Heterogeneous catalysis is considered one of the key technologies in prospective energy conversion scenarios. Yield, efficiency and lifetime of heterogeneous catalysts will become of utmost importance and the demand of novel high-performance catalysts fulfilling the above-mentioned criteria will rise tremendously. To cope with the prospective high demand for these functional solids, current catalyst development approaches based on empirical optimization may become insufficient and should be replaced by knowledge-based catalyst design strategies. [more]