Consortium

The University of Twente was founded in 1961 and is a true campus University, located on the Drienerlo estate. The UT collaborates with Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and the Wageningen University and Research Centre under the umbrella of 4TU and is also a partner in the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). The UT is widely recognised for its entrepreneurial character, demonstrated by the many spin-off companies.

KU Leuven (KUL) has about 50,000 students divided over 14 campuses and 10 cities in Flanders (Belgium). The research is conducted in departments and research groups: Human Sciences, Science & Technology and Biomedical Sciences. The research group ProcESS (Process Engineering for Sustainable Systems) is part of Chemical Engineering within the Science & Technology.

Lancaster University (ULANC) has 12000 students from over 120 countries and employs over 2500 staff. Its academic teaching and research programmes are delivered through departments contained within four faculties: Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Health and Medicine (FHM), Science and Technology (FST) and Management School (LUMS). The University is engaged in high-quality teaching and learning, advanced research with other Higher Education Institutes and partnership with business, regional and international partnerships.

UNIBO is one of the largest and most active Italian universities in research and technology transfer in Italy. It stands among the most important institutions of higher education in EU with 87.590 enrolled students in 2020/21, 2.842 faculty members 1.232 research fellows and 1.631 PhDs students. UNIBO in a.a.2022/23 offers 50 PhD/Doctoral degree programs and 48 professional master programs (15 International Master), 62 post-lauream Specialization Schools, 101 undergraduate and 151 graduate master program programs (87 international). At UNIBO, research activities are promoted, coordinated and supported by the 32 Scientific Departments and by the Research and Competitive Funding Division, with the support of the European Research Development and Projects & Programmes Sectors which has more than 15 years’ experience with European projects.

One of Germany's largest governmental research centres with over 7100 employees. Founded in 1956, the centre addresses grand societal challenges ranging from energy and environment to information and bioeconomy. It has a long history in hosting world class supercomputing resources. The biotechnology institute targets efficient production of bio-based products such as fine chemicals, food and feed additives, as well as biopharmaceuticals. Modelling and simulation are systematically applied for data analysis, experimental design, and process optimization. Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) closely collaborates with RWTH Aachen University

Since its creation in 1969, the Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (UPS) has been expanding its offer of multidisciplinary education in the fields of science, health, engineering, technology and sports, developing one of the most important scientific research clusters in France. In the university, the “Laboratoire de Génie Chimique” (LGC), is a 300 persons Joint Research Unit n°5503 of CNRS, UPS, INPT. Research conducted at the LGC aims at designing, operating, optimising and scaling-up innovative processes for the process industries. One of the global objectives of the research carried out at the LGC is to provide solutions to important societal demands related to the environment, energy, sustainable development, risk management, security and health. Within the laboratory, the team “membrane processes” carries research on any aspect of membrane technologies as well as on their integration with other operations to design complete processes to fit dedicated requirements concerning product quality or environmental constraints for instance.

NX Filtration (NXF) produces a variety of filtration membranes. NXF is specialized in the production of hollow fibre membranes. The product portfolio encompasses membranes with different pore sizes: such as: 5, 15 (ultrafiltration) 100, 200, and 500 nm (microfiltration). In addition, NXF produces innovative nanofiltration membranes based on polyelectrolyte multilayers. These nanofiltration membranes have an effective pore size below 1 nm. The membranes of NXF can be used in a variety of applications. At the moment, these are used in (waste) water purification to remove low molecular weight micropollutants.

IamFluidics B.V. (www.iamfluidics.com) was founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the University of Twente. The company has a number of unique proprietary technologies for making high-quality microparticles and -capsules in a sustainable way. IamFluidics focuses on (micro)encapsulation of active components (vitamins, probiotics, nutraceuticals, etc) to improve the quality and applicability of products in the personal care, biomedical, and food industries. IamFluidics has been voted best academic start-up 2020 by the Dutch Association of Universities (VSNU). The team currently consists of 18 professionals with relevant training and experience.

Partner and component supplier for biopharmaceutical research and industry. 13,800 employees, 170,000 m² operational area at Campus Göttingen, founded 1870, 3450 Mrd € turnover in 2021.

Polymem is an SME of c.a. 100 employees, now a subsidiary of Repligen, which designs and produces hollow fiber membranes and modules for a wide range of applications related to water production and treatment. More than 50 % of the production is exported.

FrieslandCampina is one of the world’s largest dairy companies. FrieslandCampina produces and sells consumer products such as dairy-based beverages, infant nutrition, cheese and desserts in many European countries, in Asia and in Africa via its own subsidiaries. FrieslandCampina’s strategy strives for added value in a sustainable way. Innovation is an important part of this strategy. At FrieslandCampina’s Innovation Centre in Wageningen more than 400 highly educated scientists and technicians work day in day out on product and process improvement. FrieslandCampina focuses its innovation on producing healthy, nutritious, well-balanced, and tasty food, in which the dietary advantages of milk are made optimum use of, and the costs and emission of CO2 are minimized. The design of innovative process routes based on unit operations with a low environmental impact (like membrane processes) is believed to allow for improved product yield & purity with desired product functionality while keeping the environmental burden low.

Circul’Egg is a start-up co-founded by three engineers. In a circular economy approach, Circul’Egg recycles bio-waste from the food industry such as eggshells, via innovative industrial processes that allow the separation of the shell and the shell membrane. Their separation technology ensures the functional and microbiological quality of a wide range of biomolecule products that are recovered with high purity for direct reuse.