Financial Supports


Fund for Scientific Research - FNRS

The group is funded since 2018 by the FNRS.

Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles through Collective Research Initiatives - ARC

Within the context of an ARC inter-university collaboration with the UCLouvain University, the group is supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles funds for fundamental research, through its ‘Actions de Recherche Concertées’ (ARC, Collective Research Initiatives) programme.

 

European Research Council - ERC

Since 2022 the group is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme

Prof. Guillaume Berionni (Namur Institute of Structured Matter - University of Namur) has been recently awarded an ERC consolidator grant.
With this funding instrument, the European Research Council enables outstanding scientists to implement pioneering concepts over a period of five years and thus strengthens the European research landscape.
The ERC received 2652 consolidator grant proposals, and a total of 313 laureates were funded in Europa. In the physical sciences and engineering PE5 panel (Synthetic Chemistry and Materials), a total of 12 ERC CoG grants were awarded this year in Europa, among which only one (this project B-YOND) was awarded in Belgium. ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent research programs which must demonstrate ground-breaking nature and multidisciplinary ambition.


Inspired by transition-metal catalysis and main-group chemistry, the recently funded ERC project “B-yond” aims at reprograming molecular systems based on s and p block elements to overstep current chemistry reactivity rules.
A milestone of this project is the formulation of acids and bases with minimal reorganization energies suitable for promoting new catalytic processes. The development of ground-breaking main-group catalysts based on the most abundant elements in the earth crust will have a wide impact on chemical materials transformation, as well as on bulk and fine chemical synthesis.

The research outcomes will lay the basis for developing new energy and resources management strategies, notably through novel approaches to catalysts design and sustainable materials development, by avoiding the use of precious transition-metal elements.
Thus, the research project B-YOND addresses important challenges in the quest for a sustainable future, since Berionni and his working group will develop new reactive species and catalysts that benefit a variety of chemical technologies.

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