Innovation Agenda

Our Innovation Agenda forms the guideline for all Catalisti activities, not in the least for the initiation and evaluation of our innovation projects.

The agenda includes specific innovation programs and focus topics, capturing our ambition to actively contribute and give rise to a sustainable and competitive chemical and plastics industry in Flanders.

The agenda was last updated on 13 November 2020. Scroll down to learn more about this update or click here to download the full document (in PDF format).

What’s new?

In 2020, our Innovation Agenda was updated. Alignment with individual company roadmaps and with the research agendas of our knowledge partners was ensured by organising a feedback round and a discussion with members of the Catalisti Industrial Advisory Board. Several international innovation agendas and roadmaps were used as benchmark and inspiration. Multiple references to the SusChem SIRA can be found throughout the document. Major novelties that have been introduced in this 2020 version are:
  • a new name for all four Innovation Programs, better reflecting the content of each program
  • an explicit description of the goals of each program and the way projects should contribute to these goals
  • an elaboration of the content of each program based on a list of concrete topics described in more detail
Innovation Programs
Although each of our four innovation programs has its own content and goals, there are significant interfaces between the programs. In addition, there are also different links with the Moonshot Research Trajectories (MOTs) of the Flanders Industry Innovation Moonshot.

Biobased
Value Chains

Using nature’s power


Focus Topics
Within each innovation program, a list of focus topics was defined. This list gives a good indication of the content of the program but is not limitative. This means that project ideas that fall outside the listed topics can also be considered if they have the potential to contribute to the goals of the program. The stage of development of the different topics within Catalisti is diverse: for some, an extensive project portfolio with important results has already been achieved, for others, first activities must still start.

Delivering sustainable innovation
The overarching objective of delivering sustainable innovation is safeguarded by performing a sustainability assessment at different stages of project development, execution and evaluation. In order to do so, Catalisti has developed a “Sustainability Assessment Tool” (or SAT) in collaboration with its members and external experts. The SAT is a “life cycle thinking”-based, simple and accessible instrument in which major environmental impacts over the different phases of the life cycle are mapped and analysed. It is based on the input of qualitative data, which can be complemented over the course of a project by quantitative data.