Project history and foundation
Initiated by Prof. Dr. Christophe Copéret (ETHZ) and Prof. Dr. Nicolai Cramer (EPFL) in 2019, the Catalysis Hub project – Swiss Cat+ aims to establish a national infrastructure, open to the entire scientific community, devoted to data-driven, high-throughput and automated chemical experimentation. In particular, the Swiss Cat+ will support the discovery and opti-mization of sustainable catalytic processes. In 2020, the project was approved by the ETH-domain and received a four-year start-up fund of 25 MCHF with the mission to establish a technology platform, co headed by both federal institutes, and hosting state-of-the-art robotic and parallelized tools for the synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation of libraries of solid and molecular compounds. For an efficient dissemination within Switzerland, the Catalysis Hub – Swiss Cat+ is divided between the two institutes according to their specific expertise: the East Hub at ETH Zurich focuses on heterogeneous catalyst technology, while the West Hub at EPFL focuses on homogeneous catalysis. Automated high-throughput machines can generate a large amount of reproducible data in a short time. This helps in screen-ing vast and complex parameter spaces and accelerating the identification of highly performant compounds among thou-sands of potential candidates. This approach also makes it possible to digitize the complete experimental workflows by eliminating manual activities and capturing all process and analytical parameters into databases. It is therefore a perfect environment to implement advanced computational data analysis using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as Machine Learning (ML) methods, for both closed-loop optimization of experimental conditions and scientific knowledge extraction from large datasets, such as hidden chemical descriptors that lead to specific performance.
Governance structure
The governance structure has been laid down in a bylaw to be signed between the ETHZ and the EPFL in March 2022.
Steering Board
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Prof. Dr. Christophe Copéret
Lab. für Anorganische Chemie
Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1-5/10, 8093 Zürich
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Prof. Dr. Nicolai Cramer
EPFL SB ISIC Swiss Cat+
Station 6, 1015 Lausanne
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Prof. Dr. Paco Laveille
swisscatplus-east
Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1-5/10, 8093 Zürich
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Dr. Pascal Mieville
EPFL SB ISIC Swiss Cat+
Station 6, 1015 Lausanne
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Advisory board
