Name: 17th CIFamily Meeting — greenCHEM
Start: 2026-09-28T17:00:00+0200
End: 2026-09-28T19:00:00+0200
Location: Charlottenburg-Berlin

Inside Out: From Industrial Insight to Curiosity-Driven Innovation Ecosystems.

The chemical industry is under unprecedented pressure to transform. Despite remarkable scientific expertise, significant investments, and a genuine commitment to sustainability, progress often falls short of the ambition. Why?

Drawing on years of observing the industry from the inside as a consultant and advisor, this keynote offers a different perspective: the challenge is not a lack of effort—it is the way innovation happens. Companies are designed to optimize, but the sustainability transition demands exploration. It requires questioning established assumptions, connecting disciplines and organizations, and creating space for ideas that don't fit within traditional boundaries.

This talk explores why breakthrough solutions are more likely to emerge from curiosity-driven innovation ecosystems than from any single organization alone. It argues that communities such as greenCHEM are far more than networks of start-ups, researchers, and industrial partners—they are environments where unexpected connections become new opportunities.

If the future of sustainable chemistry depends on expanding our collective imagination, then the most important innovation may not be a new technology, but a new way of discovering it.

Our Guest: Dr. Gerald Bode

Gerald Bode has more than 20 years of management consulting experience in the chemical and oil industries. After studying Chemical Engineering and Management (Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen) and earning a PhD from TU Berlin in collaboration with MIT and ETH Zurich, he developed a lasting passion for improving and accelerating research and development—an area that has become increasingly critical in addressing today's sustainability challenges.

As founder of cubeSphere, Gerald develops tools, methodologies, and knowledge frameworks that help organizations accelerate innovation and tackle complex transformation challenges. Alongside his consulting and advisory work, he serves as a mentor within the greenCHEM ecosystem and contributes to policy advisory boards and chemistry-related think tanks, helping to strengthen the conditions for start-ups and foster innovation-driven entrepreneurship.

His work sits at the intersection of industry, entrepreneurship, and innovation ecosystems, with a particular focus on accelerating the transition toward sustainable chemistry.

About the CIFamily

The community events called “CIFamily” aim to offer the scene of chemistry-specific founders a place for trusting exchange and learning from each other. “Learning from experts and alumni/ae, sharing and discussing your own experiences with other participants and supporting each other” is the common goal of the community. In order to achieve this, each event is dedicated to a topic selected by the founders, on which there are impulses, exchange and networking in a relaxed and open atmosphere.