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ENABLER project results presented at the Joint EIC – SUNERGY Roadmapping Event
26.03.2025 - On the invitation of Carina Faber, EIC Programme Manager, ionysis and ReCatalyst, had the opportunity to attend the Joint EIC – SUNERGY event, which brough together in Brussels the entire innovation eco-system on renewable hydrogen, fuels and chemicals - leaders from academia, industry, start-ups, and policy to address the key challenges and opportunities.
The event focused on examining the current state-of-play of hydrogen production as well as carbon economy. A detailed road mapping exercise was implemented with the aim of contributing to the development of an EU Technological Roadmap on Renewable Fuels and Chemicals. The aim was to match R&I initiatives with industrial needs and policy ambitions and identify the key enablers crucial for sustainable commercialization of early-stage innovations. Participants also addressed topics such as social challenges of taking up new technologies.
Dr. Andreas Büchler, COO, ionysis GmbH contributed to the panel “Innovation in practice” delivering a Start-up perspective on Innovation. Using the example of the collaboration ofReCatalyst and ionysis, he illustrated how agile start-ups can bring innovative ideas towards market readiness. He shared the achievements of the EIC Transition project ENABLER delivering platinum reduced, PFAS-free Fuel Cell Stack.
About ReCatalyst
ReCatalyst, d.o.o. is a spin-out company from the National Institute of Chemistry (Ljubljana, Slovenia) founded in early 2021. The company's mission is to provide customizable next-generation platinum alloy catalyst solutions, enabling its customers' massive scalability of high power proton exchange membrane fuel cells with an optimized usage of platinum group metals. Since inception, the company has received multiple awards such as the Slovenian Start-up-of-the-year 2023 and 2nd place at the EIT awards in the Venture section. The foundations of the start-up have been developed within the frameworks of publicly funded projects such as the ERC ‘Proof of Concept’ StableCat as well as the EIT Raw Materials Accelerator. In addition to the EIC Transition project that started in June 2023, the company has also successfully raised an oversubscribed Seed round of 1.7M EUR co-led by international investors HTGF, OCCIDENT and xista science ventures.
About ionysis
ionysis GmbH develops highly efficient, emission-free and sustainable core components for fuel cells and electrolyzers. This includes the so-called "membrane electrode assemblies" with a significantly reduced content of perfluorinated substances. The aim is to further develop novel, more efficient and environmentally friendly membrane electrode assemblies and bring them to market. ionysis started operations in September 2022 and has grown to a team of 25+ employees. The foundation for this spin-off from Hahn-Schickard and the University of Freiburg was laid by several publicly funded research projects. The company secured seed funding from two strategic partners.
Contact
Tomaž Bizjak (ReCatalyst, CEO): tomaz.bizjak@recatalyst.si
Dr. Matija Gatalo (ReCatalyst, CTO): matija.gatalo@recatalyst.si
Lisa Langer (ionysis, CFO): lisa.langer@ionysis.com
This project has received funding from the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) under project number 101112991.
© 2023 enabler project