International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3)

The ISC3 is an independent, international institution promoting and developing sustainable chemistry solutions worldwide. The centre is building up a knowledge platform and an experts network, offers training and support especially for developing countries and carries out innovation scouting activities to set up new technologies and business models. From 2017 until 2024 the centre had two hubs: an Innovation Hub at DECHEMA in Frankfurt which promotes innovation in the field of sustainable chemistry and supports entrepreneurs worldwide, and the Research & Education Hub here at the Institute of Sustainable Chemistry at the School of Sustainability of the public Leuphana University of Lüneburg who has carried out academic trend scouting and has developed study programs and training courses.

The key features of all activities at the Research & Education Hub of ISC3 have been interdisciplinarity and openness. This relates to stakeholders, research topics, ideas, concepts and an extensive understanding of sustainable chemistry going far beyond green chemistry, which in turn is an important building block of sustainable chemistry. As such the Research & Education Hub focused on developing and advancing a better understanding of the opportunities and possible pitfalls of sustainable chemistry. The main focus was put on emerging concepts and hot topics of research in green and sustainable chemistry by doing own research, collecting and assessing good examples of green and sustainable chemistry as well publishing related studies. Together with the other two hubs of the ISC3, the research hub has also played a role at the think tank and the clearinghouse of the ISC3 regarding sustainable chemistry solutions in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Research & Education Hub screens, assesses, develops and implements international study programs of sustainable chemistry, offers such courses and trainings on a global level and helps interested third parties such as universities or authorities especially from developing countries to establish such programs in their institutions and to run them independently. As part of education, the research hub offere a Summer School on Sustainable Chemistry (S³C) on a yearly basis which addressed not just academia but also aimed to interlink young academics with professionals from authorities, companies and non-governmental organisations. The Summer School was complemented by the annual Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry.

During the project period Prof. Dr. Klaus Kümmerer was the scientific director of the ISC3 Research & Education Hub leading an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers. Upon receiving the project objective, the Research & Education hub is no longer envolved in the ISC3.

For more information on the on-going outreach of ISC3, please refer to their website!