ERIC a.i.s.b.l., the European Research Institute of Catalysis, is a non-profit international association under the Belgian Law (a.i.s.b.l. - Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif) stemming from the European Network of Excellence IDECAT (Integrated Design of Catalytic Nanomaterials for a Sustainable Production). The institute promotes the activities in the area of catalysis with three main goals:
- Support the members of the association, acting as a catalyst for joint research and training/educational activities and to support projects management, IPR promotion and international collaboration;
- Provide services to the chemical/energy companies and in general to the production world, offering its expertise on catalysis (from white papers to specific technology-driven studies, benchmarking or IPR assistance and patent scouting), training and other services, including to act as single interface for multi-Institutions/competences activities. Being registered in the European Parliament as an Organization for lobbying activities, ERIC offers also services for assistance in R&D and lobby interests;
- Act proactively in the catalysis community, organizing international meetings, events and school, promoting catalysis at European and international level and supporting the development of roadmaps and other reference documents to enable a long-term vision of catalysis as enabling science for a sustainable, energy saving and low-carbon future;
In addition, ERIC aisbl actively collaborates with several public bodies to help them in promoting clean technologies and solutions for companies, particularly SMEs or in developing recovery plans for areas in crisis.
ERIC members are numerous excellent European research groups, working both on the field of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and in part of biocatalysis.
Whilst at the beginning, partnership was limited to academic and research Institutions, nowadays companies, public bodies and other organizations/association can become Full members thus enjoying all the advantages of being part of a key player in the European catalysis landscape.
ERIC is member of various relevant initiatives, such as A.SPIRE - the European Association which is committed to manage and implement the SPIRE (Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency) Public-Private Partnership and EuCheMS, the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences. It is also registered Organization in the European Parliament for lobbying activities, to promote catalysis interests. ERIC has been partner or coordinator in many European Projects since FP7.