Webinar: Accelerating innovation and process improvement, Dec 6, 2018

Join us on 6 December to learn how modern experimentation methods can increase your process understanding, allowing you to develop new products and boost your R&D output.

Details and Registration

Building robust process understanding is critical to developing a dynamic product portfolio and increasing R&D output. This webinar will introduce data-driven experimentation practices that can help you develop processes predictably and meet key project milestones.

A case study will show how chemical technology development startup Novomer transformed their experimentation strategy with state-of-the-art statistical methods in a way that not only streamlined R&D processes, but ultimately led to a successful acquisition.

During this webinar you will learn:

• how easy it is to get started with methods that streamline your work and yield more reproducible results
• how to increase product or process understanding through modern experimentation
• how to motivate your organisation to give modern experimentation a try

Speaker: Malcolm Moore, European technical manager, JMP
Moderator: Benjamin Valsler, Digital editor, Chemistry World magazine

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JMP has been a part of SAS since the first version of JMP statistical discovery software was launched in 1989, bringing interactive data visualization and analysis to the desktop. SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 60,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.

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David Spichiger, SCS
20.11.2018

 

SCS Award Winners 2019

It’s our pleasure to announce the winners of the 2019 SCS Awards. We would like to sincerely congratulate all winners and we are looking forward to the ceremonies that will take place at one of our events during the year.

The Swiss Chemical Society awards the following awardees:

Werner Prize 2019

Prof. Jeremy Luterbacher, EPFL Lausanne, for his original and groundbreaking research on chemical conversion of plant material using protection group chemistry during biomass depolymerization and upgrading.

The award lecture will take place at the SCS Spring Meeting in Dübendorf on April 5, 2019.

All Werner Prize Winners since 1936

Grammaticakis-Neumann Award 2019

Prof. David Sarlah,
University of Illinois, Urbana (USA),
for his great achievements is the development of photochemical dearomatization of nonactivated arenes that allows for a rapid incorporation of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon functionality with exquisite stereocontrol.

The award lecture will take place at the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.

All Grammaticakis-Neumann Award Winners since 1985

Sandmeyer Prize 2019

Dr. Michael Berg, Dr. Stephan Hug, Dr. Annette Johnson (in memoriam), Dr. Andreas Voegelin and Prof. Lenny Winkel,
from the Eawag, Dübendorf,
for their experimental and modelling studies on drinking water contamination by arsenic and other geogenic elements with an enormous impact not only in Switzerland but around the globe.

The award lecture will take place at the Freiburger Symposium in Fribourg, on May 17, 2019 and at the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.

All Sandmeyer Prize Winners since 1994

SCS Senior Industrial Science Award 2019

The Swiss Chemical Society awards
Dr. Fabrice Gallou, Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG, Basel,
in recognition of his outstanding track record of innovation and creativity in the field of organic synthesis and for his leadership in coaching and mentoring of young scientists at Novartis.

The award lecture will take place at the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.

SCS Industrial Science Award 2019

The Swiss Chemical Society awards 
Dr. Christoph Boss, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Allschwil,
to honor his outstanding contributions as medicinal chemists with remarkable analytical skills and an excellent flair for multidimensional lead optimization taking into consideration all aspects of modern medicinal chemistry. 

The award lecture will take place at the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.

All winners of one of the SCS Industrial Science Awards since 2013

Balmer Prize 2019

Dr. Rita Oberholzer,
Kantonsschule im Lee, Winterthur,
for developing and implementing an innovative and, in the meantime well-established, experiment of anodizing Caran d’Ache pens that can be easily used in a short hands-on training at Gymnasium level.

The award lecture will take place at the ChemEdu Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.

All Balmer Prize Winners sind 2010

Dr. Max Lüthi Award 2019

Ms. Sandra Witschard,
Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Wädenswil,
for her Bachelor thesis focusing on «Voxelated planar spheroid tissue assembly»

and

Mr. Ivan Cornu,
Haute école d’ingénierie et d’architecture Fribourg,
for his Bachelor thesis entitled «Synthesis of new pinene-phenanthroline and pinene-terpyridine type ligands».

The award lectures will take place at the ILMAC 2019 in Basel on September 27, 2019.

All Dr. Max Lühti Award Winners since 1992

 

 

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David Spichiger, SCS
20.11.2018 / 01.02.2019

 

 

 

SCNAT Newsletter, November 2018

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Chemical Landmark 2018 für die Erfinderin der Ovo

Vor über hundert Jahren hat Albert Wander mithilfe chemischer und pharmazeutischer Verfahren in Bern die Ovomaltine entwickelt. Den Ort, wo dies geschah, hat die SCNAT nun als bedeutende historische Stätte der Chemie ausgezeichnet. Weiter

Kluge Landwirte setzen auf die Biodiversität

Will die Schweiz ihre Ziele in punkto Nachhaltigkeit erreichen, muss sie ihre natürlichen Ressourcen effizienter nutzen. Die Landwirtschaftspolitik (AP 22+) bietet hierfür eine grosse Chance. Eine zentrale Rolle spielt dabei die Biodiversität. Weiter

30 Jahre Klimadialog: Ist er noch zeitgemäss?

Wo steht der Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik? Was muss sich ändern, um die nötige Transformation zu meistern? Der 30. Geburtstag von IPCC, ProClim und Hades bietet die Gelegenheit, eine Vision für die Zukunft zu entwickeln. Weiter

Nachhaltigkeitsziele sind ohne Nord-Süd-Forschung nicht erreichbar

Die Aussenpolitik der Schweiz sollte die Forschung zum globalen Wandel deutlich stärker berücksichtigen, um die 17 Nachhaltigkeitsziele der Agenda 2030 zu erreichen, sagt die Kommission für Forschungspartnerschaften mit Entwicklungsländern (KFPE) der SCNAT. Gerade in der Nord-Süd-Forschung ist die Schweiz aufgrund langjähriger Erfahrungen prädestiniert, den Aufbau von Forschungs-Kompetenzen im Süden zu fördern und so den Wandel mitzugestalten. Mit zwei Anlässen startet die KFPE nun den Dialog rund um die Nachhaltigkeitsforschung und das Schweizer Engagement zur Agenda 2030. Weiter

Open data: one size fits all won’t work

A general practice cannot be followed, because each scientific field has its specific needs and limitations. That is one of the main outcomes of a workshop on open data and data management organised by the SCNAT in Berne. More transparency, enhance reproducibility, foster collaborative transnational research, speed up innovation, and improve citizen involvement: these objectives are well recognised by the scientific community, but the implementation of open data is not trivial and brings up also questions with respect to intellectual property and proprietary rights as well as fairness in competition if other communities are not following the same approach. Another important issue is to balance the benefits with the costs implied by preparing the released data and providing the support to potential users. More

Ein aussergewöhnlicher Jahrgang – die Shortlist zum Prix Expo 2018

Die 17 Projekte, die verschiedene Schweizer Museen für den Prix Expo 2018 eingereicht haben, sind von sehr hoher Qualität. Mit dem Preis zeichnet die SCNAT Ausstellungen und verwandte Formen aus, welche die Faszination der Natur und der Naturwissenschaften einem breiten Publikum fachlich kompetent und erlebnisorientiert vermitteln. Auf der Shortlist stehen Ausstellungen aus der Deutsch- und Westschweiz:

• «Das Schwein. Sympatisch, schlau und lecker» vom Museum.BL
• «Fragile» vom Naturama Aargau
• «Wie viel Urzeit steckt in dir?» vom Kulturama Zürich 
• «Hier und anderswo» vom Musée d'Histoire naturelle de Fribourg
• «Cosmos» der Musées cantonaux Vaudois 
• «Eichhörnchen» vom Naturmuseum Winterthur 

Der Gewinner des mit 10'000 Franken dotierten Prix Expo wird an der Preisverleihung am 18. Dezember bekannt gegeben.

Governance der Regionalentwicklung – wie Regionen ihr Potenzial nutzen können

Neue Regionalpolitik, regionale Naturpärke und vieles mehr: Die Entwicklung der Regionen ein zentraler Pfeiler der Schweizer Politik. Doch wie funktionieren regionale Entwicklungsprozesse wirklich? Und wie liessen sie sich besser unterstützen? Das neue Swiss Academies Factsheet analysiert bestehende Modelle und leitet Handlungsempfehlungen für die Praxis ab. Das Faktenblatt basiert auf einer Doktorarbeit der Forschungsanstalt WSL, die unter anderem untersuchte, wie Entwicklungsträger in der Schweiz Entwicklungsstrategien erarbeiten und umsetzen. Weiter

Beurteilung von Oberflächenabflüssen: Beitrag zur Hydrologie der Schweiz Nr. 42 

Obwohl in der Schweiz verschiedene Werkzeuge für die Beurteilung und für den Umgang mit der Naturgefahr Oberflächenabfluss existieren, fehlt bisher eine Übersicht, die Lösungswege für diverse Fragestellungen aufzeigt. Der neuste Beitrag zur Hydrologie der Schweiz der Schweizerischen Hydrologischen Kommission soll Fachpersonen bei der Auswahl der geeigneten Werkzeuge im konkreten Fall unterstützen. Weiter

Nationaler Tag der naturhistorischen Sammlungen

Sie beherbergen Einzigartiges, Mysteriöses und vor allem Unwiederbringliches: die naturhistorischen Sammlungen der Schweiz. Um die Schätze bekannt zu machen, die in den Eingeweiden von Museen, in Herbarien, Universitätskellern und privaten Sammlungen verborgen sind, führt die Schweizerische Systematische Gesellschaft am 17. November 2018 den nationalen Tag der naturwissenschaftlichen Sammlungen durch. 22 Institutionen aus der ganzen Schweiz öffnen ihre Türen und zeigen, was sonst meist verborgen bleibt. Weiter

«Alles Machbare machen zu dürfen, ist kein Antrieb»

Der neue Dokumentarfilm Genesis 2.0 thematisiert die biotechnologischen Bestrebungen, das Mammut auferstehen zu lassen. Dem stellt er den Alltag von Mammutzahnjägern in Sibirien gegenüber. Er wirft die Frage auf, wohin die Menschheit mit den neuen biotechnologischen Methoden steuert. Im Anschluss an die Filmpremiere am 8. November in Bern fand im Beisein des Regisseurs eine Podiumsdiskussion statt, die vom Forum Genforschung der SCNAT organisiert wurde. Ueli Grossniklaus, Professor für Entwicklungsgenetik der Pflanzen an der Universität Zürich und Mitglied des Forums Genforschung, war einer der ersten, der den Film sehen konnte. Im Interview äussert er sich zu seinen Eindrücken. Weiter

Swiss Forum on Conservation Biology 2019: Biodiversität erzählen

Wie kann es gelingen, Biodiversität so zu erzählen, dass sie in den Herzen der Menschen ankommt? Dieser Frage geht das Swiss Forum on Conservation Biology (Swifcob) vom 8. Februar 2019 in Bern nach. Die Tagung wird vom Forum Biodiversität Schweiz der SCNAT organisiert und von den Bundesämtern für Umwelt und Landwirtschaft mitfinanziert. Sie richtet sich an Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, Fachleute aus der Verwaltung und Praxis, an Personen aus dem Bildungsbereich, an Kommunikationsverantwortliche sowie Medienschaffende. Weiter

Swiss Scopstep workshop about solar-terrestrial physics

The Swiss National Scopstep committee announces the 3rd Swiss Scopstep workshop to be held from 6 and 7 March 2019 at Davos. The workshop aims at bringing together Swiss scientists with an interest in solar-terrestrial physics, covering the topics of fundamental solar physics, solar variability, Sun-Earth relations and future missions and observations. It encourages a lively exchange between participants to identify synergies, foster collaborations, and strengthen the community. More

Weitere Aktivitäten der SCNAT

> www.scnat.ch/events

 

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 Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz (SCNAT)
Haus der Akademien | Laupenstrasse 7 | 3008 Bern
Andres Jordi | Tel. 031 306 93 23 | www.scnat.ch
Fragen und Anregungen: 
Teilen auf Facebook, Twitter, http://newsletter.scnat.ch">An einen Freund weiterleiten

Open Access in Europe: Reaction of Researchers to Plan S; Too far, too risky?

An Open Letter from Researchers to European Funding Agencies, Academies, Universities, Research Institutions, and Decision Makers.

We support open access (OA) and Plan S is probably written with good intentions. However, Plan S^[1], as currently presented by the EU (and several national funding agencies) goes too far, is unfair for the scientists involved and is too risky for science in general. Plan S has far-reaching consequences, takes insufficient care of the desires and wishes of the individual scientists and creates a range of unworkable and undesirable situations:
(1) The complete ban on hybrid (society) journals of high quality is a big problem, especially for chemistry. Apart from the fact that we won’t be allowed to publish in these journals anymore, the direct effect of Plan S and the way in which some national funding agencies and academic/research institutions seem to want to manage costs may eventually even lead to a situation where we won’t even be able to legally read the most important (society) journals of for example the ACS, RSC and ChemPubSoc anymore. Note that in their announcement of Plan S, the Dutch funding organisation NWO (for example) wrote that they expect to cover the high article processing charges (APCs) associated with the desired Gold OA publishing model from money freed by disappearing or stopped subscriptions to existing journals^[2]. As such, Plan S may (eventually) forbid scientists access to (and publishing in) >85% of the existing and highly valued (society) journals! So effectively Plan S would block access to exactly those journals that work with a valuable and rigorous peer-review system of high quality. As a second note on this aspect: In the Netherlands, already for more than 6 months, researchers don’t have legal access to most RSC journals^[3]. Fully banning even more society journals is completely unacceptable and unworkable.

(2) We expect that a large part of the world will not (fully) tie in with Plan S. The USA, China and the rest of Asia highly value the existing (society) journals, in particular (for chemistry) the ACS journals and (for physics) the APS journals. Germany and Switzerland already indicated they will not conform to the plans as currently formulated. Belgium will also not join-in and independently introduced a different OA policy. Spain is also out, at least for the time being. A transition period for the rest of the world will surely take a long time, and a total global ban on hybrid (society) journals being taken up as a global initiative seems very improbable. Therefore, Plan S has the risk of splitting the global scientific community into two separate systems: cOAlition S grantees vs. the rest of the world, with all associated negative consequences. If that happens, this will have a strong negative effect on collaborations between the cOAlition S countries and the rest of the world, because joint publications in the highest quality selective journals, based on rigorous peer review and quality control procedures, with the highest standing in the community, won’t be possible anymore (e.g. JACS, Science, Nature, Nature Chemistry, ACS Catalysis and Angewandte Chemie are all forbidden under Plan S!). This will also have a strong negative impact on the internationalization of PhD students and postdocs. Why would someone with academic ambitions come to e.g. the Netherlands or Sweden to obtain a PhD or obtain postdoc experience if they are not allowed to publish in journals that are important for their career progression, on the international landscape, and would make them therefore uncompetitive if they want to leave cOAlition S countries? Students in our universities are already starting to wonder if it is wise to do a PhD in a cOAlition S country, or rather move to another country to increase their chances of a successful (academic) career. Furthermore, if Plan S succeeds in splitting the global research system, it puts the willingness of scientists to do something for anyone in ‘the other system’, such as acting as a peer reviewer for manuscripts and research proposals, under pressure. These are all highly undesirable developments that will hurt science as a whole.

(3) We fully appreciate and agree with ongoing concerns about the exploding costs of journal subscriptions. However, with its strong focus on the Gold OA publication model, in which researchers pay high APCs for each publication, the total costs of scholarly dissemination will likely rise instead of reduce under Plan S. Furthermore, it will not eliminate the so-called publication ‘paywall’, but rather simply shifts it from reading to publishing. Tying in with this, the strong focus of Plan S to support in particular for-profit Gold OA-journals (at the expense of high quality non-profit Society journals^[4]) has a serious risk that it leads to a surplus of papers of low quality/originality/newsworthiness and that research groups are confronted with high APCs. After all, this system is coupled to perverse financial incentives: Stimulate accepting as many papers as possible - regardless of their quality - and keep increasing the already high APCs in more selective journals.

(4) Plan S ignores the existence of large differences between different research fields. Plan S has (probably) a much larger negative effect on chemistry than on some other fields. A one-size-fits-all approach, as presented in Plan S, is therefore a bad idea. The ‘mountain of feathers’ effect that Plan S can trigger will likely quickly result in lower international ranking and standing of individual cOAlition S researchers, most certainly if little changes elsewhere.

Taken together, Plan S is a serious violation of academic freedom: Strongly reduced access to (and possibilities to publish in) suitable scientific journals of high quality, with a direct consequence that it also strongly restricts our choice of countries with which we can conveniently collaborate with or sustain lasting exchange programs. There are also issues with the copyright model (CC-BY) demanded by Plan S. A full ban on publishing in hybrid journals with imposed sanctions also feels as a serious degradation of existing rights. Most problematically, less radical and cheaper solutions are certainly possible. See for example the suggestions presented here: [5]. In addition, more and more journals (for example, JACS^[6] and Elsevier journals[7]) are allowing researchers to not only deposit preprints of their work but also updating with each round of peer review until the decision letter is issued such that the research becomes immediately available via the pre-print server. However, as currently framed, Plan S sees such modes of dissemination as only being of archival value and this type of Green OA publishing is non-compliant under the current 10 rules of Plan S.

Researchers should have the freedom to choose publication venue, and while complying with Open Access mandates to also choose how papers are made Open Access, in a way that contributes to minimal increased costs for the publishing system while not impinging on academic freedom or jeopardizing internationalization in research and higher education. We call on both funding agencies who are already part of cOAlition S and those who have not (yet?) signed up, to take into account the full landscape of ways that papers can be made Open Access, and not just the very narrow definition provided by Plan S (including the hybrid ban, and the fact that peer reviewed pre-prints such as allowed by the ACS are currently not an obvious compliant solution). In addition, we demand that cOAlition S signatories take responsibility for the implications and risks Plan S may have for the European research landscape, and to therefore take every possible action in the implementation stage to prevent these potential and unintended consequences.

Abbreviations:
ACS: American Chemical Society
APC: Article Processing Charge
APS: American Physical Society
ChemPubSoc: Partnership of 16 continental European chemical societies nurturing a family of high-quality chemistry journals
EU: European Union
JACS: Journal of the American Chemical Society
NWO: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
OA: Open Access (no costs for reading)
Gold OA: OA model where the publications are immediately available from the publisher, usually upon author payment of an APC fee to get their paper published.
Green OA: Subscription journals accepting depositing a pre- or post-print in a repository.
Platinum OA: Fully free to publish and read.
RSC: Royal Society of Chemistry
VSNU: Vereniging van Samenwerkende Nederlandse Universiteiten

Footnotes:
[1] https://www.scienceeurope.org/coalition-s/
[2] https://www.folia.nl/actueel/123528/volledig-open-access-in-2020-6-vragen-en-antwoorden
[3] https://vsnu.nl/en_GB/news-items/nieuwsbericht/394-no-agreement-with-the-royal-society-of-chemistry-publishing%C2%A0.html
[4] https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/plan-s-could-prove-fatal-learned-societies
[5] https://forbetterscience.com/2018/09/11/response-to-plan-s-from-academic-researchers-unethical-too-risky/
[6] https://pubs.acs.org/page/jacsat/submission/prior.html
[7] https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/sharing#preprint

Other Resources:
https://forbetterscience.com/2018/09/11/response-to-plan-s-from-academic-researchers-unethical-too-risky/
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/podcast-plan-s-squelch
https://www.tidningencurie.se/debatt/europas-beslut-om-open-access-gar-for-langt/#.W88PDXz-zng.twitter
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07153-y
https://jbrittholbrook.com/category/academic-freedom/

 

 

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https://sites.google.com/view/plansopenletter/open-letter
15.11.2018