Category: Bioeconomy Education

 URBIOFIN project

 URBIOFIN project

Project concluded

URBIOFIN project: Demonstration of an integrated innovative biorefinery for the transformation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) into new BioBased products

Due to the rapid growth of population, municipal solid waste (MSW) has contributed significantly to the total amount of waste generated by our society. Today in Europe, each habitant generates, in average, 0.5 tonnes of MSW per year, increasing at an annual rate of 10%. Around 40-50% of it correspond to organic waste. This organic fraction mainly contains carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, which are all useful raw material that can be converted to valuable products. Its valorisation will help to solve environmental pollution but also contributes to the transition from a linear to a renewable circular economy. Digestion and composting have contributed to the reduction of the biodegradable fraction of MSW sent to landfill. The low economical value of compost and biogas is limiting the sustainable implementation of separate sourcing systems since increasing citizen environmental (waste) taxes is then needed to tackle important logistic costs. New biobased products can help to improve waste treatment environmental and socioeconomical sustainability.

The aim of URBIOFIN project is to demonstrate the techno-economic and environmental viability of the conversion at semi-industrial scale (10 T/d) of the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) into: Chemical building blocks (bioethanol, volatile fatty acids, biogas), biopolymers (polyhydroyalkanoate and biocomposites) or additives (microalgae hydrolisated for biofertilisers). By using the biorefinery concept applied to MSW (urban biorefinery), URBIOFIN will exploit the OFMSW as feedstock to produce different valuable marketable products for different markets: agriculture, cosmetics. URBIOFIN will offer a new feasible and more sustainable scenario alternative to the current treatment of the OFMSW.

Contacts: Project Coordinator Ms Caterina Coll, caterina@perseobiotech.com

Mr Manolis Tsantakis, mdt@etam.gr
Founding source: Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) under the EU Horizon 2020 programme

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 UrBIOfuture project

 UrBIOfuture project

Project concluded

UrBIOfuture’s main goal is to bring Europe to the forefront of the bio-based industry, a sector in full growth that requires a high number of experts in its workforce. However, one of the challenges for its development is the educational gap between the professional profiles demanded by the sector and the existing educational offer. To bridge this gap is one of the main purposes of UrBIOfuture, which started on May 1st with the goal of boosting careers, new educational programmes and research activities. Since then, this initiative carried out research to map European educational programmes involving bio-based activities and to identify the skills mismatch between them and the bioindustry needs. In addition, it involved stakeholders from the education sector, academia and industry, it organised a series of events, and it elaborated a set of materials, all with the aim of setting the path for the industry to attract qualified talent.

Contacts: info@urbiofuture.eu and Ana Martinez: anamartinez@sustainableinnovations.eu

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 Transition2BIO project

 Transition2BIO project

Project concluded

An integrated package of activities for sustainable production and consumption

Production and consumption drive the economy. Global challenges like climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, coupled with a growing population, force us to seek new, sustainable ways of life that respect the ecological boundaries of our planet. The EU-funded Transition2BIO project is proposing an integrated package of activities addressing a wide range of stakeholders (demand side, supply side, multipliers and supportive environment). It will valorise and exploit sectoral communication tools and activities, raise public awareness of bioeconomy and contribute to the transition towards more sustainable production through engagement and education activities. The project is also funding the activities of the European Bioeconomy Network, an alliance of more than 80 projects and initiatives promoting bioeconomy.

Contacts: Chiara Pocaterra: pocaterra@apre.it

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 MPowerBIO project

 MPowerBIO project

Project concluded

Europe’s bioeconomy strategy addresses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into vital products and bioenergy. The industry is leading in innovative and sustainable solutions, but SMEs face challenges as regards investments. To address this issue, the EU-funded MPowerBIO will create an online platform with digital tools for evaluating and training skills, enabling SME readiness for investment. It will hold 10 train-the-trainer sessions for 90 European bioeconomy clusters. The aim is to improve capacity to support SMEs in the high-quality preparation process of presenting their projects to investors. The best SMEs will be selected to compete in two final events. In addition, 72 ready-for-investment SMEs will be selected and rewarded during the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum.

Contacts: Britt Sandvad (coordinator) Food & Bio Cluster Denmark: bs@foodbiocluster.dk

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 BLOOM project

 BLOOM project

Project concluded

The main objective of this project was to establish open and informed dialogues, co-created by European citizens, the civil society, bioeconomy innovation networks, local research centers, business and industry stakeholders and various levels of government including the European Commission. For that BLOOM established five regional hubs (communities of practice) that allowed for an iterative process involving different stakeholders through various cycles of value development, enabling cross-fertilization and idea generation through shared knowledge and experiences.
The interactions aimed to (a) raise awareness and knowledge on bioeconomy by enabling open and informed dialogue throughout the bioeconomy innovation processes (b) build up and strengthen a bioeconomy community, (c) gain a common understanding of the concept, providing reliable insights into bioeconomies, its practices, benefits and implications (d) foster learning and education. With that, the project supported the reduction of existing barriers towards a bioeconomy and stimulated bioeconomy activities at the regional and EU level.

The webpage will stay active until December 2025 providing for example guidelines on co-creation and engagement, a quiz on bioeconomy,  several videos and pod-casts and the BLOOM school box which entails learning scenarios for STEM classes (primary and secondary level education) in 6 different languages, co-created and tested by teachers and questions frequently raised at outreach activities are listed and answered. Check it out: https://bloom-bioeconomy.eu

Contacts: Maria Schrammel: schrammel@zsi.at
Judith Feichtinger: feichtinger@zsi.at

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 BIOWAYS project

 BIOWAYS project

Project concluded

Despite significant economic investment and dedicated research in the bio-based domain, public awareness of the potential benefits of bio-based products and applications is still relatively low.
The need to raise awareness of this potential and promote the benefits of these products and applications is clear. We also need to provide the means for anyone with an interest in this domain to be able to follow ongoing developments in the industry and from research.

The Bioways Project objectives are to:

  • understand the characteristics and potential of bio-based products and applications;
  • to enhance the visibility of bio-based products and applications;
  • to encourage discussion about the potential of the bio-based economy for society and contribute to awareness of it and its promotion;
  • to increase awareness and knowledge of how bio-based products are used and the overall interest of young students in the bio-based economy at large.

Contacts: Iakovos Delioglanis: delioglanis@qplan.gr

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 BIOVOICES project

 BIOVOICES project

Project concluded

BIOVOICES is a 40 months project aiming at engaging all relevant stakeholder groups “voices” (policy makers, researchers, the business community and the civil society) in order to address societal, environmental and economic challenges related to bio-based products and applications.
The platform developed by BIOVoices builds on the concept the concept of Mobilisation & Mutual Learning Platforms (MML) and methods developed previously in European projects with the ultimate objective of delivering an Action Plan addressing the challenges of raising awareness of and engaging with the citizens on the bio-based products.

1) Define a framework for MML by reviewing barriers and opportunities for the development of bio-based value chains, identifying stakeholders and expected benefits from mutual learning and mapping bio-based products based on stakeholders’ interests.

2) Launch the BIOVoices multi-stakeholders community and social platform to support and enable discussion, workshops, mobilization and mutual learning events.

4) Improve framework conditions for new bio-based market opportunities including action plans and processes, by involving in more than 70 co-creation events, at European, National and Regional level more than 4.000 experts.

5) Transform the experience of the BIOVoices community in Actionable Knowledge for the different stakeholders, publishing recommendations and policy briefs (at least four) to address the challenges related to bioeconomy.

6) Ensure that the BIOVoices outcomes will have an impact on the different stakeholders, though and early impact, dissemination, communication and exploitation strategy.

The BIOVoices Consortium merges a variety of complementary expertise, aiming to build a consistent multi-actor approach integrating 12 partners from 10 EU Member States from Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean area to central and eastern European countries.

Contacts: Chiara Pocaterra: pocaterra@apre.it

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 BIOSWITCH project

 BIOSWITCH project

Project concluded

With a turnover value of €2.3 trillion and accounting for 8.2% of the European Union’s workforce, the bioeconomy is a central element to the success of the economy overall, and brand owners delivering bio-based products and bio-based packaging are one of the main drivers to boost it. However, brand owners are often reluctant to invest in taking a bio-based approach due to perceived risks and uncertainties, and to a lack of adequate support from the innovation ecosystems. BIOSWITCH aims to encourage and support them to switch to bio-based approaches by hosting a set of communication actions and events that will allow shaping solutions to mitigate brand owners’ perceived risks. Furthermore, the project will develop a toolbox that will allow to assess the brands’ bio-based maturity level and assist their owners in the transition journey. The project will focus on four regions that will serve as model demonstrators: Andalusia (Spain), Denmark, Finland, and Flanders (Belgium).

Contacts: Anna Tenhunen (Project Coordinator CLIC Innovation Ltd): anna.tenhunen@clicinnovation.fi
Jeisel Goyanes (Sustainable Innovations (SIE) and BIOSWITCH Dissemination and Communication Manager): jeiselgoyanes@sustainableinnovations.eu

Project contact: info@bioswitch.eu

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 BioEcon project

 BioEcon project

Project concluded

The overall objective of BioEcon is to develop, extend and fully unlock the research potential of IUNG in accordance with the new global strategies trends and changes in national needs through the creation of an excellent international and interdisciplinary department on bio-economy and systems analysis. The knowledge, experience, developed tools, research programme and collaborations will allow the institute to maintain the new unit in the institute also after the completion of the ERA Chairs project, it will operate in close cooperation with the rest of the departments of the Institute, with main purpose being regional development in line with knowledge-based bio-economy. This structural change in IUNG is a response to an identified need and potential on the national level and will receive the support of public authorities, industry and other research structures.

Contacts: Magdalena Borzęcka: mborzecka@iung.pulawy.pl

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