Strengthening EU Biofuels Research – VERDEDRIVE Secondment at Fırat University
- Valentina Rangelova
- Oct 10
- 1 min read

The VERDEDRIVE project team from the University of West Attica (Greece) successfully conducted a secondment from 16 July to 15 September 2025 at Fırat University (Turkey). The secondment was part of the Horizon MSCA Staff Exchanges program, coordinated by Prof. Ioannis Sarris and supervised on-site by WP2 Leader Dr. Betül Çiçek Özkan.
Early-career and experienced researchers from both universities — Kostas Moustris, Sofia Peppa, Panagiota Pimenidou, Dr. George Sofiadis, George Spyropoulos, Betül Çiçek Özkan, Turan Gürgenç, Melek Güner, Ezgi Gürgenç, Gülbeyi Dursun, and Fahrettin Yakuphanoglu — expanded their expertise in sustainable biofuel production, exchanged knowledge on green diesel technologies, advanced catalyst development for selective deoxygenation (SDO), and focused on data visualization and KPI development to support reproducibility and future performance modeling.
Using Fırat University’s state-of-the-art facilities, the team gained hands-on experience in catalyst characterization and experimental best practices, strengthening the capacity of both universities to develop scalable and sustainable green diesel solutions, in line with the EU Green Deal and Europe’s future industrial and energy transition goals.
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