ACCESS
Doctorate
International and Intersectorial (industrial) Innovative Doctorate Course
"ADVANCED CATALYTIC PROCESSES FOR USING RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES" (ACCESS)
The Doctorate ACCESS, after accreditation procedure, started within the XXXVI (Italian) Doctorate cycle (Oct. 2020). The Doctorate is one of the 14 Doctorates of the University of Messina and is accreditated by the Italian Ministery of University and Research as International and Intersectorial (industrial) Innovative Doctorate Course. It is in consortium between the University of Messina (Italy) and the University of Antwerp (Belgium), the Technische University of Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and the company NEXTCHEM, of the Maire/Technimont group and having mission on new processes for circular economy and energy transition. The Universities of Warwick (UK), Adelaide (Australia), and of Calabria (Italy) are partners of the Doctorate together with the European Research Institute of Catalysis (Belgium).
The Doctorate is stemming from the ERC Synergy SCOPE project and is aimed at fostering the synergies inside the project on the educational and research aspects.
ACCESS Doctorate will address issues that are at the center of the European Green Deal plan and aims to develop a new scientific profile for PhD students to meet the social and industrial needs of using renewable energy sources for chemical energy storage, the missing element in the current energy scenario to increase the share of renewable energy allowing their annual storage and especially transport from remote areas - two crucial elements for a sustainable energy future on a global scale and for developing chemical processes driven by renewable energy, rather than heat
(derived from fossil fuels) as at present
Following the XXXVI cycle, the XXXVII cycle started in Oct. 2021, with two additional PhD students granted by UniME SCOPE funds (Victor Longo and Palmarita De Moro) in addition to the two who started in Oct 2020 (Luana De Pasquale and Francesco Pio Abramo). From UANT side, Wanten Bart, and from TUe side Palma Giovanni started their activities in 2021 for XXXVI cycle. Joran Van Turnhout, joint PhD of Univ. Antwerp/Tue, started activities by end 2021 for XXXVII Doctorate cycle. Besides to the PhD students directly hired within SCOPE funds, various other PhD students started their activities in XXXVI and XXXVI cycle (7 and 5 in total, respectively) working on topics closely related to SCOPE project.
In Feb. 2022 the agreement for a joint Doctorate between UniME and UANT for the PhD student Federica De Luca, registered to ACCESS XXXVI cycle and working on “Use of renewable energy for the conversion of CO2 on nanomembranes” was finalized. In March 2022 she started a 6th months mobility activity at UANT (Univ. Antwerp, Belgium). In March 2022 De Pasquale Luana, ACCESS PhD student of XXXVI cycle, also started her mobility program (6th months) at Tue (Eindhoven, the Netherlands). The plan of mobility for the other PhD students of ACCESS XXXVI cycle was also decided by the end of 2021.