The Process industry is a key player within the value chains of multiple industry sectors. These value chains are based on highly interconnected production chains, which are technically and economically aligned by the customer requirements and regulatory frameworks. Within these production chains a significant amount of processes is embedded into interrelated chemical systems. These chemical systems face increasingly demanding industrial drivers like decarburisation, enhanced process flexibility, improved product quality and increasing demands in Health Safety & Environment. These drivers result in a cross industrial change request, which shall be enabled by new solutions, approaches and technologies, such as Digitalisation. Joint efforts are required to effectively address the underlying fundamental technological questions of transnational value chains. The new competence Centre Chemical Systems Engineering (CHASE) will develop and apply beyond state of the art generic scientific methods and tools to meet carefully selected industrial needs at three levels of the manufacturing processes: starting materials, production processes, and process data.

CHASE comprises three research areas (1) Process Digitalisation, (2) Process Intensification, and (3) Circular Process Streams. CHASE is located at the JKU campus in Linz and sites of TUW in Vienna. This decentralized concept will provide access for the centre to existing research facilities of university partners with highly specialised state of the art competence, research equipment and scientific methods, and it will enable the Centre set up own R&D capacities in a mid- and long-term. The consortium of the planned competence Centre CHASE consists of 24 company partners and 14 scientific partners. The company partners are arranged along value chains covering, (1) processing of diverse raw materials from virgin to renewable and recycled sources, (2) providers of hardware and software solutions to applicants of machinery and software, (3) efficient production from large-volume-low price to small-volume-high-price products. The scientific partners are renowned experts in materials chemistry, chemical engineering, process analytical chemistry and physics, biotechnology and process modelling, offering a comprehensive range of technical and scientific equipment. Out of the 14 scientific partners, six come from Austria the other eight are international partners. These international partners bring in supplementary competence and support the centres ambitions strategy to establish a strong international foothold. Setting up the Centre CHASE will complement the Austrian innovation eco system by facilitating process related interdisciplinary research and thereby providing cross-sectorial industrial benefits.