News – Barta Group

Forschungspreis des Landes Steiermark

Prof. Katalin Barta has been awarded the Forschungspreis des Landes Steiermark 2025
(Research Award of the Province of Styria 2025). This prestigious annual award has been given for the work “Closed-loop recyclability of abiomass-derived epoxy-amine thermoset by methanolysis.” Congratulations Katalin!

Photo: © Foto Fischer

Launch of Circular Bioengineering Cluster of Excellence

Barta Group researchers attended the kickoff meeting of the FWF-funded Circular Bioengineering Cluster of Excellence. The project’s mission is to revolutionize the production and life cycle of goods by disaggregating, reconstructing, and synthesizing bio-based materials.

Zero Emissions Award

The alpha+ Foundation of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has honored Prof. Katalin Barta with the 2025 Zero Emissions Award. This award supports outstanding researchers pursuing innovative climate-relevant research within Austria and is given in connection with the group’s FWF-funded grant “Sustainable routes to bioactive heterocycles from wood”.

Photo: © FWF/Klaus Ranger

Launch of Marie Curie Doctoral Network Re-FIBRE

The Barta group will coordinate a consortia of researchers in the new RE-Fibre Doctoral Network, funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA-DN). This project is set to revolutionize the bio-fibre composite industry by designing high-performance, renewable, and fully recyclable wood and plant fibre composites that align with the principles of the modern circular economy.

Highlight of Paper Published in Science

We are delighted that our latest research paper on polymer chemistry was published in Science! In this study, we demonstrate a recyclable epoxy-thermoset based on renewable resources. Huge congratulations to the entire team and all researchers involved! The news was already picked up by the University as well – Enjoy the read!

PHARMECO Consortium Chosen for Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking

The Barta group will join 31 partners, including major players in the pharmaceutical industry, in the PHARMECO consortium. The team will strengthen public-private partnerships to advance safe and sustainable by design practices (SSbD) in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Highlight of Paper Published in Angewandte Chemie

We are proud to announce that our
recent publication in Angewandte Chemie
on lignin-derived biologically active molecules made it to the homepage of the University of Graz! Congratulations to the authors who conducted this exciting research.
Enjoy the read!

ERC Consolidator Grant Awarded to the Barta Group

Prof. Barta has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant of 2 million EUR! The focus of the grant is the development of novel, fully sustainable catalytic methods for the production and recycling of thermosetting plastics from renewable raw materials. The approach combines several disciplines including organic synthesis, polymer synthesis and advanced material characterization.

Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) Infrastructure Grant Awarded

Prof. Barta and collaborators at the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH have been awarded an infrastructure-focused grant to set up an automated parallel reactor system and expand our capabilities in AI-driven catalyst discovery and product analysis.

Austrian Phoenix Founders Award

We are happy to announce that our sustainable surfactant prototypes from the aws Gründungsfonds funded prototype project “Abfall zu Abwasch” and the EIC Transition funded project PureSurf has won the Austrian Phoenix Founders Award in the category prototype.

Photo: Austria Wirtschaftsservice/APA-Fotoservice/Schedl

Styrian Innovation Award

We are proud to announce that we were awarded the Styrian Innovation award for our research in the field of sustainable surfactants that can be produced using only locally available waste and side streams.

NextBase Consortium Awarded MSCA Doctoral Network

The Barta group will host 2 PhD students in the NextBase consortium. This group of researchers with strong expertise in catalysis will join forces to take the challenge of noble metal replacement in cross-coupling reactions – a class of transformations of high industrial importance for producing fine chemicals and APIs.

EIC Transition Grant Awarded for Commercialization of Bio-based Surfactants

We are beyond happy to announce that we were selected by the European Innovation Council (EIC) as a receipient of 2.5 million EUR grant awarded to take breakthrough projects from the lab into the real world.

Photo: Uni Graz/Tzivanopoulos

Prof. Katalin Barta appointed as Editorial Board Chair of ChemSusChem

We are happy to announce that Katalin has joined ChemSusChem as a new Chair of the Editorial Board!

Read more in the editorial:
A Fresh Look at Sustainable Chemistry, by Dr. David J. Smith

We Moved!

It is with a heavy heart that we leave our beloved laboratory at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen. Thanks to everyone for the fantastic research atmosphere! We will miss you!

The past few months were incredibly busy, besides everything else, we moved! A fantastic and ongoing team effort is underway to build up our new labs at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz. Stay tuned for more exciting research from this new location.

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award for Prof. Barta

Great news! Katalin was awarded the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award 2020, for her work on the development of sustainable catalytic solutions for lignin depolymerization and the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass!

Highlight in C&E News and on the Cover of ACS Central Science

Medicine from lignin? It’s possible! Saravana’s work on how to obtain bioactive molecules from lignin through a waste-free, green process was featured on the cover of ACS Central Science.

C&E News Highlight: Turning lignin into bioactive molecules in three green steps

Original Article

ERC Proof of Concept Grant Awarded to Prof. Barta

Great news! Prof. Katalin Barta has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant worth €150,000. The prestigious ERC PoC grant allows researchers to explore the commercial and societal potential of their ongoing ERC-funded discoveries and funding can be used, for example, to explore business opportunities, prepare patent applications or verify the practical viability of scientific concepts.

The awarded project ‘PURE’ aims to explore cleaner and more sustainable catalytic pathways for the conversion of renewable resources to valuable building blocks that are of interest for industrial partners.

Congratulations to all past and present group members who have made great contributions!

First N3C Award for Katalin Barta

Katalin Barta received the first N3C Award for her outstanding achievements in the field of catalysis. The purpose of the N3C award is to recognize excellent work in catalysis and chemistry carried out by an early career PI. The award is intended to give the next generation of talented catalysis researchers working in the Netherlands an extra encouragementand bring them in the spotlight of catalysis communities in the Netherlands and abroad.

Announcement: First N3C Award for Katalin Barta | News articles | University of Groningen

Interview in ChemCatChem: Katalin Barta – 2019 – ChemCatChem – Wiley Online Library

ERC Starting Grant Awarded to Barta Group

Dr. Katalin Barta of the Synthetic Organic Chemistry group (Stratingh Institute for Chemistry) has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million EUR. During this research, she will develop novel, fully sustainable catalytic methods for the conversion of renewable resources to industrially relevant bulk and fine chemicals. The approach combines several disciplines including homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis in order to address key fundamental challengesin the field. The ERC Starting Grant enables researchers to establish their team to further develop their research lines.

Announcement: Sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and chemicals in the making. | About us | University of Groningen