening Act for Coal Regions” (StStG) came into force on 14 August. The two-stage, open-topic competition “Knowledge creates perspectives for the region!” started in November 2020. The construction phase will begin in summer 2022.
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Informationen zu Peter Seeberger und seiner Abteilung Biomolekulare Systeme