Young Researcher Impact Award - Weiß

SUSFERT partner from BOKU, postdoc Renate Weiß, attended an award ceremony in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, on Thursday, 17 November, held by the Gesellschaft für Forschungsförderung Niederösterreich (GFF NÖ).

She was “completely surprised” to receive second place for the Young Researcher Impact Award from the Society for Research Promotion, Lower Austria (GFF NÖ). Her work was acknowledged for her impactful research on using a laccase enzyme technology with wood-based lignosulphonates as a substitute for environmentally harmful chemicals.

Renate Weiß speaking at the award ceremony. Copyright: Gesellschaft für Forschungsförderung Niederösterreich m.b.H./APA-Fotoservice/Haslinger. Fotograf/in: Markus Haslinger.

For the first time the Impact Award was given to doctoral students for their high impact research projects. Weiß’ doctorate, which can be seen below, was supported by SUSFERT under Horizon2020/Circular Biobased Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) funding, including the GFF NÖ which is an Austrian national funding body.

The award ceremony was covered by the Austrian Press Association APA-Science story.

The winners (l-r), Walter Kuba, pictured with the GFF NÖ Managing Director, Barbara Schwarz, Katharina Auer-Voigtländer and Renate Weiß. Copyright: Gesellschaft für Forschungsförderung Niederösterreich m.b.H./APA-Fotoservice/Haslinger. Fotograf/in: Markus Haslinger.

The APA Science story reported that first place went to Walter Kuba from the Vienna University of Technology who was awarded for his research on “masked active ingredients” that are selectively released on tumor cells which should lead to faster cancer diagnosis and better treatment for the disease.

Renate Weiß took second place for her research on enzymes as a substitute for environmentally harmful chemicals, while third place went to Katharina Auer-Voigtländer for her work on post-migrant living environments.

SUSFERT covered multiple blogs involving her work on the project which can be seen below: