Harnessing the Potential of Biobased Value Circles
This symposium is the culmination of three years of innovative research and development aimed at accelerating the transition to a biobased and circular economy.
Four main themes will guide the discussions throughout the day, delving deep into the realms of possibility and opportunity for biobased materials and applications:
- Empowering Change: Leading the Circular (Bio)Economy Revolution
- Nature's Healing Power: Pioneering Fibroin and Elastin Solutions for Medical Breakthroughs
- Elevating Innovation: Scaling Up Biopolymer Aerogels & Fibers
- Unveiling Nature's Potential: Novel Biopolymer Innovations
This year's symposium features an esteemed keynote speaker, Wayne Visser, a renowned writer, speaker, film producer, academic, social entrepreneur, and futurist focused on sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and creating integrated value. He is the author of the bestselling book "Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society, and the Economy." Click here to see more details of our speakers for the day!
As the Biobased Value Circles project aims to establish a paradigm shift in the innovation process for biobased materials, your participation is crucial in catalyzing this transformation. This symposium is aimed at industrial, academic and general audiences, and at the event’s closure there will be opportunities for networking with researchers, industrial partners and relevant stakeholders in the biobased field.
Programme
| Time | Activity | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30 | Registration and coffee | |
| 09:00 | Opening | Astrid Boeijen Stefan Jockenhövel Yvonne van der Meer |
| 09:15 | Empowering Change: Leading the Circular (Bio)Economy Revolution | Main keynote speaker: Wayne Visser Prof. Yvonne van der Meer |
| 10:45 | Coffee break with poster presentations | |
| 11:15 | Nature's Healing Power: Pioneering Fibroin and Elastin Solutions for Medical Breakthroughs | Keynote speaker: Prof. Fritz Vollrath Prof. Stefan Jockenhövel |
| 12:30 | Lunch break with poster presentations | |
| 13:15 | Elevating Innovation: Scaling Up Biopolymer Aerogels & Fibers | Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Irina Smirnova Prof. Barbara Milow |
| 13:40 | Coffee break with poster presentations | |
| 14:45 | Unveiling Nature's Potential: Novel Biopolymer Innovations | Keynote speaker: Assoc. Prof. Per-Olof Syrén Assoc. Prof. Jules Harings |
| 16:00 | Closure of the event | Stefan Jockenhövel Yvonne van der Meer |
| 16:10 | Networking afternoon |
Speakers
Astrid Boeijen
CEO of Brightlands Chemelot Campus with 20+ years of expertise in the field of organisational development and change, innovation and strategy.
Wayne Visser
Dr Wayne Visser is a globally recognised “pracademic”, poet and “possibilist” on the impact of business on nature and society, with faculty roles at the University of Cambridge and Antwerp Management School. He is also director of the think-tank Kaleidoscope Futures, founder of CSR International, and former director of Sustainability Services at KPMG and strategy analyst at Capgemini. He has written 44 books, including the Amazon bestseller Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society, and the Economy. His work has taken him to 78 countries and he has been listed as a top 100 thought leader in trustworthy business.
Prof. Fritz Vollrath
Prof. Fritz Vollrarh is an evolutionary biologist with a long history of studying the behaviour, ecology, life history and evolution of spiders, webs and silks. More recently, the growing fields of biomimetics, bionics, and soft robotics, have attracted his interest, as well as the general idea of copying concepts from Nature.
Prof. Barbara Milow
Prof. Dr. Barbara Milow heads the Aerogels and Airgel Composites Department at the Institute of Materials Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne. In her research, she deals with the synthesis of highly porous, open-pored and nano-structured materials, the so-called aerogels.
Assoc. Prof. Jules Harings
Jules Harings is asst. Prof. Macromolecular Physics & Technology at Maastricht University. His research focuses on studying, understanding and technically tailoring/exploiting the behaviour of macromolecules from nano- to macroscopic length scales, envisioned in Jules’ research topics, comprising (I) molecular design for high performing biomedical polymers in 3D printing and regenerative tissue engineering, (II) molecular design of polymer and process specific nucleating agents, (III) controlling structure evolution of polyamides towards ultimate properties via molecular design and aqueous processing.