Materials for Green Fuels

The activities focused on exploring synergies between the catalysis and materials activities in the Smith (University of Cape Town) and Faul (UoB) groups, respectively. To ensure that maximum beneficial interactions took place over a short period of time with the highest potential to combine expertise and develop new ideas, two one-day meetings were held at UCT and the University of Stellenbosch (UoS), respectively. This enabled the exchange of ideas (research presentation by Faul, overview of funding opportunities available aligned with the Global Research Fund activities), knowledge, explore potential collaborations, whilst giving Prof Faul the opportunity to explore the scientific landscape within these two institutions through a number of one-to-one discussions (with Smith (UCT), Jardine (UCT), Chellan (UoS) and Mapolie (UoS).

These discussions were instrumental in exploration of the possibilities to combine catalysis activities (at UCT and UoS, also through a larger funded local catalysis network), discuss options for exchange and early career fellowship applications, and initiate the first exchanges of materials and joint collaborative work (Mapolie (UoS) and Faul). Meetings were also held with students and postdocs (presentations and discussion of research activities).