As part of the global trend towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption and production, efforts are increasing to find solutions for the problem of the of plastic waste in the oceans. This waste, known as Plastic Soup, or Plastic Marine Litter,(PML), consists mainly of packaging with short-lived applications and plastic from land-based consumption and marine activities such as fisheries and shipping. PML causes economic damage and has a negative impact on the marine environment, with potential harmful consequences in the food chain and for humans. Local authorities and the tourism sector spend millions of euro every year cleaning up and preventing litter on beaches.

The Borealis Student Innovation Award recognises the two most innovative research papers (one for a master's degree graduate and one for a doctorate degree graduate) on polyolefins or olefins to engage young people in Borealis´ mission to be the leading provider of innovative solutions that create value for society

The collaboration between CNPq, TU/e and DPI has entered a new phase. A call for proposals from Brazilian research groups has been published on the website of the Brazilian research council. The call focuses on the areas of nanotechnology and bio-based polymers. Proposals can be submitted until 13 September and will then be evaluated by a committee comprising experts from CNPq, TU/e and DPI. The projects will be integrated into DPI's research programme and are expected to start in early 2013.

EU project proposal self-healing innovative elastomers (SHINE) has been invited to take part in the final negotiations for funding from the European Commission. This proposal forms part of the Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies 2012 call of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) from which 40 project proposals have been invited for the final negotiations. The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) coordinates EU projects to create added value for its own industrial partners, also being part of the SHINE consortium, or to create added value for prospect industrial partners. The industrials partners always define the technological scope of the EU project. ‘SHINE' explores different self-healing material technologies in one project where DPI will act as an independent coordinator. The anticipated start of the EU project is early 2013.

From the start of this year DPI will send out a digital newsletter once per two months. The newsletter contains DPI related news and polymer related news. Click here for the webversion of the DPI 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.

In 2012 the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary as a successful public-private partnership. The platform is built on a tight professional network, the DPI community. The basic principle behind this success is that DPI provides a platform in which different, often competing, companies can work together on research themes of common interest. The companies share the knowledge that is created and then use it themselves to innovate and to improve their products and processes. The formula for success is a mix of vision, courage and resources. The vision is that public-private partnerships accelerate the innovation process. The courage lies in daring to draw up a plan, persuading companies and knowledge institutes to invest in it, and then submitting the plan to the government. A plan that the government found so convincing that it agreed to subsidise it, and continues to subsidise it fifteen years later. It is a form of collaboration that has now become the basis for the Netherlands' new industrial policy.

At the recent '8th International Colloquium on Heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta Catalysts', held in the historical city of Kanazawa (Japan) on 27-30 March 2012, the three Best-Poster Awards, assigned by a jury composed of all Key-Note Speakers, were delivered to Young Researchers from the three Knowledge Institutes working together in DPI Project #712, a major effort of the Polyolefin Technology Area aimed at the fundamental understanding of classical MgCl2-supported Ti-based polyolefin catalysts.

Researcher of the technology area Performance Polymers Morteza Sadatshirazi won the prize for best presentation. He received this prize for his presentation 'Viscoelastic properties of short aramid fibres reinforced rubbers' during the Dutch Polymer Days.

From the start of this year DPI will send out a digital newsletter once per two months. The newsletter contains DPI related news and polymer related news. On Thursday 22 March we have send out the first edition to our DPI community and several other recipients. Click here for the webversion of the DPI newsletter.

Polymer Value Chain Projects are an initiative launched by DPI and DPI Value Centre as part of the Polymer Innovation Programme (PIP) to promote innovation in the value chain. Projects must be collaborative efforts between various companies in the chain, and may involve the transfer of valuable knowledge for the benefit of the results of the project. DPI Value Centre will actively assist the participating companies in establishing the consortium. To broaden the scope of a project and to facilitate its implementation, subsidies are available from the PIP scheme for companies taking part in these chain projects.

The Dutch Polymer Institute scored a Citation-Impact factor of 2.04 for its scientific publications. The latest report of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science proves this result in Science and Technology Indicators 2011. The score of DPI is, again, more than twice as high as the global average.

Vincent Monteil, CNRS researcher in the Chemistry, Catalysis, Polymers and Processes laboratory (C2P2) at CPE Lyon, is a 2011 laureate of the Bronze Medal of the CNRS. His research activities focus on (catalytic) polymerization of olefins and especially their copolymerization with polar vinyl monomers using hybrid radical/catalytic mechanisms.

At the start of 2012 we wish you a happy, healthy and innovative 2012. Click here to view our new year's message.

The Annual Meeting, held on 16 and 17 November at Bergen op Zoom, was a great success. Around 220 members of the DPI community attended the meeting that was hosted by Sabic. The theme of these days was ‘Creating Value'.

The FOM Foundation is forming a partnership with Michelin, SKF and Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) to gain a better fundamental understanding of how polymers are reinforced by adding fillers. Today the partners signed the contract for this new FOM Industrial Partnership Programme that has a budget of 1.6 million euros. Nearly all ‘plastic' objects around us consist of polymers that have been reinforced with fillers to improve their physical properties. The researchers have set their sights high: they want to be the first to make a quantitative connection between the macroscale properties and performances of these reinforced materials and their structure at the molecular level. The partners will jointly deploy a wide range of advanced techniques to study the network structures at the mesoscale.

On 15 and 16 November DPI organised its Annual Meeting. This year the meeting was organised in Zeist, the Netherlands and was hosted by Teijin Aramid and AkzoNobel. 180 participants of DPI joint this event.

In the past months Dutch investigative TV-programme Tegenlicht has followed the recruiters of International Top Talent and Managing Director Jacques Joosten of DPI with a film crew.

Richard van den Hof has delivered a valuable and crucial contribution to the Dutch Polymer Institute. Since the foundation of DPI he has had a lot of influence on the growth and success of the institute.

PhD student Gianfranco Aresta, working on project #663, will be awarded the Graduate Student award from the Thin Film Division of the American Vacuum Society for his submission for the Annual Symposium in November in Nashville, TN, USA.

As from this summer there are two new industrial partners within the Dutch Polymer Institute. The Belgian multinational Bekaert became participant in the technology area Performance Polymers and the German multinational Altana is from now on partner within the area of Coatings Technology.

On October 31, prof.dr. Dick Broer will be presented the Gilles Holst Medal 2011 in Amsterdam.

During the European Polymer Congress 2011 in Granada, Spain, on 29 June last, the Dutch Polymer Institute DPI presented the DPI Invention Award to Prof. Dr. Cor E. Koning. Cor Koning currently works at the Eindhoven University of Technology and received this award for his important contribution to the innovative capabilities of DPI.

As of June 21 Programme Area Coordinator Peter Nossin has been appointed chairman of the task force New Materials of SusChem Nederland. His first tasks will be to expand the task force with new members and to make an inventory of the current national and European programmes in the area of New Materials. The New Materials task force will set up a plan to match the current programmes with the Polymer Innovation Programme and the programme of the Dutch chemical sector.

DPI is at a crucial juncture in its development. The changing environment calls for a change in our strategy. Our ambition is to evolve into a global Centre of Excellence in polymers and broaden our financial base. To achieve this, we will expand our partnership base by looking for partners across the entire polymer value chain and internationalising our activities, and we will continue our commitment to excellence.

(New York City, 3 June 2011) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named the Eindhoven Region of the Netherlands as the world’s Intelligent Community of the Year 2011 during its annual awards ceremony at Steiner Film Studios in Brooklyn, New York (USA).

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have developed a replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO), an important material used in displays for all kinds of everyday products such as TVs, telephones and laptops, as well as in solar cells. Unfortunately indium is a rare metal, and the available supplies are expected to be virtually exhausted within as little as ten years. The replacement material is a transparent, conducting film produced in water, and based on electrically conducting carbon nanotubes and plastic nanoparticles. It is made of commonly available materials, and on top of that is also environment-friendly. The results, which also provide new insights into conduction in complex composite materials, were published online yesterday 10 April by the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology.

This year's annual meeting, hosted by Teijin and Akzo Nobel, will be held on 15 and 16 November 2011. Please block these dates in your calender. More information will follow as soon as possible.

DPI is one of the sponsors at the European Coatings Show and Conference from 29-31 March in Nurenberg, Germany. In advance of the event a special journal was published, European Coatings Journal, issue 3/2011. An interview with Dr. Harold Gankema and prof. Claus Eisenbach is part of the special edition. Click here to read the article.

It is our pleasure to announce, on behalf of the DPI Executive Board, that we have appointed prof. Costantino Creton (ESPCI Paris) as the new Scientific Chairman for the area Performance Polymers.

The Cabinet wants to make the Dutch economy one of the world's top five economies and has therefore opted to focus on top sectors. Especially High Tech Systems & Materials, Chemistry and Agrofood are substantial contributors to the Dutch economy. These three sectors account for 68% of all private spending on research and development, and together make up almost half of all Dutch exports, the engine of the economic growth. World players, multinationals and small and medium sized enterprises with strong export positions in these sectors are located in Southeast Netherlands.

The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) are going to cooperate with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil. This week the knowledge institutes DPI and TU/e and the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) signed an agreement to this effect. The signing of the Letter of Understanding heralds the commencement of a three-year R&D cooperation in the area of nanotechnology and (bio-)polymers. It has been agreed that ten PhD candidates will be appointed.

Every two years ExxonMobil is organising a European award. The 2011 award deals with: 'Structure-Property-Relationships and Applications of Olefin Based Polymers' More information on the requirements and opportunities to apply can be found here.

The Young scientist Awards for the best oral communication were offered during the first European Symposium of Photopolymer Science (ESPS) in Mulhouse, France, from 28 November to 1 December 2010. The Advisory Board decided to attribute two awards for the best oral communication: to Astrid Gugg from University of Technology of Vienna and François Courtecuisse from the University of Haute-Alsace and the Dutch Polymer Institute.

The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) is currently preparing a Call for Proposals. The Call for Proposals will be launched in March 2011. The DPI Technology Areas participating in this Call for Proposals are: Large Area Thin Film Electronics (LATFE) Polyolefins (PO) Performance Polymers (PP) More details will be provided in March 2011.

Prof. Martien Cohen Stuart (Physical Chemistry & Colloid Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands and scientific director DPI) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros for research on new biosynthetic amino acid polymers for synthetic biology. Proteins that can wrap DNA, undergo ATP-driven filament formation, or form hydrogels for soft tissue engineering will be designed, produced and tested by a team of about 10 scientists.

The German professor Klaus Meerholz was granted the Nordrhein-Westfalen Innovation Award in Dusseldorf on 15 November 2010. He receives this prize for his research in OLEDS. Klaus Meerholz is an active researcher in the Technology Areas LATFE and FPS. Click here for more information.

On 12 October the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) has organised a workshop on Biobased Polymers, where companies from both the supply side and the demand side have been brought together.

As from October Saint-Gobain is industrial partner of DPI in the Technology Area Coatings Technologies. The French company focuses on the development of sustainable homes. With their presence in 64 countries, it is again a multinational that joins the research of DPI. For more information about Saint-Gobain, click here.

Scientists of Maastricht UMC+ and the TU Eindhoven are working together with DPI on research to restore damaged peripheral nerves with a new kind of biodegradable polymer. At this moment the research focuses on the development of porous material with a honeycomb structure to force nerve ends in the right direction.

The DFG ('Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft') announced a new priority programme (SPP 1568) 'Design and Generic Principles of Self-Healing Materials' (2 M€/year, the programme is intended to run six years). This programme is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Ulrich S. Schubert (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany), who is also scientific chairman of the High-Throughput Experimentation programme area of the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI).

This summer the German small- and medium sized enterprise (SME) Microdrop became the first ‘basic participant' of the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI). DPI noticed that more and more SMEs are willing to participate within the worldwide network. Therefore DPI introduced two participation possibilities for SMEs.

The French company SNF became participant in the Technology Area Emerging Technologies. They are primarily working on water-soluble polymers. SNF is the second industrial partner in the Technology Area Emerging Technologies. The first project within Emerging Technologies started in 2009 with Shell as first industrial participant.

As from this summer multinational Petrobras is one of the industrial participants of the Dutch Polymer Institute. The Brazilian energy company is interested in the fields of Bio-Inspired Polymers and Polyolefins. The participation of this globally acting company fits into the strategy of the Dutch Polymer Institute which seeks to strengthen its global position.

Due to the vulcanic ash we had to postphone the Bio-Based Polymers workshop. The workshop was originally planned on 21 April. The new date is 12 October 2010. For more information about the workshop and the possibillity to register for the workshop, please go to Events in the main menu.

An internationally renowned Dutch scientist responsible for several major advances in polymer and organic chemistry has won the 2010 AkzoNobel Science Award. Distinguished professor Bert Meijer, from Eindhoven University of Technology and active community-member of DPI, was conferred the honor after the jury cited his numerous achievements in materials science and polymer chemistry. These have included introducing patented technology which led to the development of the first nano-container (also called the dendritic box), and the synthesis and development of supramolecular polymers.

On May 27, 2010, the Van der Valk hotel in Eindhoven was the scene of a DPI workshop on nanocomposites. Over 30 people gathered to discuss the science and technology of these fascinating materials. After an inspiring lecture by professor Costantino Creton, PhD students and other scientists exchanged their problems, their experience and their ideas with the aim to learn from each other, and to strengthen the field of nanocomposites.

Han E.H. Meijer, Professor of Polymer Technology and Scientific Director of the Research School Eindhoven Polymer Laboratories at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, has been awarded the DSM Performance Materials Award 2010 in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the advancement of the materials sciences. Professor Meijer is one of the world's leading scientists in the field of predicting polymer structuring during processing and the relation between resulting structure and mechanical performance. His outstanding fundamental and applied research and his dedication to innovative science have earned him a high reputation in the academic world.

On Friday 25 June Theo Dingemans will give his inaugural speech at the Delft University. The title of which is: ‘Aerospace polymers are shaping up: Structural and functional properties can go hand in hand.’

The crisis as a springboard For DPI 2009 was a tough year – and at the same time also an exciting year. As a result of the economic crisis, many of our industrial partners were confronted with declining sales, profits and employment. To help companies maintain their R&D capacities, the Dutch government introduced the so-called Knowledge Workers Scheme (KWR), an initiative that we were able to take full advantage of thanks to our extensive network of universities and companies. The KWR initiative enabled us to set up a number of new projects involving 150 researchers from companies whom we linked to new international researchers at universities.

On Wednesday 9 June 2010 the report of the Hybrid Materials Workshop was handed to Renzo Tomellini and Helge Wessel of the Eurpean Commission. The report is the result of the workshop on 3 and 4 March 2010 in Luxembourg. Suschem organised this workshop in close collaboration with Dutch Polymer Institute and was sponsored by the European Commission.