"The urgency to identify and develop sustainable and timely solutions for our future society has become clearly demonstrated due to the alarming trends in global energy demand, the finite nature of fossil fuel reserves, the need to dramatically curb emissions of greenhouse gases to mitigate the devastating consequences of climate change, the damaging volatility of oil prices (in particular for the transport sector) and the geopolitical instability in supplier regions.In this regard, I started to work since my postgraduated studies in to find alternative and greener methodologies in terms of materials preparation, production of biofuels (which can partially meet the future expected needs of our society in terms of energy for transport), (photo)catalysis as a greener alternative for the production of chemicals and energy as well as biomass and waste valorisation. Biomass from plant is the most important feedstock for food, feed and non-food applications. In the processing of plant materials e.g. wood for paper, substantial amounts of potentially valuable by-products are produced.In this regard, the host organisation, Avantium Chemicals BV, explores unique bio-refinery concepts on novel routes for C6 carbohydrates conversion using nanomaterials.The main objectives are:1)To develop a range of new multifunctional catalysts (e.g. based on mesoporous silica materials with controlled acidity and metal nanoparticles loading), through synthesis, using a combination of novel techniques2)To screen their reactivity using model reactions3)To develop an approach for testing selected catalysts using real feeds from e. g. the pilot plant4)To optimise the reaction conditions (with emphasis on the reduction of energy consumption aand waste production), evaluation of the catalyst stability.5)To integrate my knowledge and experience in heterogeneous catalysis into the Avantium R&D environment.In order to achieve these ambitious goals, I will use an interdisciplinary approach."