Dr. Holger Bengs

Keynote Speaker "Networking is your new life insurance"
Managing Partner BCNP

Chemistry makes the world go around.

I grew up with Sesame Street.
 
This is probably the reason why I was always curious to ask my questions, why I started studying chemistry and why I am interested in people and what they do. Today, many see me as the prototype of a networker.
 
Networking is part of my life, from a professional point of view: as founder and managing partner of BCNP, as initiator of the Industry Speed Dating Event known as ECP, or e.g. the regulars' tables of the Association for Chemistry and Business in the Society of German Chemists.
 
A hybrid character characterises my strengths today: Chemistry studies - industry experience - business.

Jamila Schäfer, MdB, Die Grünen
Dr. Michael Brandkamp, ECBF Management GmbH

Topic
Innovation funding in Germany and the EU
The Bioeconomy – Transformation from a linear, fossil-based to a biobased circular economy (Dr. Brandkamp)

Jamila Schäfer

My work in the Bundestag mainly takes place in the committees, which are organised according to different subject areas. I am a member of the Budget Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee for my Green parliamentary group. In the Budget Committee, we decide what our government is authorised to spend money on. Among my Green colleagues, we have divided up the budgets of the ministries: I am responsible for the budgets of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs.

The Foreign Affairs Committee deals with German and European foreign policy. This is where we decide, for example, on foreign deployments of the German Armed Forces or on Germany's relations with other countries. Within the Green parliamentary group, I am responsible in this committee for the United Nations (and therefore also sit on the subcommittee "United Nations, International Organisations and Civilian Crisis Prevention"), for Western Europe and for Central and Southern Africa. I am a deputy member of the newly established Committee of Inquiry into the end of the Afghanistan mission.

I also have a deputy seat on the Europe Committee, which deals with all issues relating to our neighbouring countries and the European Union as a whole. Here I am responsible for all issues relating to euro finances.

Dr. Michael Brandkamp

Michael Brandkamp is one of the three founders and Managing Director of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). Michael and his team’s goal is to speed up the transformation from a fossil-based to a bio-based circular economy in Europe. The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.

About ECBF
The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is the first venture fund exclusively dedicated to backing up businesses, driving the shift from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. ECBF aims to catalyse the transition towards a sustainable future by investing in biobased and circular growth-stage companies with high potential for innovation, favourable returns, and sustainable impact. As a growth-stage venture capital fund, the ECBF offers project funding and venture capital investments. ECBF shares its industry expertise to raise awareness among private and public investors to increase their financial participation in bioeconomy companies.

Dr. Özgül Agbaba, Founder
Christian Bürger, Co-Founder
MechSyn, Mühlheim an der der Ruhr

MechSyn
MechSyn is a start-up specialising in the production of unique high-performance materials using purely electrically driven mechanochemical processes. The aim is to replace conventional fossil fuel-based processes by synthesising materials at room temperature, ambient pressure and without the use of solvents. MechSyn aims to bring novel materials with improved properties to the market, which should enable new applications for high-performance materials. With the patented grinding processes and materials, companies from a wide range of industries should be able to significantly reduce their costs, environmental impact and dependence on raw materials. MechSyn is a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and is funded as part of the EXIST research transfer programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

Dr Özgül Agbaba
Dr Özgül Agbaba is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (MPI KOFO) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, in the Department of Heterogeneous Catalysis headed by Professor Ferdi Schüth. Since 2023 she is the founder of MechSyn. Özgül has a broad academic background in materials synthesis, chemical engineering and design of complex reaction systems with stations in Turkey, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany. With more than six years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she is very familiar with the industrial requirements and daily challenges in the industry. She has also been running a wine bar in Essen-Kettwig as a hobby for three years.

Christian Bürger
Christian Bürger has been a co-founder of MechSyn since 2023 and has many years of experience as an entrepreneur and as a consultant for setting up companies and developing business models for industrial companies. From 2016 to 2020, he was Managing Director of the chemical platform Chembid. Earlier in his career, he worked in business development for Mitsubishi Electric and ThyssenKrupp. He studied Sales Engineering and Product Management at the Ruhr University Bochum with a focus on materials technology and in the Executive Management Programme at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Viktoria Rothleitner
Initiator, founder

Professional career

since 2020
Polytives GmbH Managing Director

2018 - 2020 Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Research assistant at the Institute of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
EXIST research transfer project "Polytives"

Education

2015 - 2018  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Business Administration for Engineers and Natural Scientists Degree: Master of Science

2011 - 2015  
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Study programme: Nutritional Sciences Degree: Bachelor of Science

Three questions for Viktoria Rothleitner

What is your motivation as Managing Director of Polytives GmbH?
Plastics make our everyday lives possible and easier and can no longer be replaced. That's why, in my opinion, we should refrain from perceiving plastic as good or bad. Instead of always emphasising the environmentally harmful aspects of plastics, we should move on to "making": Simply make plastic better! As Polytives, we have the tools to do this with our expertise. I want to use that and that's what drives me.

What do you associate with your role as Managing Director?
It's incredibly fulfilling when you see what you've achieved. We all know that. When I think of management, I don't just think of a lot of work and responsibility, but also of how much you can achieve directly. Setting up structures yourself is sometimes very demanding, but at some point you realise that you can make a difference.

What are your next goals?
We want to deliver many tonnes of our energy-saving flow improver. As banal as it sounds, there is so much work involved in finalising a product and actually getting it to the customer in the end. I'm looking forward to getting there.

Emmy Schumacher, Co-Founder
Anna Hadzelek, Co-Founder
RE-SHIRT GbR, Munich

About the Start-up

Emmy Schumacher, Co-Founder RE-SHIRT, Business Development/Sales/Marketing
Before RE-SHIRT: Strategy consulting, team responsibility, problem solving, e.g. at
Different - strategy consulting for new growth
BECC Agency - brand and design agency
A Kind of Guise - fashion brand with the highest standards of design and quality

Anna Hadzelek, Co-Founder RE-SHIRT, Innovation/Technology, Partner Network
Before RE-SHIRT: Journalism, inventiveness, ecology, among others at
Bergfreundinnen Podcast - Podcast host for BR
A Kind of Guise - fashion brand with the highest standards of design and quality

Innovation RE-SHIRT:
RE-SHIRT has developed the world's first temporary colour for textile printing that can be washed out.

Mission RE-SHIRT:
RE-SHIRT wants to show that real sustainability happens as a matter of course, is not restrictive and does not mean sacrificing comfort or quality at any time.
RE-SHIRT wants to help people to be part of the green revolution without any effort and to feel the comfort of the circular economy on their own skin.
RE-SHIRT avoids textile waste and feels responsible for minimising the negative impact of the textile industry on our planet.
20% of industrial water consumption is generated in the textile industry. A single cotton shirt costs 3000 litres of fresh water to produce. This is mainly used in cotton cultivation - and this takes place exclusively in the Global South, where there is already a shortage of water.
RE-SHIRT's solution is based on the idea of the circular economy, which RE-SHIRT applies to clothing. Borrow and reuse whenever it makes sense.

The RE-SHIRT success story:
2015     Idea
2019     Start of research
2020     Technical breakthrough
2021     DBU funding
2022     Foundation go to market
2023     Patenting of Magic Ink (ongoing patenting of ‘Magic Ink’ - the first reversible textile printing ink for screen printing - supervised by Dr Christiane Maxien, Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann Patent- und Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB)
2024     Convert 2 Green EU funding

Awards for RE-SHIRT and others:
2024                 Convert to Green / Horizon Europe (EU funding for research and development)
2023                 GLS Bank ideas competition / For a better future
2022 - 2024    Green StartUp funding / German Federal Environmental Foundation
2022                 Culture & Creative Pilots / Federal Ministry of Economics
2022                 Neumarkter Lammsbräu Sustainability Award / 2nd place in the category ‘Drivers of the circular economy’
2022                 Marketing for Future / Alliance for climate-positive behaviour e.V.

Lars Havighorst
Managing Director
Blue Activity GmbH, Heidelberg

About the start-up

blue activity is a clean water tech company that has been revolutionizing industrial cooling water treatment since 2021 and transforming it into a sustainable, resource-saving future. The chemical, steel and energy industries in particular rely on efficiently functioning cooling systems to safeguard their energy-intensive production processes. In order to ensure legal hygiene safety, around 2 million tons of environmentally hazardous substances / biocides are used worldwide for cooling water treatment every year, which has a lasting impact on water quality and biodiversity.

blue activity is the first company in the world to offer its customers the option of 100% hazardous substance substitution in cooling water conditioning through the use of functional microorganisms. By using natural operating materials, the amount of water required can be reduced by up to 38% and the total operating costs optimized by up to 29%. This creates the perfect symbiosis of sustainability and cost efficiency for customers for the first time.

Petroleum-based additives, which are required for the necessary corrosion protection and hardness stabilization, are replaced by biopolymer-based products in blue activity. This provides our customers with a cooling water treatment based entirely on sustainable products. Thanks to the sustainable treatment approach, blue activity enables the customer for the first time to implement the substitution obligation 100% in accordance with §6/§7 of the Hazardous Substances Ordinance and at the same time to develop valuable added value in sustainability reporting CSRD / ESRS.

The necessary plant safety is monitored and ensured 24/7 via state-of-the-art online monitoring including a specially developed biofilm and scaling sensor.

The vision of blue activity is not only to protect our most important resource, water, from further hazardous substance discharges in order to ensure good drinking water quality. Blue activity sees a global need for solutions that significantly reduce the already very high and increasing use of water in terms of safeguarding production processes and data centers via water-based cooling systems in order to protect the already overloaded aquifers for sustainable drinking water production in the best possible way.

About the founder

Lars Havighorst, Founder and CEO of blue activity, worked in sales in the financial sector for over 15 years before founding the company in 2021, before following his passion to actively contribute more to the preservation of our water resources and to improving their quality through innovative and sustainable solutions. Today, he is responsible for finance, business development and strategy at blue activity GmbH.

Dr. Maria Fulde,
GründerIn und CEO der FLD Technologies GmbH,
Offenbach am Main

About the Start-up

FLD Technologies is a technology developer specialising in the generation, storage and transport of renewable energy. The aim is to combine new and existing technologies to optimise the use of resources and contribute to the energy transition. By utilising renewable resources (biogas, biomass), we enable the removal of CO2 from the air. With the new dimensions of ‘Power-to-Gas’ (PtG), we are tackling complex issues of energy storage and transport.

Summary

HyRegio processes combine the active removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with the production of green hydrogen. Our plants clean the atmosphere of CO2 previously released by industry and at the same time supply regions with hydrogen without the fuel having to be produced centrally and transported over long distances. The existing infrastructure of the biogas plants is utilised and investment costs are saved. The aim of the project, which has been funded as part of the German government's 7th Energy Research Programme since Jan. 2023, is to develop an energy self-sufficient module for the production of sustainable hydrogen from biomass. Another valuable material in the process is a high-purity BioCarbon Black.

Dr Maria Fulde

Dr Maria Fulde studied chemistry at the Technical University in Warsaw and at Goethe University in Frankfurt. From 1989 to the end of 2021, she held various positions in the Degussa Group and later in the Evonik Group, most recently in strategy and controlling. Since 2023, she has been CFO of the start-up FLD Technologies.  

Dr. Guido Meurer
VP Business Development Microbial Strains
BRAIN Biotech AG, 64673 Zwingenberg

1982 - 1989
Studied biology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen- Nuremberg

1992
Completion of doctorate

1993 - 1996
PostDoc Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, in Prof. Dr. C.R. Hutchinson's group, School of Pharmacy

1997 - 2000
Group leader 'Soil Biology' at TerraGen Diversity Inc. (Prof. Dr. J.E. Davies) in Vancouver, Canada

2000 - 2003
Project Manager at BRAIN Aktiengesellschaft, Zwingenberg, Germany

2003 - 2023
Unit Head 'Microbial Strain Development' at BRAIN Biotech AG

Since 2013
Vice President and authorized signatory

Since 2023
VP Business Development Microbial Strains, BRAIN Biotech AG

Address:
Darmstädter Straße 34-36, D-64673, Zwingenberg, Germany

Contact Information:
Phone: +49-6251-9331-29, Fax: +49-6251-9331-11, Email: gm@brain-biotech.com, Homepage: www.brain-biotech.com

About BRAIN Biotech AG
BRAIN Biotech AG is the parent company of the BRAIN Biotech Group with headquarters in Zwingenberg (South Hesse). At this location, the company concentrates on the research and development of customised enzymes, optimised microorganism strains and efficient bioprocesses.
 
Since its foundation in 1993, BRAIN Biotech AG has been a pioneer and high-tech pioneer in industrial biotechnology. Today, the group of companies is internationally positioned and has R&D sites in Germany as well as production sites in the UK, continental Europe and the USA.

Guido Meurer says:
“My main interest is in the evolutionary potential of biological systems and the application of these systems in the diverse fields of industrial production and technology. Thinking out of the box and finding links between biological systems and industrial areas are my tools on the way to innovative solutions.”

Dennis V. Carmen
Senior IP Counsel
Eastman Chemical Company
Kingsport, TN, USA

Eastman Chemical Company

Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily active in the chemical industry. Eastman was spun off from its parent company Eastman Kodak in 1994 and is now an independent, global speciality materials company that produces a wide range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibres for everyday use. Founded in 1920 and headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, the company operates 36 manufacturing facilities worldwide and employs approximately 14,000 people.

Kazuhiro Shiojiri
Patent Attorney
Shiga International Patent Office, Tokyo, Japan

Technical Field
Chemistry, Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Mr. Shiojiri specializes in chemistry and chemical engineering. He handles cases in the fields of organic and polymer chemistry, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Shiojiri has experience in the development of manufacturing processes for polymer films.  During his more than decade-long career in the IP field, Mr. Shiojiri has lectured on Japanese patent practice to various overseas chemical companies.

Education
M.S., Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Expertise           
Prosecusion, oppositions, and opinions

Professional Background
Fujifilm Corporation

Lectures
Challenging Third Party's Application/Patents before the JPO (Webinar organized by EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, June, 2023)

Guangjie Li,
Partner, attorney for trade mark law & member of MARQUES,
Beyond Attorneys at Law, Munich

Guangjie studied at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and obtained her master’s degree in economics and commercial law. She further studied at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (Max Planck Institute for Innovation Competition) and received her master’s degree in intellectual property law (LL.M.)

Guangjie specializes in trademark law, anti-monopoly law, anti-unfair competition law and commercial law. She has gained vast experience at an established German law firm and joined BEYOND Attorneys At Law in 2011 as partner. Guangjie is based in Munich and responsible for the representative office of BEYOND.

Tianpeng Wang,
Patent attorney,
Beyond Attorneys at Law, Beijing, China

Tianpeng studied at Beijing Information Technology Institute and obtained his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. After graduation he went to study further at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) in Belgium and received two master’s degrees in artificial intelligence and educational and psychological studies, respectively.

Tianpeng has been practicing as patent attorney at BEYOND Attorneys At Law for 11 years. Before joining BEYOND he had gained work experiences at another Chinese IP firm and at the Chinese National Patent Office for totally five years. He specialises in the technical fields of integrated circuits, computer technology, neural computing, artificial intelligence, software, hardware and network technology.

BEYOND Attorneys At Law
BEYOND Attorneys At Law, headquartered in Beijing, is one of the top 10 IP law firms in China, providing a wide range of services to protect and enforce its clients' intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and domain names. BEYOND Attorneys At Law has been honoured with numerous awards. Approved by the CNIPA and the Beijing Bureau of Justice, the firm has extensive legal resources and represents a wide range of clients, including multinational corporations, large and medium-sized foreign and Chinese companies, and start-ups. The firm has over 800 employees and 16 offices throughout China. In addition, BEYOND Attorneys has overseas liaison offices in Munich, New York and Tokyo.

Dr. Christian Kirchner,
Partner, Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney (incl. UPC),
Wallinger Ricker Schlotter Tostmann Patent- und Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB

Dr. Christian Kirchner is a partner in the firm. He was admitted as a German Patent Attorney in 2009 and as a European Patent Attorney in 2010. Dr. Kirchner practices in the fields of physics/mechanical engineering, digital technologies, and medical technology.

Profile of Dr. Christian Kirchner

Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer
Leuphana University, Lüneburg
EDC Evaluation and Design of Chemicals, Kenzingen

Person, research, successes

Prof. Dr Klaus Kümmerer is Professor of Sustainable Chemistry and Material Resources and Head of the Institute of Sustainable Chemistry at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. His research and teaching focus on sustainable chemistry, sustainable pharmacy, material resources, aquatic environmental chemistry and the role of tenses in environmental and sustainability research. He leads an interdisciplinary research team and is Director of the Research & Education Hub of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3).
 
He was one of the first to research pharmaceuticals in the environment in the 1990s. He received the international Recipharm Environmental Award (Sweden, 2007) for his research. His outstanding work on the benign-by-design concept of green and sustainable chemistry for the protection of water resources was honoured in 2015 with the ‘Water Resource Prize’ of the Rüdiger Kurt Bode Foundation of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. In 2023, he received the Wöhler Prize for Sustainable Chemistry from the German Chemical Society for his work on Benign by Design and sustainable chemistry as a whole. In the same year, he received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (awarded in January 2024).
 
He has published extensively on the above topics in peer-reviewed scientific journals (cited more than 20,000 times), is (co-)editor of 10 books and a large number of book contributions, founding editor of the scientific journals ‘Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy’ and ‘Current Opinion in Sustainable Chemistry’ as well as co-editor of ‘Chemosphere’ and ‘Environmental Pollution’ and various journals. In 2021, he was ranked 18th out of a total of 66,925 scientists worldwide in the field of environmental sciences according to the Stanford University Ranking. In terms of citations, he was ranked 1st in Germany in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
 
Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer was and is a member of various international commissions and committees and acts in an advisory capacity in international organisations, e.g.

•     High Level Roundtable on the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability of the European Commission,
•     Advisory Board on Sustainable Materials,
•     Commission Global Chemical Outlook of the UNEP,
•     EU technology platform SusChem Europe,
•     DFG Senate Commission for Water Research,
•     Board of the Sustainable Chemistry Division of the German Chemical Society (GdCh),
•     advisory activities at WHO and OPWC,
•     International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC),
•     Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD),
•     Active Voting Member of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).

In addition, he is scientifically responsible for the annual Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference and the Summer School Sustainable Chemistry for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University.