Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NATURE (Innovative designs to enable plastic packaging circular economy)
Período documentado: 2021-01-01 hasta 2022-12-31
Considering the management of the project and the different workshops and dissemination activities included in the formation:
- Four talented ESRs have been recruited and they have been enrolled in their respective doctoral programs at the university of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) (Spain) and the University of Birmingham (UK).
- A first workshop was organised in May 2022 (M17) in which the four ESRs participated in both the excellent GEP-SLAP 2022 congress on polymer science in San Sebastian (Spain) and a joint school with the NIPU project on soft skills (i.e. ethics in science, oral presentation, dissemination of results, entrepreneurship).
- A second (2-day) workshop was organised in November 2022 (M23) at the University of Birmingham (UK), where the ESRs followed an introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). They learned about the principles of LCA and circular economy in general, the critical analysis of such study, and an introduction to its realisation on appropriate softwares.
- Virtual meetings with all ESRs and ERs are also regularly organised, every two months, to ensure a tight follow-up of the project.
- Two ESRs have obtained certificates in Spanish (B1).
- ESRs have been encouraged to participate in different outreach activities, and some have participated in different events including science open days, days of the women in science, the realisation of a project video targeted at students focused on the importance of recycling.
Regarding the scientific tasks involved in the project:
- New synthetical routes have been found for the synthesis of low molecular weight polyesters for distinct applications.
- Unsaturated low molecular weight polyesters have been successfully synthesized for their subsequent use in additive manufacturing.
- Macrocycles have been synthesised through innovative synthetic routes for their subsequent use as monomers for ring-opening polymerisation.
- Organocatalysts and novel bio-sourced catalysts have been successfully employed for polycondensation and ring-opening polymerisation reactions.