Category: Regional potential, bioeconomy strategies and action plans

 ICT BIOCHAIN project

 ICT BIOCHAIN project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

ICT-BIOCHAIN is a project aiming to promote the adoption of ICT, IoT and industry 4.0. solutions to improve the efficiency of biomass value chains. In order to achieve this, it developed a platform to connect stakeholders in the bio-based industry with ICT providers, and it established two Digital Innovation Hubs, located in ready-made, test-bed bioeconomy regions: South-East Ireland and Andalusia (Spain). Leading experts and support networks developed region-specific bio-resource data models and provided access within these hubs to best practices, expert knowledge, and information.

Contacts: Ana I. Martinez: anamartinez@sustainableinnovations.eu  and info@ictbiochain.eu

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 GO-GRASS project

 GO-GRASS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Grasslands are important for land use in Europe, covering more than a third of the European agricultural area. Grasslands are also diverse in terms of management, yield and biodiversity value, providing forage and other key resources for Europe’s livestock sector. The EU-funded GO-GRASS project will create new opportunities in rural areas based on grassland and green fodder. These will be tested in four EU regions at small scale to ensure wide replication. Within a circular system, the project will develop business models that are circular, sustainable and suitable for remote areas with unexploited resources. The GO-GRASS consortium comprises a multidisciplinary team of 22 partners from 8 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Sweden).

Contacts: Philipp Grundmann (coordinator): go-grass@atb-potsdam.de
Natalie Höppner (communication & dissemination): nah@esci.eu

Website

 GoDanuBio project

 GoDanuBio project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

Danube regions and cities face major societal challenges regarding demographic change and brain drain. Rural exodus, loss of opportunities for youth and territorial imbalances are only the tip of the iceberg. However, Danube regions can make a change. A new beginning is possible through multi-level governance and stronger institutional capacities.

The bioeconomy potential of the Danube macro-region is vast. GoDanuBio advocates for the circular bioeconomy as a main tool to revitalize rural areas and establish rural-urban synergies from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. A way ahead is bioeconomising[1] clusters landscapes and value chains, and shaping innovation ecosystems. GoDanuBio inherits the results of DanuBioValNet project (2017-2019) and with a wider thematic scope focuses on participative governance and mutual learning to unleash transformation.

[1] The full deployment of the bioeconomy potential lies in the engagement and participation of all related-industries and stakeholders through the bio-based value chains. Missing gaps should be identified and integrated.

Contacts: Sergi Costa (Coordinator): costa@bio-pro.de

Teodora Atanasova (Communication): teodora.atanasova@brait.bg

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 ENABLING project

 ENABLING project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

ENABLING is the initiative of 16 partners in 13 EU and associated (IL, NO) countries. The main goal is to support the spreading of best practices and innovation in the provision (production, pre-processing) of biomass for the BBI (Bio-Based Industry).

In particular, ENABLING aims at creating appropriate conditions for the development of efficient biomass to BBPs (Bio-Based Products and Processes) value chains.

The consortium’s vision is that Europe bears a huge potential for optimising the supply of biomass into innovative bio-based processes and products.

Upscaling biomass production and pre-processing, and combining streams towards the BBPs with those of more traditional bioenergy chains would enhance at least three interlinked types of impact. a) biomass production gains scale to meet higher demand in both sectors (bioenergy and the BBI); b) the reinforcement of biomass supply for the BBI benefits smaller BBI players, helping them diversify and consolidate biomass input sources; c) reinforcing the biomass and BBPs linkages may contribute to job-creation, due to the increased need for specialised workers.

To realise such potential, ENABLING also anticipates its longer term exploitation pathways. In the intention of the consortium, the project should aggregate and engage partners for the establishment of a permanent innovation brokerage platform, likely to become in the future, one of the main marketplaces and innovation transfer accelerators at European level.

In this sense, the project organises its work around two building blocks: one relates to animating the stakeholders (on the farming and BBPs sides), identifying best practices, turning them into easy to access content (in the EIP format) for their potential users and providing stakeholders with coaching and guidance on innovation. The other one looks at future developments, with the consolidation, in a self-sustainable way, of the innovation brokerage platforms after the end of the EU funded initiative.

Contacts: Zusepe Elias Zidda: zusepe.zidda@euknow.eu

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 Danube S3 Cluster

 Danube S3 Cluster

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The Danube Transnational Programme is a financing instrument of the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), better known as Interreg. ETC is one of the goals of the European Union cohesion policy and provides a framework for the implementation of joint actions and policy exchanges between national, regional and local actors from different Member States.

The Danube Transnational Programme (DTP) promotes economic, social and territorial cohesion in the Danube Region through policy integration in selected fields.

In order to achieve a higher degree of territorial integration of the very heterogeneous Danube region, the transnational cooperation programme acts as a policy driver and pioneer to tackle common challenges and needs in specific policy fields where transnational cooperation is expected to deliver tangible results.

Considering its geographical coverage, this highly complex programme provides a political dimension to transnational cooperation which is unique in Europe, successfully facing challenges such as ensuring good mechanisms to contract partners who receive funding from different EU instruments.

The Danube Transnational Programme finances projects for the development and practical implementation of policy frameworks, tools and services and concrete small-scale pilot investments. Strong complementarities with the broader EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) are sought.

Contacts: Gilda Niculescu: programe@adrmuntenia.ro

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 CELEBio project

 CELEBio project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The level of activities of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) is not balanced throughout Europe.

This is particularly the case in ‘moderate/modest innovator’ countries according to the European Innovation Scoreboard.

This may be the result of insufficient knowledge of the potential for the bio-based industry in these countries, by actors in bio-based activities in these countries as well as by BIC.

Additionally, actors in these countries may not be fully aware of the opportunities offered by BIC and the Bio-based Industries Initiative.

The Central Europe LEaders in Bioeconomy (CELEBio) project will contribute with fact-based information and networking, which will represent a starting point for further expansion of the Bioeconomy in the relevant geographical area.

The main objective of CELEBio is therefore to contribute to strengthening Bioeconomy-related activities in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Slovenia through the elaboration of evidence-based Action Plans for each of the targeted countries, as well as through the dissemination of information on the opportunities offered by BBI.

To this end, the CELEBio project team will support the setting-up of a network of BBI info points (BBI Ambassadors). In order to set the grounds for further action in support of the uptake of bio-based technologies and facilitate matchmaking between stakeholders in research and industry, the CELEBio project team will map Bioeconomy stakeholders.

Contacts: Peter Canciani: canciani@cei.int
Olga Izquierdo Sotorrio: sotorrio@cei.int

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

 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

 BIOECO-R.D.I project

 BIOECO-R.D.I project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
Project concluded

The ADRION region has relevant unexploited potential of biomass from agricultural, fisheries and forestry waste and residues. The enterprises operating in such sectors are suffering serious delays in the green reconversion, multi-functioning, technology innovation, cross-sectoral integration. In this perspective, BIO-Economy represent a common smart specialization priority
BIOECO-RDI aims at developing a Regional Innovation System for the Adriatic-Ionian area based on a structured bio-economy sector though the development of Research Driven Innovation (R.D.I.) strategy at regional and transnational level
BIOECO-RDI will improve the situation:
– creating a collaborative network among Adrion regions, enterprises and academia for collaborative research, knowledge transfer and skills development
– supporting the enterprise and cluster in the transition process toward an industrial model with higher level of innovation and international collaboration
– boosting the integration between Green- chemistry and Agri-food cluster according with a circular economy approach
– creating an Adriatic-Ionian bio-based product market
– bridging the gap among the existing wide regional disparities
– activating a mutual learning process among regions with different levels of R.D.I. and bioeconomy business maturity
Project main outputs are:
-BIOECO-RDI regional and internazional strategies supporting regions in increasing bioeconomy RDI level and cluster maturity
Thanks to the full implementation of those outputs, it will be possible to integrate in a unique and consistent process, regions living different steps in the process of creation of regional bio-economy.
This process guarantees to the enterprises of the ADRION area to operate in a more advanced and integrated market, and to regional and national policy makers the needed support to develop effective policies based on circular economy approach.

Contacts: Diego Mattioli, d.mattioli@noesisonline.eu

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 BioEcon project

 BioEcon project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
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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