Inorganic hydrates such as calcium-silicate-hydrate, abbreviated C-S-H, are “wonder” materials exceedingly rich in terms of potential applications that can be produced in almost any shape or form, cheaply and in large quantities right across the world from local and sustainable resources. C-S-H is the “glue” of cement, itself the glue of concrete, material with enormous economic impact. But C-S-H and other hydrates are also used as a filler in paper and in polymer composites, as dental filling materials, for waste water treatment in fertilizers and as insulation and encasement materials including for nuclear waste.
C-S-H is the main phase controlling the performance of cement-based materials. These materials are so widely used that their production is the leading industrial source of greenhouse gases, contributing about 8% of global CO₂ emissions despite very low emissions per kg. Engineering C-S-H growth for faster strength development and for improved performance, such as water transport that affects C-S-H durability, is key to further lowering the CO₂ impact of construction.

ERICA, a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 – Marie Skłodowska-Curie – Innovative Training Network programme, is an innovative, five-nation project straddling materials science and engineering, physics and chemistry in diverse areas of experimentation and computational modelling.
The overarching aim of the ERICA project is to understand how to engineer hydrates at the nanoscale and to enable improved engineering applications. Read more…

About CASH II

Another way to reduce CO₂ emissions is to partially replace Portland cement by Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) such as blast furnace slag, fly ash, silica fume or calcined clays. However, these SCMs cause changes in C-S-H composition.
CASH II is a Swiss-Danish research project investigating the effect of aluminum, potassium and sodium on the structure and solubility of C-S-H, using innovative experimental methods and computational modelling. Read more…

Scientific Committee

Mohsen Ben Haha, HTC, Germany
Villiam Bortolotti, UNIBO, Italy
Paul Bowen, EPFL, Switzerland
Paola Fantazzini, UNIBO, Italy
David Faux, USurrey, UK
Christian Hellmich, TU Wien, Austria
Barbara Lothenbach, EMPA, Switzerland
Peter McDonald, USurrey, UK
Bernhard Pichler, TU Wien, Austria
Karen Scrivener, EPFL, Switzerland

Preliminary programme

Sunday, January 24, 2021

18:00-19:30 Registration at NH Hotel
19:30 Dinner at NH Hotel

Monday, January 25, 2021

08:00-18:00 Conference at PMA
18:30 Dinner at Level12 (PMA)

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

08:00-17:00 Conference at PMA
17:00 Visit of old town of Heidelberg & University

afterwards

Dinner at University or Headquarters of HeidelbergCement(tbd)

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

08:00-12:00 Conference at PMA
12:00 Farewell

Invited Speakers

Jürgen Adolphs (Porotec GmbH, Germany)
Natalie Alderete (Ghent University, Belgium)
Jean-François Barthélémy (Centre d’études et d’expertise sur les risques, l’environnement, la mobilité et l’aménagement (CEREMA), France)
Jean-Francois Dufrêche (Université de Montpellier, France)
Ippei Maruyama (Nagoya University, Japan)
Aslam Kunhi Mohamed (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Matthieu Vandamme (Université Paris-Est, France)
Colin Walker (Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan)
Mateusz Wyrzykowski (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland)

Call for Abstracts

If you are interested in giving an oral or poster presentation, please submit an abstract no shorter than 100 and not longer than 150 words online. The abstract should present a concise statement of the scope, principal findings, and conclusions of the presentation.

—>>> SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT HERE<<<—-

Deadline to submit your abstract: May 20, 2020

Notification of acceptance of your abstract: June 30, 2020

After acceptance of your abstract, you will be asked to submit a two-page abstract according to the template (word file)

Deadline to submit your two-page abstract: October 31, 2020

Registration and registration fees

Interested participants are requested to register online:

—>>> REGISTER HERE <<<—

Registration fees

Up to July 31, 2020
Early bird registration fee      590 €

After July 31, 2020
Regular registration fee         650 €

Deadline to register: October 31, 2020

Registration fee includes

• Sunday, Monday and Tuesday Dinner
• Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday coffee breaks, lunch and Conference room rental
• Sightseeing tour of Heidelberg Tuesday evening.

Cancellation policy

Cancellations must be submitted in writing

Up to October 31, 2020         full refund
Up to December 18, 2020     50% of fee
After December 18, 2020      no refund possible

Accommodation

The organizers have made pre-reservations at the following hotels for the period January 24-27, 2021. Participants are kindly requested to make their hotel reservations directly with the hotel.

Holiday Inn Express (www.hiexpress.de)

Address: Kurfuerstenanlage 23, 69115 Heidelberg

Please return filled-in reservation Form to heidelberg@fmhos.com

Single room incl. breakfast:

• Night Jan 24: 94 €
• Night Jan 25: 114 €
• Night Jan 26: 124 €

Deadline for reservation: Dec 12, 2020

NH Hotel Heidelberg (www.nh-hotels.com)

Address: Bergheimer Str. 91, 69115 Heidelberg

Please use the following link: www.nh-hotels.com/event/abk-technische-universitaet-wien-erica-konferenz-2021 or send an email to reservierungen@nh-hotels.com (reference 58321434)

• Single room incl. breakfast: 134 €
• Double room incl. breakfast: 150 €

Deadline for reservation: Nov 28, 2020

Qube Hotel Heidelberg (qube-hotel-heidelberg.de)

Address: Bergheimer Str. 74, 69115 Heidelberg

Please send an email to info@qube-heidelberg.de (code: Final ERICA conference)

• Single room incl. breakfast: 140 €
• Double room incl. breakfast: 170 €

Deadline for reservation: Dec 23, 2020

Important dates

Abstracts

• Submission of 150 words abstracts     May 20, 2020
• Notification of acceptance                    June 30, 2020
• Submission of two-page abstract        October 31, 2020

Registration

• Early registration deadline                   July 31, 2020
• Registration deadline presenters       October 31, 2020
• Conference dates                                  January 24-27, 2021

Documents

• Flyer (for print) [PDF] or Flyer (low resolution) [PDF]
• Preliminary Programme [PDF]

Conference Management

• Martina Pöll, TU Wien, Austria
• Ute Klötzer, HTC, Germany
• Marie-Alix Dalang-Secretan, EPFL, Switzerland

Further Information and contact

For further information on

• the ERICA project, please visit  the website www.etn-erica.eu
• the CASH II project, please visit the page cashii project

or

• write an e-mail to info@erica-etn.eu