Research institutes
Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials
The Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) is a European, cross-border, research institute focusing on the development of advanced biobased materials. AMIBM strives for groundbreaking conversion of biomass to biobased materials and into product applications.
AMIBM is located in the Netherlands on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in the Dutch Province of Limburg and has a branch office in Germany (AMIBM e.V.), and conducts innovative fundamental, applied and translational research by creating synergies between academia and industry.
Fast facts
- Ground-breaking conversion of biomass to biobased materials and into product applications
- Cooperation of Maastricht University with RWTH Aachen University and Fraunhofer IME
- Uniting academia and industry at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus
- Focus on material circularity and sustainability
Vision and mission
The AMIBM vision is to provide the missing links between fundamental, applied and translational research in the field of biobased materials, by changing the relationship between the production of biobased materials and the value chain. This will be achieved by developing an integrated, interdisciplinary research program focusing on novel strategies to produce advanced biobased materials and chemical building blocks in a sustainable and economical manner, and to develop these novel materials into innovative products for technical and medical applications.
AMIBM has a clear mission statement: Ground-breaking conversion of biomass to biobased materials and into product applications. The mission is derived from its 'reason of existence':
- To meet the need of biobased materials producing and using industries (SME and large industries)
- To fulfil the obligations of the direct stakeholders (Province of Limburg, UM, RWTH Aachen University, Fraunhofer IME)
- To take our responsibility for the society (legislators, students, scientific and public community)
The AMIBM-way to accomplish the mission is that:
- We offer biobased innovations and solutions by creating outstanding cross border teams and synergistic core competences and infrastructure
- We are committed to strive for excellence and building critical mass together with our customers along the value chain
In its research offered by transdisciplinary competence teams facilitated by state-of-the-art research infrastructure, AMIBM strengthens every step in the value chain from biomass to application as well as the value chain as a whole by developing a common language and methodology between all experts from biotechnology, polymer chemistry and physics, material science and engineering, fibre and medical technology, and sustainability.
A Brightlands institute
Brightlands is an open innovation community in a global context, connecting four campuses in the province of Limburg: in Maastricht, Heerlen, Sittard-Geleen and Venlo. The campuses provide entrepreneurs, scientists and students state-of-the-art facilities to support development, education, innovation and growth. Naturally, there are close links between all four Brightlands campuses, and together they enable Limburg to serve as an innovation region where researchers and entrepreneurs take on the major challenges in the areas of materials, health, food and smart services.
News
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Matilde della Fontana winner of Menno Knetsch Thesis Award 2021
Thursday, July 22, 2021Read moreThe Menno Knetsch Award 2021 has been awarded to MSc Biobased Materials graduate Matilde della Fontana. Matilde completed her thesis at the sustainability group of the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Yvonne van der Meer.
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AMIBM researcher participates in a panel discussion with two Nobel laureates
Tuesday, July 13, 2021Read moreJulia Jansing took part in a fascinating panel discussion on gene editing with two Nobel laureates and the chair of the German Ethics Council.
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Expert: Jules Harings Universitair Hoofddocent en groepshoofd AMIBM
Monday, June 28, 2021Read moreJules Harings vond na zijn promotie een goede baan in de industrie. Toch aarzelde hij geen moment toen hij zo’n acht jaar geleden werd gevraagd om mee te werken aan het opstarten van ’natural science’ activiteiten aan de Universiteit Maastricht.
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A new life for eggshells
Friday, June 4, 2021At EGGXPERT, a local startup, two waste products from eggs are put to use in the production of facial masks and wound plasters. Co-founder Chang Liu was one of the first graduates of the master’s in Biobased Materials at the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
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Mask certification via new lab at UM institute AMIBM
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 Read more -
Curcuma: from cultivation to biobased colorant
Wednesday, November 18, 2020Did you know that we produce about 87 million tons of packaging waste per year in Europe? The good news is that a part of this is biobased packaging that is recyclable or biodegradable.
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Groundbreaking research project AMIBM starts in fourth package NWO Open Competition - XS
Wednesday, September 23, 2020Maastricht University researcher, Jordy Saya, working at AMIBM is one of the 24 lucky ones whose research project 'Learning from Nature to Synthesize Peptides and Proteins' was honored by NWO.
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AMIBM: University collaboration at Brightlands
Thursday, September 17, 2020Eighty years ago, DSM opened its central laboratory for fundamental research in Geleen. Now the old lab is part of the Brightlands Chemelot Campus. This coming fall, the Festival Feel the Chemistry will look back on eighty years of innovation and will also look ahead to the future. Maastricht University is one of the founders of the campus and is closely involved in the developments. It’s at the heart of the campus, as is the Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials.
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And the winner of the Menno Knetsch Master Thesis Award 2020 is…
Wednesday, July 22, 2020This year during the virtual Zoom graduation ceremony for the master students of the Biobased Materials programme, the Menno Knetsch Master Thesis Award was handed out to Sophie Koch.
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The European Commission and the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking invest 4,1 M€ in a project to drastically diminish ocean plastic pollution
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 Read more -
AMIBM surpasses all expectations
Wednesday, June 3, 2020 Read more -
EMR Region Belgium, the Netherlands & Germany area hot spot for the future of lightweight materials and technologies
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 Read more -
Limburg face masks on Economic Affairs shortlist, with support from UM institute
Thursday, April 9, 2020 Read more -
Financial injection for biobased materials research at Maastricht University
Thursday, January 23, 2020Maastricht University (UM) researchers working at Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) have received a substantial financial injection of €4 million to support new developments in biobased materials. This amount has been made available by the Province of Limburg.
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GREENER: dealing with the plastic soup
Monday, September 30, 2019Everyone has heard of the "plastic soup" in the oceans, where plastic waste breaks down into small particles that end up in our food chain because plankton and marine animals consume micro plastics.
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AMIBM PostDoc wins Science and Technology German Dissertation Prize
Tuesday, August 20, 2019Julia Jansing, PostDoc in the group Molecular and Applied Biotechnology in AMIBM, was recently awarded the renowned German Dissertation Prize by the Körber Foundation (“Deutscher Studienpreis”, 2nd place in the section Science and Technology).
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Biobased Materials graduate wins Menno Knetsch Master Thesis Award
Thursday, July 11, 2019During this ceremony the Menno Knetsch Master Thesis Award has been handed out to Julian Engelhardt.
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From waste cooking oil to protective coating
Friday, June 28, 2019Students of the Biobased Materials master’s programme took third prize in the Biobased Innovation Student Challenge Europe with their idea to convert waste cooking oil into vinyl ester resins.
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AMIBM PhD candidate Carlos Andrés García Velásquez selected to attend the 2019 YSSP
Thursday, March 28, 2019PhD candidate Carlos Andrés García Velásquez, researcher at the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) is selected to attend the 2019 YSSP.
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Biobased socks from Sustainable Polymer
Monday, March 18, 2019Aim in their study was to develop biobased compostable socks from Polylactic acid (PLA), acknowledged as sustainable and eco-friendly is a biodegradable and compostable polymer obtained from annually renewable resources.
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Events
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Stories
Plastic: the good, the bad and the ugly
20-07-2018On Saturday 14 July, Dagblad de Limburger published a column by Martin Paul about the negative impact plastic has on our health and the role that the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) plays to counter this.
Romano Orrù
“The beauty of nature lies in both her complexity and in her simplicity. This inspires to develop truly 'green' and resource efficient chemical syntheses and production of molecules and materials to sustain the future of our planet and society”
Jules Harings
"Only if one understands polymeric material functionalities down to morphological, structural and ultimately molecular length-scales, the added technical functionality of biobased molecules is recognised."
Andrij Pich
"Molecular design and engineering of bio-based building blocks is a key to sustainable materials of the future."
Yvonne van der Meer
"My ambition is that all materials will be sustainable in the future and that's also the reason why I cooperate in InSciTE with universities and companies."
Luisa Bortesi
“Nature is a tremendous source of materials. However, we can improve it further by tweaking plants and microbes to increase production of desired building blocks. Our cross-border collaboration with Fraunhofer IME ensures exchange of knowledge and infrastructures, boosting the development and application of Biobased materials.”
Gunnar Seide
"Innovative biobased materials need new, innovative processing; that’s what we are developing! Fibres made of 'frozen air', biobased functional additives, multi-property single-material products for recycling, and much more… Our research has a positive impact on your daily life!"
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