A set-up for fast parallel preparation and testing of catalytic materials is presented. A commercial synthesis robot is used for automated parallel preparation of catalyst libraries. An adapted method for the synthesis of supported multicomponent catalytic material by sequential impregnation of an alumina support with different precursor solutions is described, It is shown that the catalytic performance of the materials prepared with the synthesis robot is comparable to manually prepared materials. In testing materials for the oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes to olefins a 64 multi-channel ceramic reactor module was used being connected to a fast GC/MS analysis. The reactor module is suitable for parallel testing of heterogeneous catalysts for various gas-phase reactions close to conventional laboratory conditions. Reliability and efficiency of the reactor are illustrated for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane and ethane.