Category: Projects

 BIOSWITCH project

 BIOSWITCH project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
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

Website

 BioSTEP project

 BioSTEP project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The bioeconomy holds potential solutions to important challenges of the future.

The social, economic and environmental impacts associated with its products and processes, however, will require extensive dialogue processes on the future development of the bioeconomy.

For this purpose, BioSTEP will apply a three-tier approach which aims at reaching all relevant actors in the bioeconomy domain, particularly policy makers, various stakeholder groups (scientists, business, non-governmental organisations, etc.), and citizens.

Tailored communication tools, including workshops, conferences and exhibitions, will be developed for each target group in order to maximize outreach and to facilitate active engagement in public debates on the bioeconomy.

At a regional level, a ‘living lab’ approach will be applied and tested, which facilitates the involvement of public-private networks of stakeholders in bioeconomy-based innovation and business model development processes.

Contacts:

Laura Griestop: l.griestop@biocom.de
Holger Gerdes: holger.gerdes@ecologic.eu
Zoritza Kiresiewa: zoritza.kiresiewa@ecologic.eu

Website

 BIOrescue project

 BIOrescue project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

OBJECTIVES

The BIOrescue project aims to provide a solution by creating a novel biorefinery concept for mushroom compost, transforming it into valuable bio-based products such as bio-pesticides, biodegradable nano-carriers for drug or fertiliser encapsulation, and bio-based horticultural fertilisers.

The concept will be developed for a conventional mushroom farm in Ireland that will be retrofitted to become a sustainable and efficient biorefinery. To strengthen the competitiveness of the novel biorefinery concept, project partners will conduct economic and environmental impact assessments of the newly developed processes and bio-based products.

EXPECTED RESULTS

BIOrescue will contribute to the emergence of a circular economy in Europe by recovering the vast majority of mushroom compost and reducing disposal costs for farmers. The bio-based products it develops, which are capable of replacing many fossil-based alternatives currently on the market, will also generate a new income stream for mushroom producers.

Contacts:

Inés del Campo: idelcampo@cener.com
Bénédicte Julliard: b.julliard@greenovate-europe.eu

Website

 Biorefinery Glas project

 Biorefinery Glas project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Overview

Biorefinery Glas is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Operational Group funded by Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.  Led by the Institute of Technology, Tralee, Biorefinery Glas has a total of 5 partners including the Barryroe Co-operative, the Carbery Group, GRASSA B.V. and University College Dublin. Biorefinery Glas is a first demonstration of small-scale biorefinery in Ireland, supporting development of new business models and farmer diversification into the circular bioeconomy. Biorefinery Glas is a first step towards changing the role of farmers in the bioeconomy, from suppliers of biomass to producers of finished and semi-finished products.

Objective

Biorefinery Glas aims to improve the sustainability, value and resource efficiency of Ireland’s livestock sector through farmer diversification into the bioeconomy. The project will demonstrate a replicable small-scale biorefinery with farmers in the West Cork Region. Through biorefining, perennial ryegrass is fractionated into a variety of new products in a process which improves the protein efficiency, value and sustainability of our grasslands.

Approach

The biorefinery approach converts freshly harvested grass into a range of products, including; an optimised cattle feed fibre, a non-GMO protein concentrate feed for monogastrics, a high-value sugar stream of fructo-oligosaccharides and a grass whey for fertiliser or bioenergy applications. The project targets a 40% increase in usable protein per hectare. The project also expects to achieve a 25% reduction in nitrogen emissions in cattle excrement, with additional emissions savings through displacement of soybean feed imports with a grass-based monogastric feed. The project also demonstrates and evaluates an innovative business model for farm diversification into the circular economy and supports farmers with a range of knowledge exchange and dissemination activities. The experiences of participating farmers will be documented through our Digital Storytelling Initiative for the Bioeconomy.

Contacts:  James Gaffey: james.gaffey@staff.ittralee.ie

Website

 BIOREGIO project

 BIOREGIO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BIOREGIO boosts bio-based circular economy through transfer of expertise about best available technologies and cooperation models.
AIMS

  • improving knowledge related to circular economy of biological streams i.e. bio-based circular economy
  • increasing recycling rates of biological materials e.g. food waste/biowaste, municipal and industrial sludge and agricultural residues
  • transferring expertise about: a) cooperation models, e.g. ecosystems, networks, administrative cooperation,
    b) best available technologies, e.g. bio refinery, biogas production

ACTIVITIES

  • joint development of policy instruments
  • defining best practices of bio-based circular economy: cooperation models and best available technologies

ACTIONS

  • regional stakeholder group meetings
  • interregional events: roundtable discussions, seminars and site visits
  • policy briefs, expert papers
  • regional dissemination events

RESULTS

  • six improved policy instruments
  • regions will be better equipped to implement new technologies and cooperation models in order to move towards bio-based circular economy
  • increasing professional capacity among stakeholders
  • raising public awareness of bio-based circular economy

Contacts: Susanna Vanhamäki: susanna.vanhamaki@lab.fi

Website

 BIOREG project

 BIOREG project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BioReg project proposes to create a platform of stakeholders who are able to influence and develop their regions towards bio-based industries and products.

Demonstrator case studies have been selected among European regions – Gothenburg, (SE); Karlsruhe, Baden-Wurttember (Ge), Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna (IT), North West England (UK) and Vorarlberg and Syria, Austria. Those have set up renewable wood waste-based systems at different stages of the waste wood value chain including different wood waste source, pre-sorting, sorting, collection, recycling and wood waste treatment (to materials, biochemicals or biofuels) as well as the different gradings and regional wood waste composition in each country.

3 recipient regions were selected for this project in regards to their unused waste wood potential: Normandy (France), Lublin (Poland), Andalucia (Spain).

The BioReg platform will function on two levels. On the EU level: best practices in terms of strategies and technologies as well as implementing mechanisms will be shared with the beneficiary recipient regions on the project and disseminated to many other potential regions in the EU (EUBIA). The platform will will encourage the collaboration of members and stakeholders on the European level. On the regional level: the best practices will be replicated in the three beneficiary regions. The proposal offers collaboration with regional existing clusters, constructive dialogue with regional authorities and policy makers, industrial and RTD establishments in the recipient regions. It will mobilize the recipient regions to develop the existing potential for industrial innovative projects and build bio-based ecosystems. Industries, regions and investors will be brought together to establish an efficient dialogue so that demand and supply can be aligned and large impact projects can be realized.

The project proposes mechanisms to engage the stakeholders in collaboration also after the EU funding on BioReg is over.

Contacts: Dominique Boulday: boulday@ceden.fr

Website

 BIOPEN project

 BIOPEN project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Nowadays, the center of the bio-based economy is the development of integrated value chains removing sector barriers, where market and product innovations are driven by societal needs and vision of brand owners, and require the collaborations between different sectors through new bio-based value chains (from feedstock to products), also establishing co-operations throughout industry clusters.

Open innovation has been identified as the major driver to perform innovation through the flow (in and out) of knowledge, technologies and competences, for organisations to design, plan, and implement market and product innovations as well as to establish sustainable partnerships joining forces with customers, feedstock suppliers, academia, and financial sector.

In BiOPEN a consortium highly specialized in the bio-based industry, composed by five European bio-based clusters, three open innovation expert companies, and one research centre, will embark on an ambitious programme to support collaboration and knowledge sharing in the bio-based industry, stimulating the set-up of co-innovation partnerships for the development of new products and markets in the sector.

BIOPEN ambition is to become a single voice for the bio-based industries in Europe, gathering expertise and promoting engagement and involvement of industry, researchers and academia at European and national level, by setting up an Open-innovation platform addressing strategic cross-cutting challenges such as (i) clustering and networking to develop new value chains and favour the emergence of co-innovation partnerships across the value chains; (ii) Stakeholders engagement and support with regards to setting-up at least 20 co-innovation partnerships alongside existing and new value chains; (iii) creation of a knowledge centre collecting the prospective and insight of the community, and providing access to relevant information for markets and products innovations in the bio-based ecosystem.

Contacts: Patrizia Circelli: p.circelli@cioatech.com

Website

 BioMonitor project

 BioMonitor project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The overall objective of the Monitoring the Bioeconomy (BioMonitor) project is to establish a sustainable data and modelling framework for the bioeconomy.

This will be achieved by developing and implementing a data and modelling framework that is effective (supported by a stakeholders’ platform) and robust (implementable in existing systems of statistical and customs offices, laboratories and industries).

The framework will enable quantification of the bioeconomy and its economic, environmental and social impacts in the EU and its Member States. Interlinks with current CEN standardisation work related to bio-based products will be established from the outset of the project.

The contributions of BioMonitor are threefold.

  • First, the project will close the data gaps in measuring the bioeconomy by updating and enhancing currently used data sets. BioMonitor will assure the inclusion of new emerging bio-based products and industries by developing appropriate tools and strategies.
  • Second, the improved data will be used to enhance established and new modelling tools, linked in the BioMonitor toolbox, to guide industries and governments responsible for the execution of consistent, coherent and longer term strategies with desirable consequences for multiple objectives.
  • Third, a BioMonitor platform for stakeholder engagement and training will be created to design, test (by industry-based and country-level case studies) and disseminate results of the improved datasets and modelling capacity.

The platform will inform the formulation of strategies and policies directing the bioeconomy to achieve its economic, environmental and social policy objectives according to the EC Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan. The awareness about the importance of measuring the bioeconomy within the industry will be raised through tailored training on bioeconomy standards and measurement of sustainability indicators targeted towards SMEs within the sector.

Contacts: Justus Wesseler: Justus.Wesseler@wur.nl

Website

 BioLinX project

 BioLinX project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BioLinX will bridge research and innovation efforts in the bioeconomy by building three large clusters in Europe and initiating within them a range of powerful linking and innovation acceleration processes. The BioLinX partners have leading roles in the bioeconomies of South West Netherlands and Flanders, the Nordic Countries and Northern Italy and in the lignocellulose, agro- and agro-waste feedstock sectors.

The partners are all pioneers of systematic innovation management and cluster acceleration practices and between them have leading roles in over 45 current or recent collaborative bioeconomy projects. From this strong starting point they will select sixty or more FP7 and Horizon 2020 biobased projects from all stages of the value chain, form the BioLinX clusters and develop among them brokerage, collaborative innovation and business acceleration dynamics.

Specific objectives are:

  1. Selecting and scouting more than 60 high potential bio-economy projects,
  2. Developing a network of key regional bioeconomy clusters (i.e. RIS3 regions or equivalent) covering 3 geographical regions (north, central, south),
  3. Analysing, clustering and focusing selected FP7 and H2020 projects as well as the network of RIS3 bio-economy regions,
  4. Implementing the Innovation Linking & Support Programme consisting of activities focusing on Brokerage and Innovation incubation, Business development, finance and funding, Identifying and sharing good practices and Advocacy, communication and dissemination.

Contacts: Dennis van der Pas: d.vanderpas@rewin.nl

Website

 BioHorizon project

 BioHorizon project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

BioHorizon is a network of specialised NCPs (National Contact Points) for Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, within the scope of the Societal Challenge 2 (SC2) “Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy” and the Key Enabling Technology (KET) “Biotechnology” (KET-B). The network consists of officially appointed Food Security National Contact Points (NCPs) and Contact Points in International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC CPs), coordinated by the Instytut Podstawowych Problemów Techniki Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IPPT PAN) in Poland.

The mission of BioHorizon is to facilitate transnational cooperation within the network of BIO NCPs with a view to identifing and sharing good practices in order to improve general standard of support to programme applicants taking into full consideration the diversity of stakeholders and actors involved in SC2 and KET Biotechnology.

Contacts: Bożena Podlaska info@ncp-biohorizon.net

Website