Category: Bioeconomy Education

Brilian project

Brilian project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/05/2027

Cooperative business models for bio-based chains in rural areas

BRILIAN has been conceived to support the adoption of circular and sustainable cooperative business models in rural areas and enable a better transition to bio-based economies, playing a pivotal role in revitalizing these regions and fostering sustainable economic and social development, making primary producers active actors of the supply chain.

BRILIAN will implement a multi-actor approach for the validation of a group of Actions for the Bio Innovation, seeking to:

  1. Forge robust rural bio-communities
  2. Increase circularity and sustainability
  3. Promote the integration of short supply chains
  4. Produce value-added bioproducts

These Actions for the Bio Innovation will validate ten bio-based value chains starting from cardoon, safflower, and sunflower (in Italy), potato (in Spain), and rapeseed (in Denmark) as raw materials and will develop sustainable and circular business models encompassing a wide range of high-value-added bio-products, such as bioplastics, biolubricants, proteins, bioadhesives, bioherbicides, products for animal feed or the cosmetic sector. This will allow primary producers to diversify their income while reducing risk.

BRILIAN is an ambitious four-year project with a budget exceeding 6 million euros, co-financed by the Circular Bio-Based Europe (CBE) joint initiative under the European program for innovation and research ‘Horizon Europe 2021-2027’ (HE). The project involves 13 entities from 6 different countries: Spain, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Greece, including 3 large companies, 3 SMEs, 3 research organizations, 2 clusters, and 2 associations.

Contacts:

Olga de Blas (D&C Area): Odeblas@clusterfoodmasi.es
Maider Gómez (Project coordinador): mgomez@fcirce.es

website: https://brilian.eu/

BioBeo project

BioBeo project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/04/2025

Innovative education for the bioeconomy

BioBeo introduces new thinking and approaches in education on the circular bioeconomy across Europe. While strategically overcoming the institutional and cultural barriers to implementing relevant circular bioeconomy education programs in preschool, primary, and secondary schools, we are defining and delivering novel curricula in schools. Our aim is to enhance young people’s and citizens‘ involvement in policy-making for bioeconomy.

BioBeo is a two and a half-year project with 15 partners with the aim to develop and deploy an education programme to enhance engagement across society regarding lifestyle, circularity and bioeconomy, using 5 bioeconomy themes:

  • Interconnectedness
  • Outdoor Learning
  • Forestry
  • Life Below Water
  • The Food Loop

Partners are committed to promoting the bioeconomy concept and will co-create and co-deliver the programme. BioBeo will provide better coordination between bio-science and education in schools by developing the Circular Economy Science-Society message with a particular focus on circular lifestyle and behaviours, and a governance framework on society-wide engagement in bioeconomy policy. BioBeo addresses social issues such as gender bias, disadvantaged youth groups, migrants and members of society with additional needs.

Tom Curran: tom.curran@ucd.ie

website: https://www.biobeo.eu

PRIMED project

PRIMED project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/12/2026

Redesigning the Primary Sector for Maximizing Bioeconomy Development

The PRIMED Project PRIMED will co-create innovative forms of cooperation to integrate primary producers in novel bioeconomy value chains with a multi-actor approach. To do so, PRIMED will develop novel CBMB to produce high-value bio-based products through advanced biorefineries and will demonstrate them in five Living Labs (LLab) where end users can access to finance through open calls. PRIMED will also empower multi-actors to co-design a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate the bioeconomy, with an Open Access knowledge hub and toolkit (PRIMED digital toolbox).

Peuker Steinhäuser Vivian: vivian.peukersteinhaeuser@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

website: https://www.primed-project.eu

BIO2REG project

BIO2REG project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/12/2026

Enabling transition towards circular and systemic BIOeconomy model regions by a Regions-to-Regions approach

A sustainable bioeconomy is essential for achieving the goals of the Green Deal. However, implementing a regional bioeconomy comes with various challenges. Bioeconomy model regions offer a systemic approach to transitioning to sustainable development. The EU-funded BIO2REG project aims to help greenhouse gas-intensive economies unlock their bioeconomy potential by moving towards model regions. The project will encourage interregional exchange and cooperation, providing regional stakeholders with a conceptual framework for regionalisation in model regions. This involves mapping best practices in a circular and sustainable bioeconomy, assessing bioeconomy potential, offering mentoring and training, forming transition alliances, and making policy recommendations. The project adopts a multi-actor approach by collaboratively creating tools and guides with regional stakeholders and engaging with regions through guided on-site exchanges.

Denise Gider: d.gider@fz-juelich.de

website: https://bio2reg.eu/

BIORADAR project

BIORADAR project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/06/2026

Monitoring system of the environmental and social sustainability and circularity of industrial bio-based systems

BioRadar project aim to help organizations, policy-makers and investors have the necessary information to step towards a more sustainable bio-based economic model with an information and self-assessment platform for bio-based industries.BioRadar proposes the simple, objective, and quantitative Bio-based systems Transition Indicators (BTI) framework. The project develops a one-stop digital solution including AI-benchmarking and analytics platform, a flexible and user-friendly self-assessment tool, a regulatory tracker tool, and an innovative multidimensional performance measurement scorecard. The framework and digital tools allow industries, investors, and policymakers to assess the circularity, environmental sustainability, and social aspects of bio-based products and services with just a few clicks.

Emad Yaghmaei: ey@yaghma.nl

Shiva Noori: sn@yaghma.nl

website: http://www.bioradar.org/

GenB project

GenB project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/04/2025

Informing and educating young people on more sustainable behaviours and choices to build a future Generation informed and interested in Bioeconomy

GenB aims to raise the Generation Bioeconomy aware on environmental issues co-creating innovative approaches in cooperation with young people, parents, teachers and other formal and non-formal education professionals. GenB widely communicates and engages the society, create synergies with other projects and initiatives, consolidate the GenB education model, produce policy recommendations targeting Ministries of Education and other policy makers.

Objectives:

  • Co-create approaches and tools through the cooperation between children, parents, teachers and other education professionals, to provide educational and informational toolkits;
  • Raise awareness of students at all stages on the environmental, social and economic benefits of sustainable and circular bioeconomy and its sectors;
  • Increase interest among new generations to join education and training on bioeconomy, create new ways of attracting talent in the life science, technology and the bioeconomy opportunities;
  • Maximise the project’s impacts towards behavioural and socio-economic changes by sparking multipliers and GenB networks and ensuring exploitation of project’s outcomes

Contacts:

Chiara Pocaterra: pocaterra@apre.it

website: https://www.genb-project.eu/

 CIRCULAR BRICKS project

 CIRCULAR BRICKS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Circular Bioeconomy for improving agrifood VET institutes’ teachers’ skills and competencies

Biotechnology has the potential to reduce the impact of human activities in nature. By developing new bio-based production platforms towards a more efficient use of waste streams, a step forward in industrial circularity can be achieved.

To help train and educate the new generation of bioeconomy professionals with the necessary hard and soft skills, we need to rethink and improve our current educational model for the bioeconomy. This is the long-term ambition of Circular Bricks. Across Europe, some initiatives have already been put in place. However, there seems to be a lack of generalized and consistent schemes, especially with regards to the VET field. In order to address these needs, Circular Bricks will train VET teachers from the agri-food sector in order to make them able to educate their students (i.e. the future generation of circular bioeconomy professionals) with the necessary green skills which are required by the current and future industries operating in the European circular bioeconomy.
The project will develop innovative pedagogical material on circular bioeconomy related topics for VET teachers, keeping a train-the-trainer approach. Specifically, involved teachers will be provided with a thorough and practical approach to circular bioeconomy principles and their implementation in the agri-food sector, as well as with efficient tools for holding effective design thinking sessions and preparing learners to become true agents of change. At the end of the project, both teachers and students will have acquired new green skills and competencies, thus adding “circular bricks” to their know-how.

Contacts:

Piergiuseppe Morone: piergiuseppe.morone@unitelmasapienza.it

website: https://www.circularbricks.eu/

Engage4BIO project

Engage4BIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/09/2025

Better understanding, intensified engagement, training and development in regional bio-based systems

Engage4BIO will strengthen circular, sustainable bioeconomy and sustainable regional development through engaging quadruple helix actors – taking into account their diversity of societal, economic and cultural perspectives from five regional bio-based systems in processes of design thinking, co-creation, (re)training and skills development. Based on their regional specificities (availability of biomass feedstock, level of technology, planetary boundaries and social capital) activities will be co-created, performed and shaped to their best advantage for each region.

Contacts:

Dr. Maria Schrammel: schrammel@zsi.at

website: www.engage4bio.eu

BIOLOC project

BIOLOC project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/09/2025

Biobased and social innovation to revitalise European local communities

BIOLOC project is funded by European Commission, and it promotes social innovation and inclusion as enabling factors to accelerate the transition to circular bioeconomy and thus contributes to revitalizing local communities in 12 European regions in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. Through extensive interdisciplinary research and cross-sectoral analyses, BIOLOC will elaborate on concepts and solutions that will trigger positive cascading effects on communities by fostering a participatory and inclusive approach to develop resilient innovative biobased activities open to the contribution of socially disadvantaged or marginalised groups. In this way it will deliver innovative and inclusive business models and drive the establishment of permanent public-private multistakeholder hubs to pioneer a social trialogue on innovative and inclusive circular bioeconomy as a leveraging factor for sustainable and resilient local communities.

Contacts:

Mr. Peter Canciani, Project Manager: canciani@cei.int

website: https://bioloc.eu/

SCALE-UP project

SCALE-UP project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/08/2025

Concepts, tools and applications for community-driven bioeconomy development in European rural areas

The overall goal of SCALE-UP is to support regional multi-actor partnerships, consisting of private businesses, governments and policymakers, civil society organisations, and researchers in identifying and scaling-up innovative and sustainable bio-based value chains that build on regional resources.

Through its approach, SCALE-UP will adapt, implement and evaluate tools to help regional actors to overcome the apparent bottlenecks towards fully exploiting bioeconomy potentials in their region.

A four-phase methodology will:

i) establish existing knowledge and set the stage for further research, as well as create six regional platforms with local stakeholders;

ii) facilitate cross-regional transfer of knowledge and demand-driven capacity building, and provide support to multi-actor partnerships to carry out market assessments and business model designs;

iii) create a pan-European ‘Community of Practice’ to facilitate sharing good practices and lessons learned across European regions; and

iv) disseminate and exploit project results in collaboration with key stakeholders.

In addition to the focus on increasing capacity and knowledge on the bioeconomy among relevant actors in the regions, a key feature of SCALE-UP is the business development programme to be applied by the local communities.

With an emphasis on the principles of co-creation, transparency and open innovation, the project will provide advisory support to innovators and regional stakeholders to assess market conditions, elaborate business plans and identify compatible funding sources for 12 bio-based solutions.

Contacts:

Holger Gerdes: holger.gerdes@ecologic.eu
Zoritza Kiresiewa: zoritza.kiresiewa@ecologic.eu

website: http://scaleup-bioeconomy.eu/