When it comes to the energy transition, there has to be the right chemistry. This makes it possible to store electricity from the wind and sun in fuels and base materials for chemical production and also to use CO2 for this purpose. However, the corresponding chemical compounds can only be produced efficiently with the right catalysts; these are, however currently still in short supply. In the now officially opened Max-Planck-Cardiff Centre on the Fundamentals of Heterogeneous Catalysis (Funcat), three Max Planck Institutes and the Cardiff University have joined forces to pursue new paths in catalyst research which rely, among other things, on artificial intelligence. As a test case for the new approach, the researchers are developing reaction accelerators that convert CO2 into useful substances.