Developing a bio-based economy is a worldwide strategy to address the global challenges of dwindling fossil energy reserves, environmental pollution and climate change in the light of a growing world population. Biocatalysis is one of the key technologies to address this complex task helping to produce sustainable raw materials and energy supply from biomass while at the same time taking responsibility for the world’s food supply. Biotechnological products already find application in chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry and the developing bio-economy is expected to create new processes and products and new job opportunities. To face the enormous and diverse challenges of our time bridging the gap between research and markets of the future is particularly important. The successful concept of biocat is due to an interdisciplinary approach integrating the know-how of well acknowledged biologists, biochemists, chemists and engineers from academia and industry offering a platform for forming strategic alliances for future projects. Scientists from all over the world are invited to the 7th International Congress on Biocatalysis 2014 (biocat2014) to be held from August 31st to September 4th, 2014 at the Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany. Since 2002 the biocat conference series have been organized, which focuses on the rapidly evolving fields of biocatalysis and industrial biotechnology. The preceding International Congresses on Biocatalysis were held in Hamburg, Germany, every two years and attracted more than 2200 participants from over 35 countries.
