ICIQ accredited as a “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence»

ICIQ was accredited as a “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence.” This was the second time the institute obtained this recognition after having received it in 2014.

“This is really good news for ICIQ. The award will allow us to consolidate a research programme that shows our potential in the area of sustainable energy and raw materials. At the same time, it will also allow us to strengthen ICIQ’s structure,” said Prof. Miquel A. Pericàs, former ICIQ Director.

The Severo Ochoa award gives recognition to research centres that excel in their respective fields and that have presented a challenging institutional project to strengthen their research capabilities. The awarding of this accreditation represents an annual allocation of 1 million euros over a period of four years.

The “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Accreditation” within the programme of Institutional Strengthening of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (Ministry of Science and Innovation), aims to fund highly competitive strategic research programmes in the frontiers of knowledge by centres that have shown scientific leadership worldwide.

ICIQ’s Severo Ochoa project: Sustainability Through Advanced Catalysis

Our society is immersed in a critical transition towards sustainability and a circular economy. A successful transition to a sustainable chemical sector requires going beyond a single dimension for energy and resource efficiency and recovery. We believe that advanced catalysis can be a key enabler for the generation of advanced innovative catalysts, materials, and processes that can deliver sustainable solutions for circular ecosystems.

Catalytic activation and valorization of chemical feedstock– towards a circular economy: we are focused on the discovery of fundamentally new catalytic technologies that will rapidly and reliably enable the valorization of feedstock by converting small carbon-based molecules (CO₂, methane, light alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes) into value-added chemicals.

Renewable energy vectors and feedstock from sunlight- towards a Hydrogen-based economy: we want to develop fast, robust, and scalable catalysts and materials for the electrocatalytic and sunlight-mediated hydrogen production from water, as well as for CO₂ reduction, to prepare a new generation of fuels such as methanol or volatile hydrocarbons. This action will contribute to decreasing the dependence on fossil fuels.

Moreover, the implementation of the Severo Ochoa Strategic Plan will have an important impact on:

• The alignment of ICIQs scientific goals with the future Horizon Europe through a more collaborative and translational approach to research, more internationalized, better gender-balanced, and even more committed with the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation.
• ICIQ’s recognition for the quality of our scientific training and for the support ICIQ offers to the development of research careers at all stages.
• The strength of our internal structures is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology to the business sector so that our research can translate into effective innovations.