EuCheMS General Assembly endorses position paper on Brexit

The benefits of collaboration

The EuCheMS paper highlights the benefits the UK’s membership of the EU currently brings to both UK and EU researchers, including:

• The ability of UK academic and industrial researchers to participate in all aspects of Horizon 2020 and its successor Framework programmes, including taking leading roles;
• The ability of UK researchers to participate in all forward planning for the remainder of Horizon 2020 and new Framework programmes;
• The ability of EU nationals to live/work/study freely in the UK and the ability of UK nationals to live/work/study freely in the EU.
• Access to major facilities based in the EU and in the UK to all researchers from the EU and the UK;
• A compatible regulatory system for research and innovation within the EU and the UK.

The position paper calls for the continuation of UK involvement in these programmes and schemes and warns that “withdrawal of the UK from the many funding schemes would remove some of the key quality drivers and fundamentally damage research and innovation in Europe as well as in the United Kingdom.”

You can read the paper’s full statement in the official press release. 

Hosting international science

As part of our commitment to international collaboration, we’re hosting the EuCheMS 2018 flagship congress, which will take place in Liverpool on 26-30 August next year.

With the theme ‘molecular frontiers and global challenges’, the congress will feature five days of scientific and technical sessions, plenary lectures, oral and poster communications, keynote speakers and roundtable discussions, as well as networking opportunities, an exhibition and a unique social programme.

Seven technical parallel sessions have been announced for the congress, focusing on the areas of:

• Catalysis;
• Chemistry in the life sciences;
• Energy, environment and sustainability;
• Inorganic chemistry advances;
• Materials, interfaces and devices;
• Organic chemistry advances;
• And physical and analytical chemistry advances.

There will also be an eighth parallel session, currently under development, which will include special symposia, panel discussions and workshops, as well as events related to chemistry education, engagement and outreach.

There will also be a session led by the European Young Chemists Network, focusing on support for early career chemists. 

The EuCheMS chemistry congresses reflect the outstanding research being done in Europe and around the world, bringing together chemists from different countries and professional backgrounds to exchange ideas, advance knowledge and discuss key issues for chemistry and society.

Six leading academics from a variety of areas of the chemical sciences have been confirmed as plenary speakers. They are:

Professor Ben Feringa CChem HonFRSC, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, whose research on molecular machines won him the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Professor Paul Alivisatos, from the University of California, Berkeley, who has made ground-breaking contributions to understanding and harnessing the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals

Professor Frances Arnold, from Caltech, USA, who has pioneered methods of directed evolution (a process that mimics natural selection to evolve proteins) to create useful biological systems

Professor Stefanie Dehnen, from the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, whose research looks at the synthesis of novel heavy metal chalcogenide complexes, with a range of applications

Professor Christopher Dobson CChem FRSC FRS FMedSci from the University of Cambridge, UK, who researches protein folding and misfolding, and its links with medical disorders, particularly Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Professor Jin-Quan Yu, from The Scripps Research Institute, USA, winner of our 2016 Pedler Award, whose work focuses on developing catalysts that could improve the environmental friendliness of chemical processes, as well as expedite the discovery of medicines.

Abstract submission is now open for the congress and you can also register your interest to receive updates on programme and speaker developments, registration, and other congress announcements.

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