Ana Luísa Machado, MSc research fellow at LSRE-LCM, and Joana Pereira Ramos and Rafael Couto Carneiro, PhD students at LSRE-LCM, presented the innovation proposal “Accelerating Photocatalyst Discovery for More Sustainable Chemicals and Fuels” at ALiCE Connect 2026, where they were awarded the Best Pitch Prize in the thematic area of Digitalisation, AI, and Process Innovation.

The concept brought together the diverse research experiences of each group member by combining a multimodal machine learning framework with in-lab synthesis and testing of new photocatalysts, aiming to close the loop between digital and experimental catalyst discovery. This idea marks an important step towards innovation, and we look forward to its future achievements.

Mariana Branco Soares Felgueiras, PhD Student at LSRE-LCM/ALiCE, presented the project “From Cement Waste to Fuel: Transforming CO₂ into Methanol and Ethanol”, developed in collaboration with Ana Rita Querido, also a PhD Student at LSRE-LCM/ALiCE, and they were awarded the Elsevier Pitch Presentations – Energy & Decarbonization Prize at the ALiCE Connect 2026 Ideas Competition. This project brought together the main research themes from Mariana and Rita's doctoral theses, culminating in a collaborative effort to explore innovative approaches to carbon use and the production of sustainable fuels.