greenCHEM MasterClass

Innovation Management

From Insight to Impact: Framing Challenges for Sustainable Innovation

From internal problems to external solutions—frame the right challenges and collaborate effectively.

A hands-on, practice-oriented workshop for industry professionals who want to move from understanding sustainability and green chemistry to clearly framing actionable innovation challenges.

Across the chemical and downstream industries, sustainability goals and green chemistry insights are becoming increasingly concrete and relevant. Many organisations are therefore at a point where the next step is not more knowledge, but clearer structure: how to translate existing insights, ambitions, and ongoing initiatives into focused innovation challenges that can be pursued internally or together with external partners.

This workshop focuses on exactly this transition. Rather than delivering a lecture or developing technical solutions, the course is designed as an interactive working session. Participants learn how to frame the right problems—turning sustainability ambitions, technical questions, and business constraints into clearly defined, actionable challenges using structured, proven methods.

Led by an innovation management expert, the workshop combines short methodological inputs with hands-on group work, peer feedback, and practical examples. Challenges and cases are drawn from participants’ own organisational contexts or from adapted best-practice and simulated examples, ensuring that the workshop works regardless of prior experience with formal challenge formats. By the end of the day, each participant leaves with a concrete, well-framed challenge that can be taken forward within their organisation or explored further through collaboration.

The course also provides insight into how well-framed challenges can be further developed within the greenCHEM ecosystem, illustrating one possible pathway from challenge definition to structured innovation and collaboration—while keeping the main focus firmly on participants’ own takeaways and next steps.

Key Benefits

• Turn sustainability goals and green chemistry insights into concrete, actionable innovation challenges.
• Learn structured methods to analyse and frame complex technical, regulatory, market, or ESG-driven problems.
• Work in an interactive workshop format with immediate application, discussion, and feedback.
• Build a shared language between technical and non-technical roles for more effective collaboration.
• Reduce uncertainty in innovation initiatives by clarifying scope, expectations, and feasibility early on.
• Leave with a tangible result: a well-defined or semi-defined challenge relevant to your own role and organisation.

Program

10:00–10:15 | Welcome & Course Framing

• Objectives of the day and expected outcomes

• Positioning of the course within the Further Education Series

• From insight to impact: why challenge framing matters

10:15–11:30 | Problem Analysis & Challenge Framing Workshop

• Interactive introduction to structured methods and simple criteria for identifying, analysing, and framing real-world problems as innovation challenges (technical, regulatory, market, ESG, organisational)

• Short inputs and illustrative examples showing how technical and non-technical perspectives approach challenge framing (using internal best practices or adapted/simulated examples where needed)

• Immediate application of frameworks to real or realistic cases from participants’ organisational contexts

• Guided group work and peer feedback in mixed teams to iteratively refine challenge articulation

• This session is explicitly designed as a hands-on workshop, not a lecture.

11:30–12:30 | Interactive Workshop I: Analysing Real Problems

• Deepening problem analysis and clarifying assumptions

• Identifying drivers, constraints, and objectives

• Peer exchange across roles and backgrounds

12:30–13:15 | Lunch Break 13:15–14:30 | Interactive Workshop II: Challenge Statement Development

• Drafting structured, actionable challenge statements

• Defining scope, success criteria, and collaboration needs

• Iterative refinement with expert and peer feedback

14:30–15:30 | Collaboration, Risk & Next Steps

• Exploring options for internal and external collaboration

• Practical discussion of feasibility, risk, and evaluation criteria

• Short introduction to greenCHEM and its challenge-based formats as one possible pathway

15:30–16:00 | Reflection & Takeaways

• Presentation of drafted or semi-final challenge statements

• Reflection on learnings and individual next steps

• Course wrap-up and feedback

Who should register?

This workshop is designed for cross-functional industry professionals who want to move from understanding sustainability and green chemistry to actively shaping innovation topics.

Ideal for:

• R&D and technical managers

• Sustainability & ESG professionals

• Innovation and transformation leads

• Product and process owners

• Procurement and supplier innovation roles

• Participants of Course A or B who want to move from understanding to action

Participants typically come following sectors: manufacturing, chemistry, automotive, packaging, electronics, FMCG, and related sectors. Other sectors are also welcome.

This course can be taken as a stand-alone offering; however, it is especially recommended for participants who have completed one of the basic courses. The Basic Course for Non-Chemists - Enabling Better Choices, is taking place on 9.3., provides an excellent foundation and will help participants gain even more value from this course. More information can be found here.