A new national research programme recognizes EPFL's expertise
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The Swiss Confederation launches six new National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs). The NCCR “Separations”, which aims to accelerate research in separation sciences - the quest for chemical and physical purity – and technology transfer to industry, is led by EPFL and includes School of Engineering researchers.
Separation technologies are the workhorses of modern society. Essential for isolating specific components from gas, liquid, or solid mixtures, they provide the purified water, food, and pharmaceuticals we consume, and the materials that go into our homes, cars, and electronic devices. Improving the performance of separation technologies is essential for addressing many global challenges, such as capturing CO₂ directly from the air, making ammonia production more energy-efficient, and recovering critical metals from waste streams.
The Swiss Confederation is today recognizing EPFL’s unique expertise in this field by supporting a new National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR). Led by EPFL professor Wendy Queen and co-directed by EPFL professor Kumar Agrawal, the new NCCR “Separations” seeks to develop new techniques in separation science and close critical technology gaps to help Switzerland achieve its sustainability goals, accelerate progress towards global climate neutrality and strengthen the Swiss economy through targeted innovation.
The new NCCR is one of the six new NCCRs launched by the Swiss Confederation to reinforce Swiss research and innovation activities in strategically important areas such as medicine, quantum technology and climate. During the initial operating phase from 2026 to 2029, the federal government will provide CHF 98.7 million in seed funding for these extensive research undertakings. Participating higher education institutions and research institutes will contribute additional funding at least equal to the amount provided by the federal government.
From fundamental research to industry
The NCCR “Separations” is guaranteed CHF 16.59 million in funding from the Confederation and 21.3 million Swiss francs worth of contributions from various Swiss institutions over the next 4 years with a maximum project duration of twelve years. Eighteen research groups from seven institutions, including six at EPFL, will contribute their expertise in materials science, chemistry, physics, computer science, and various engineering fields.
The support provided by Bern is intended to bridge the gap between research and industrial implementation, as many promising technologies fail to progress because they are not economically or environmentally viable. "The sobering reality is that bringing new technologies to market is a notoriously slow process, often taking two decades to go from initial invention to widespread commercial adoption”, explains Wendy Queen, Head of the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials. “In the face of urgent global challenges—from climate change to the energy transition—we simply cannot afford such delays. Our mission with the NCCR is not only to develop separation technologies that are fundamentally more cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable, but also to devise a novel approach to accelerate their translation from research to industrial implementation."
The research groups involved in the NCCR “Separations” are: Wendy L. Queen, Director (EPFL), Kumar Varoon Agrawal, Co-director (EPFL), André Bardow, Deputy director (ETH), Nicola Marzari (EPFL), Philippe Schwaller (EPFL), Nathalie Casas (EMPA), Mathieu Soutrenon (HES-SO), Christoph Müller (ETH), Ali Coskun (University of Fribourg), Manuele Margni (HES-SO). Paula Abdala (ETH), Michele Ceriotti (EPFL). Randall Snurr (Northwestern University), Arvind Rajendran (University of Alberta), Andreas Borgschulte (EMPA), Sandra Galmarini (EMPA), Florian Kiefer (EMPA), Rachel Huang (EPFL) and Anthony Straub (ETH).
The interdisciplinary research groups involved in the NCCR “Separations” intend to focus first on three main applications areas:
- CO2 capture from air: Developing scalable, cost-effective processes to efficiently remove atmospheric CO2.
- High-temperature ammonia separation: Creating novel high-temperature separation technologies to make ammonia syn¬thesis significantly more energy-efficient.
- Recovery of critical metals: Developing processes to recover valuable metals such as lithium and cobalt from waste streams, enabling secure and sustainable material cycles.
The researchers will develop specialized membranes and adsorbents – materials that selectively bind and separate substances at their surface. Its unique approach integrates material design from the outset with process modelling, cost analysis and environmental assessment, ensuring sustainable and economically viable solutions.
The 6th series of NCCRs is the result of a call for proposals and evaluation process launched by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) at the end of 2023. Acting on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), the SNSF scientifically reviewed over 75 proposals submitted in a multi-stage process. International experts assisted with the review process. Eleven projects deemed to be of outstanding quality were short-listed and sent to SERI as the competent authority. Following an assessment by SERI from a research and higher education policy perspective, and taking into account the available funding, the head of EAER decided to launch six new NCCRs.
National Centres of Competence in Research are intended to give rise to new lasting structures and maintain the excellence and international positioning of Swiss research activities. By their very nature, NCCRs adopt interdisciplinary approaches to scientifically, socially and economically relevant topics. NCCRs also play a key role in supporting early-career researchers and promoting women in science. They receive federal funding for a maximum period of twelve years. The federal government has used such programmes to support outstanding research of strategic importance since 2001.