ISC3 joins the Elsevier Foundation Green & Sustainable Chemistry Challenge

Bonn, April 23, 2019

The Elsevier Foundation and Elsevier’s chemistry journals welcome ISC3 as a new partner for the 2019 Elsevier Foundation ISC3 Green & Sustainable Challenge (GSCC) which promotes capacity and community building in the field of green and sustainable chemistry. Focusing on developing and emerging countries, the new collaboration builds on the existing partnership between the Foundation and Elsevier’s chemistry journals which awards first and second prizes of €50,000 and €25,000 EUR to sustainable chemistry projects addressing challenges in the developing world focusing on energy, water, waste reduction, agriculture, and medicine.

The ISC3 will contribute an additional €25,000 as a third prize for entrepreneurial spirit bringing a broad industry and policymaking network to the Challenge.

“The ISC3 is proud to partner with the Elsevier Foundation on the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge,” said Friedrich Barth, Managing Director of ISC3. “With the new prize for ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit in Sustainable Chemistry’ we seek to inspire the scientific community to bring sustainable solutions to the market and help tackle the major challenges of our times.”

The three prizes will be awarded during the annual Challenge competition at the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference taking place May 5-8 in Dresden, Germany. The Conference will address a range of broad topics highlighting the role of chemistry in contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including in developing countries.

During the Challenge, this year’s finalists and the third innovation prize winner will pitch their awards to a panel of distinguished judges. Prof. Klaus Kümmerer from Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Scientific Chair of the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference and Director of Research and Education at ISC3, who chairs the judging panel, welcomes the new collaboration: “This mutual support and co-operation is an important next step to advance the sustainable chemistry movement,” he said.

“For the Elsevier Foundation, partnering with ISC3 means building a stronger capacity building community around our winners, providing far greater access to experts, knowledge, innovation and grants in a burgeoning field,” added Ylann Schemm, Director of the Elsevier Foundation.

Senior Chemistry Publisher, Rob van Daalen who founded the Challenge in 2015, noted, “The partnership with the ISC3 will greatly complement our existing network, going beyond our strong academic focus to include other key stakeholders—industry and policymakers– in the green and sustainable chemistry ecosystem.

“This is very beneficial for our Challenge award winners and the reach of this critical field which needs multisectoral support to grow.”

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Notes to editors
The official pitching event for the Top 5 Finalists will take place at the annual Green & Sustainable Chemistry Conference on Monday, May 6 in Dresden, Germany at 11:00 CET (Central European Time). The awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, May 8 at 16:00 CET.

Reference sheets for each award winner with a more extensive biography and description of their work are available upon request. Reporters wishing to attend the pitching event or award ceremony may contact Domiziana Francescon at +31 61 021 5901 or d.francescon@elsevier.com.

Read more about the Green & Sustainable Chemistry Challenge:

• 2019 Top 5 Finalists
• 2019 Judging Panel
• 2018 Press release
• 2018 Winners interviews. Read more about the winners on Elsevier Connect.
• 2017 Press release
• 2017 Top 5 Finalists

About the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3)
The ISC3 is a globally acting, non-profit organization, multi-stakeholder platform and think tank founded in 2017 on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and the German Federal Environment Agency to promote and develop sustainable chemistry solutions worldwide.  It manages a knowledge platform and a network of experts, offers training and support for implementation especially for developing countries, carries out innovation scouting activities to discover new technologies, processes and business models. The ISC3 Innovation Hub in cooperation with DECHEMA initiates innovations in the field of sustainable chemistry and supports entrepreneurs through its Global Start-up Service. ISC3 is also active in the field of science and operates as a Research and Education Hub in cooperation with the Leuphana University. www.isc3.org

About the Elsevier Foundation
The Elsevier Foundation provides grants to knowledge centered institutions around the world, with a sustainability focus on innovations in health information, diversity in STM, research in developing countries and technology for development. Since 2006, the Foundation has awarded more than 100 grants worth millions of dollars to non-profit organizations working in these fields. Through gift-matching, the Foundation also supports the efforts of Elsevier employees to play a positive role in their local and global communities. The Elsevier Foundation is a corporate not-for-profit 501(c)(3), funded by Elsevier, a global information analytics business. www.elsevierfoundation.org

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps scientists and clinicians to find new answers, reshape human knowledge, and tackle the most urgent human crises. For 140 years, we have partnered with the research world to curate and verify scientific knowledge. Today, we’re committed to bringing that rigor to a new generation of platforms. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKeyand Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray’s Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com

Media contact
Jonathan Davis, Communications Officer
Elsevier
+31 20 485 2719
j.davis.1@elsevier.com

Dorothee Buerkle
International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC₃)
+49 228 90 241 128
dorothee.buerkle@isc3.org