On 4 March DPI researcher Yi Jiang defended his thesis entitled ‘Enzymatic polymerization of biobased polyesters and polyamides' at the University Groningen under supervision of Professor Katja Loos. He received the designation ‘cum laude' for his outstanding scientific work and defense of his thesis.

Professor Jacques Noordermeer, emeritus professor of the University of Twente was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tire Technology Expo and Conference 14-17th of February in Hannover, Germany in recognition of a career of outstanding service to the tire industry.

NWO is pleased to announce that a Call for Proposals "Chemistry of Advanced Materials" for a science industry cooperation programme with the Science & Technology Commission of the Chinese province Guangdong (GDST) was published on the NWO website on 1 February, and that the programme is now open for submissions. The deadline is 28 June. The Chinese version can be found on the website of GDST.

In December 2015, NWO has awarded six New Polymer Materials (NEWPOL) grants. These public-private partnerships will be conducted in collaboration with DPI. The various research projects aim at the development of new polymeric materials that meet the societal and industrial needs for sustainability and multi-functionality.

DPI (Dutch Polymer Institute) is to continue its activities in a new format. The Supervisory Board of DPI, comprising representatives of DPI's industrial partners SABIC, Shell and Teijin Aramid and academic partners Delft University of Technology and Groningen University and chaired by Dr. Herman van Wechem, unanimously supports the continuation of DPI. This means that the institute can continue to fulfil its key role as an international platform for industry-driven polymer research and go on stimulating innovation and talent development.

NWO Chemical Sciences opens a call for proposals within the Biobased Performance Materials (BPM) programme in cooperation with the Dutch Polymer Institute.

Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) have jointly published a Call for Proposals for academic research in the field of new polymer materials. The New Polymers technology area (TA-NEWPOL) is a public-private partnership programme developed in close collaboration between NWO and DPI, which acts as the private partner representing its industrial partner base.

The year 2014 saw the unfolding of the Dutch government's new Top Sectors policy. Over the past year, the contours of this policy and its implications have become clearer. The new policy has put an end to the specific funding schemes supporting individual institutions such as the Leading Technology Institutes (LTIs) - of which DPI is one - regardless of their past performance. A more generic policy has been introduced instead, with a different organisational set-up and a different incentives structure.

Professor René Janssen will receive a Spinoza Prize, the highest Dutch award in science. This was announced by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) on 12 June. NWO praises Janssen, professor of Molecular Materials and Nanosystems, as ‘world leader in the field of organic solar cells'.

Last week Ivan Kryven obtained his PhD cum laude at the University of Amsterdam with professor Piet Iedema of the Computational Polymer Chemistry group. Kryven worked on DPI project 674: Rheology Control by Branching Modelling in the Polyolefins Technology Area.

The DPI Golden Thesis Award 2014 has been granted to Mark van Eldijk for his thesis entitled "Elastin-like Polypeptides in Protein Nanotechnology". Mark did his PhD work at Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands) under the supervision of Prof. Jan van Hest. The Golden Thesis Award is granted annually for the best PhD thesis resulting from DPI-funded research. Mark van Eldijk was unanimously selected as the winner from among the three finalists competing for this year's award. The other two candidates were: Gert-Jan Wetzelaer (University of Groningen), with a thesis on "Change Transport and Recombination in Organic-Semiconductor Diodes"; and Diego Wever (University of Groningen), with a thesis on "Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Linear and Branched Polyacrylamides for Enhanced Oil Recovery". The award was presented during the plenary session of the DPI Annual Meeting 2014 in Arnhem on 11 November.

Supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the two Top Sectors Chemicals and High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM), the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) and Materials Innovation Institute (M2i) are setting up a new programme with fundamental and applied research projects. The strategic objectives of the programme are to create an innovative network and to accelerate development and application of fiber reinforced polymers in selected market segments and to create specific fields of expertise in knowledge domains not yet widely covered in foreign programmes.

This year's DPI Annual Meeting was held on 11-12 November and the venue was once again the Papendal Hotel conference centre in Arnhem (Netherlands). The programme included the Annual Meeting, the Technology Area review meetings, the half-yearly meeting of the Council of Participants and DPI Value Centre's annual Polymer Innovation Day.

At the 9th Asian-Australasian Conference on Composite Materials (ACCM-9, from 15 until 17 October 2014) in Suzhou Qingbao Guan working on DPI project #761 received the Best Poster Presentation Award out of 46 posters displayed at the conference poster session. His poster titled "Poly(P-oxybenzoate) Reinforced Polyesterimide Molecular Composites", which displayed the results he has achieved within his DPI project titled "Reactive Liquid Crystal Oligomers as Precursors Towards Composite Resins" was selected by the jury because of its excellent scientific significance and clear industrial relevance.

The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) and the Materials Innovation Institute M2i, two of the technological top institutes in the Netherlands, have been asked by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Top Sectors of Chemicals and High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM) to jointly set up a research programme in fibre-reinforced polymer matrix composites. The research programme is intended to start before the end of this year.

Professor Ulrich Schubert of the University of Jena is on the list of Highly Cited Researchers of Thomson-Reuters 2014. Professor Schubert is an active member of the DPI community.

A new synthetic rubber developed by EU-funded researchers repairs itself. That means longer-lasting components, plus reduced maintenance costs and waste. The rubber will initially be used for reducing rail and traffic noise, with many more applications to follow.

owards a new format for DPI Last year, in our Foreword to the 2012 Annual Report, we had expressed the hope that the Dutch government would take a long-term view and continue to support public-private partnerships like DPI as part of its policy to promote collaborative research and innovation and enhance the knowledge infrastructure in the Netherlands. Over the past fifteen years, DPI has developed into an internationally acclaimed example of cost effectively addressing the needs of industry while at the same time building a strong academic base producing innovative solutions as well as competently trained polymer experts. DPI's success is also the success of the Dutch government, whose commitment and financial support have all along been of crucial importance in creating the strong knowledge infrastructure for polymers that the Netherlands boasts today.

On 28 March DPI researcher Gert-Jan Wetzelaer defended his thesis entitled ‘Charge Transport and Recombination in Organic-Semiconductor Diodes' at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen under supervision of Prof. Paul Blom and Prof. Dago de Leeuw. He received the designation ‘cum laude' for his outstanding scientific work and defence of his thesis.

A leading international scientist in the field of polymer sciences at Stellenbosch University has received the highest possible accolade from the South African Chemical Institute.

Read our latest newsletter with articles about: our former Scientific Director, a recruitment event in China, the DPI cross TA workshop, a new polymer for enhanced oil recovery, the EU project SEAFRONT and much more.

Is it possible to create custom-made biomedical implants with a 3D printer? Fully compatible with the human body? It sounds great but unfortunately it is to date not yet possible. The VU University Medical Center and DPI (Dutch Polymer Institute) are going to take up this challenge and will try to make it possible to print biomedical implants in the future.

On 14 March Han Meijer retires as professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Prof. Meijer has been involved in DPI from the very beginning in 1997 and was involved in more than forty projects over the years.

A new European project within the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission will start on 16th January. The goal of the SEAFRONT (Synergistic Fouling Control Technologies) project is to develop environmentally friendly coatings which prevent the undesirable accumulation of marine organisms on boats, ships, tidal power plants and other aquatic installations. The coatings will be designed to improve operational efficiency, substantially reduce CO2 emissions and have no negative impact on the marine ecosystem. The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) and AkzoNobel are the main contractors of the EU project.

Following the Fundamental Module of DPI RTC-PO, Block 1 (Chemistry / Catalysis / Polymer Microstructure) in Sorrento, Italy in October this year, the same course was held on 11-14 November at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The course was attended by research staff from the industrial DPI participants Braskem and Petrobras and the academic DPI partners UFRGS and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

The DPI Golden Thesis Award 2013 has been granted to Nicole Franssen for her thesis entitled "Functional (Co)polymers from Carbenes - Scope, Mechanism and Polymer Properties". Nicole, who did her PhD work at the University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Prof. Bas de Bruin, currently works at Shell Global Solutions in the Netherlands. The jury unanimously selected Nicole Franssen as the winner from among the three candidates nominated for the award. The other two candidates were: Jeroen Cottaar, of Eindhoven University of Technology, and Danquing Liu, of the same university. The award was presented during the DPI Annual Meeting 2013 in Arnhem on 5 November.

The Polymer Innovation Day 2013, held under the auspices of DPI Value Centre and attracting over 300 people, centred on the theme "How Can Polymers Work for You?". The meeting targeted SMEs, start-ups and multinationals and aimed to promote collaboration among these players on innovation in the field of polymers.

This year's DPI Annual Meeting 2013 was held as part of a three-day event that took place at the Papendal conference centre in Arnhem (Netherlands) on 4-6 November. In a departure from the set-up of previous years, it was decided to offer a combined programme including the Annual Meeting, the Young DPI Meeting, the Technology Area review meetings, the Programme Committee meetings, the meeting of the Council of Participants as well as the DPI Value Centre's Polymer Innovation Day.

The Young DPI meeting, held on the first day of the three-day event, was attended by as many as 45 researchers of ten different nationalities from all parts of the world, all of whom had started working on a project in the past academic year. Besides sharing some practical information with them, DPI offered the participants a music-based interactive training session called "Rhythm & Connection", led by the Dutch group More Balls Than Most. The idea was to give the young researchers an opportunity to get to know one another in a "fun and learning" setting, with music forming the common mode of communication transcending their diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

On 20 and 21 November DPI organises a Networking Event in Shanghai, China. This event ‘New Perspectives in Collaborative Polymer Innovation' is hosted by Teijin Aramid Asia at their premises in Shanghai. DPI is organising this Pilot Event jointly with International Top Talent (ITT), SABIC and Teijin Aramid Asia with the aim of broadening the Chinese academic network of DPI and its industrial partners and generating ideas for unique international research collaborations between DPI, DPI's industrial partners and Chinese universities. In this way we hope to bring together ideas and expertise from industry and academia in order to boost polymer innovation for our partners.

The DPI newsletter contains DPI related news and polymer related news. Click here for the webversion of the newsletter. If you have any comments or remarks, or if you would like to be included in the list of recipients, please let us know on communications@polymers.nl.

We are pleased to announce that from 1 January 2014 professor Sybrand van der Zwaag will take up the role of Scientific Director of DPI.

Tsinghua University (Beijing), which is the no 1 university of China, will become partner in the Bio-Inspired Polymers programme as of 1 Augustus 2013. The research within the collaboration will focus on a novel approach in the biological synthesis of high-value functional polymers.

The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) presented the DPI Invention Award for the fourth time at the European Polymer Congress 2013 in Pisa, Italy.

The DPI newsletter contains DPI related news and polymer related news.

Reaching out 2012 marked the fifteenth anniversary of DPI (Dutch Polymer Institute). Did we have reason to celebrate? We believe we did. Over the past decade and a half, DPI has come to represent the best practice in collaborative research and innovation through public-private partnerships. DPI today is a widely acknowledged Centre of Excellence in polymer science and technology, firmly established in Europe and gradually reaching out to other parts of the world.

SCG-Chemical will become DPIs first industrial partner from Thailand.

OLEDs can be made more efficiently and at lower cost by a better understanding of the electronic processes

Representatives of the TU/e and DPI were received on Friday 5 April by acting dean, Rui Vicente Oppermann of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande de Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil.

The DPI newsletter contains DPI related news and polymer related news. Click here for the webversion of the newsletter. If you have any comments or remarks, or if you would like to be included in the list of recipients, please let us know on communications@polymers.nl.

DPI has formed partnerships with institutes in two of the BRIC countries: China and Brazil. From January 2013, DPI will be collaborating in projects with the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, and with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil.

The first research projects being carried out by a consortium of the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq) will start in January. DPI, TU/e and CNPq have approved five proposals for research relating to biopolymers and polyolefins. Eleven PhD students and two Postdocs will conduct the research as part of a transatlantic exchange programme.

As per 1 January 2013 the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences became an academic partner in the technology area Coatings Technology of DPI. In the coming five years 5-10 PhDs and Post Doctoral students will work in the project "Preparation and Characterisation of Model Waterborne Clearcoats" under the supervision of Professor Yongfeng Men.

At the start of 2013...

DPI is looking for a Programme Area Coordinator.

On 13 and 14 November DPI organised its Annual Meeting, this year with the theme Polymers D Light: shedding our lights on polymers. More than 130 DPI members attended the event. 

Dr. Wilma Dierkes, Associate Professor of the University of Twente will be receiving the ACS Sparks Thomas Award for outstanding contributions and innovations in the field of elastomers by younger scientists, technologists and engineers. Dr. Dierkes is and has been a co-applicant and participant to several DPI projects, particularly in the Performance Polymers Technology Area.

Friday 22 November the thesis defence of Diego Wever will take place at the University of Groningen. In his thesis titled "Synthesis and evaluation of novel linear and branched polyacrylamides for enhanced oil recovery" Diego describes novel highly branched polyacrylamides that offer improvements over existing linear polymers for enhanced oil recovery. This thesis is the first in the new DPI Technology Area of Polymers for EOR. Currently the industrial participants in this area are Shell and SNF Floerger. Academic participants are University of Groningen and Technical University of Delft. Three projects related to synthesis, characterisation and modelling of polymers for EOR are currently active in this Technology Area and preparations are in hand to start an additional project on polymer adsorption.

During the first joint meeting of Spanish, French and Italian Society of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (ARPE, GERPE and GIRSE) at Palermo, 3-6 of October 2012, Dr. Sara Maurelli of the University of Antwerp was awarded the Poster Prize for best poster at the conference. Sara has recently joined DPI and her poster titled 'CW, Pulsed EPR and DFT study of Solutions of Ti(III)Chloride in Various Organic Bases' presented initial results of her work for DPI project #754 of the Polyolefins Technology Area.

On the occasion of  the 2012 International Man-Made Fibres Congress in Dornbin, Germany, 19-21 September, Dr. Anurag Pandey of the Polymers and Advanced Materials Laboratory, National Chemical Laboratory, Pashan, Pune, India, was awarded the Paul Schlack Man-made Fibres Prize 2012 for his thesis work in DPI project #637 titled:  ‘Non-linear visco-elastic response  of a thermodynamically metastable polymer melt; From fundamental to technological development'.