Category: Standardisation, LCA, labelling and regulatory hurdles

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/

P2GreeN project

P2GreeN project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 30/11/2026

Closing the gap between fork and farm for circular nutrient flows

Converting human sanitary waste into bio-based fertilisers Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilisers are important for plant growth. However, excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in the environment result in pollution of the air and water. The EU-funded P2GreeN project will develop new circular governance solutions for the fork-to-farm framework to eliminate N & P pollution. The project will focus on circular nutrient flows of N & P by connecting the blue urban with the green rural infrastructures. P2GreeN will implement and demonstrate innovative N & P recovery solutions based on human sanitary waste from urban settlements and its conversion into safe bio-based fertilisers for agricultural production. The project will test the solutions in three pilot regions on a north-south trajectory

Anita Beblek, Project coordinator, agrathaer: anita.beblek@agrathaer.de

website: https://p2green.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

INNOPROTEIN project

INNOPROTEIN project

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

New Sustainable Proteins For Food, Feed And Non-Food Bio-Based Applications

By 2050, with the global population expected to reach 10 billion, producing sustainable, high-quality protein becomes a pressing environmental, economic, and social challenge. The EU’s “protein gap”, importing 70 % of protein-rich crops and 90 % of soybeans, adds urgency to the quest for new, nutritious, and eco-friendly protein sources that cater to diverse markets.
InnoProtein will deliver new products for food, feed and non-food based applications that meet end-users’ needs and expectations. By using under-exploited and unexplored protein sources, including microalgae, fungi, bacteria and insects together with new advanced techniques for protein extraction, the project will contribute to reducing the EU protein gap and the pressure on natural resources.
The experienced consortium will provide an eco-business model, proving the economic availability of the solution and the social and environmental benefits. To improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of the protein extraction, InnoProtein will adopt a circular and zero waste approach by using the residual biomass and the streams of protein production processes to obtain bioplastics and biostimulants.

Giacomo Sini: giacomo.sini@eufic.org

website: https://www.innoprotein.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/

CHEERS project

CHEERS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/08/2026

Producing novel non-plant biomass feedstocks and bio-based products through upcycling and the cascading use of brewery side-streams

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.

CHEERS is a new biorefinery concept, inspired on nature biodiversity (insect and microbial platforms), to sustainably and efficiently upgrade underused or waste side-streams such as bagasse, wastewater, CO2 and CH4 from bio-based industries into innovative bio-based products. CHEERS will help bio-based industries to improve their feedstock use efficiency and overall sustainability and competitiveness via upcycling and cascading use of biomass produced from their side-streams. CHEERS is developed as a modular solution where bio-based industries can configure their optimal combination by selecting among 5 novel biotechnological routes which generate 5 bio-based products for industrial applications, with attractive market opportunities: insect protein, disinfectant, microbial protein, ectoine and caproic acid. All value chains are based on new bioprocesses and/or innovative biofermentors combined with sustainable downstream processes, which will be validated at demo-scale at an industrial brewery. A min. 45% carbon footprint reduction will be achieved in each value chain. The evaluation of CHEERS impacts will consider go beyond the classic LCA and will cover broader impacts such as biodiversity and land use. The beer company MAHOU is project coordinator and exploitation leader jointly with 11 partners of 5 European countries, including technology suppliers, end-users and research entities. CHEERS will contribute to a “zero waste” biorefinery approach, fully aligned with the EU Green Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan and Bioeconomy Strategy, and foster the understanding of biotechnology-based value chains through the engagement of relevant actors, from small bio-based industries to consumers.

Contacts:

Andrea León Tarife: andrea.leon@innovarum.es

website: https://cheers-project.eu/

Model2Bio project

Model2Bio project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 27/07/2024

MODELLING TOOL FOR GIVING VALUE TO AGRI-FOOD RESIDUAL STREAMS IN BIO-BASED INDUSTRIES

Every year, 41 million tonnes of food are wasted in the European Union during processing. This affects the economy, the environment and our communities. Transport, treatment at waste sites and landfilling drive up management and operational costs, while rotting food at landfills emits greenhouse gases.

What is considered waste and discarded, often still contains industrially valuable compounds. Model2Bio will develop a predictive model to help agri-food companies identify, select and reuse organic waste streams. To identify the most economic and environmentally friendly solutions for waste streams, the model will consider stream composition, volume, transformation as well as logistics, business cases and social aspects. The project started in May 2020 and will run until October 2023.

Behind this EU-funded project are think-tanks, research centres, technology developers, universities, industry (mainly small and medium-sized businesses) and clusters from across Europe.

Contacts:

Tamara Fernández, Coordinator: tfernandez@ceit.es

website: https://www.model2bio.eu/

STAR4BBS project

STAR4BBS project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/08/2025

Sustainability Transition Assessment Rules for Bio-Based Systems

STAR4BBS is a three-year multidisciplinary and multi-actor collaborative project, involving six partners, four associated partners and one linked third party. The overall aim of STAR4BBS is to maximize the potential of Sustainability Certification Schemes (SCS) and labels to support a successful transition to sustainable bio-based economy. At the core of the STAR4BBS project is the development of indicators and a new monitoring system for assessing the effectiveness and robustness of existing international and EU SCS, B2B labels, and related traceability systems applicable to biological feedstock and bio-based materials and products. This information will create the foundations to support achieving the much-needed harmonization between schemes and transparency in global and EU trade flows. Through the developed new monitoring system, existing SCS and labels will be analyzed, and the results, as well as additional research on certified and uncertified trade flows and on the impacts and costs and benefits of certification and labels, will substantially increase understanding of the potential of these schemes to contribute to policy and industry sustainability goals and will build awareness of the differences between the schemes. The project will involve important stakeholders (including scheme owners, policy makers, and industry) in the design of research and the monitoring system and in the development of practical recommendations emerging from the research and analysis in order to ensure that the project achieves its ultimate goal. In particular, an increased uptake of the most effective SCS and labels by the biobased industry will support the development of circular, climate-neutral, sustainable biobased systems that will mitigate climate change, increase resource efficiency, preserve and restore ecosystems, biodiversity, natural resources, and the quality of air, water and soil.

Contacts:

Luana Ladu – Project Coordinator: Luana.ladu@tu-berlin.de

website: www.star4bbs.eu

BlueRev project

BlueRev project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/08/2025

Revitalisation of European local communities with innovative businessmodels and social innovation in the blue bio-based sector

The aim of the EU-funded BlueRev project is to encourage innovation in local communities by focusing on “blue” sustainability and creating positive environmental impacts.

To that end, it will establish three pilot regions in Europe, where it will focus on introducing meaningful changes across specific value chains in the blue bio-based sector.

The project will employ existing or advanced monitoring systems to assess the effectiveness of the value chains and come up with ways to improve governance frameworks and business models in the blue bio-based sector.

Engaging all relevant actors via awareness-raising communication campaigns, BlueRev will promote socially and environmentally responsible behaviour, facilitating the transition of local communities towards sustainable blue economy models that can be adopted across Europe.

Contacts:

Alessio Livio Spera: spera@apre.it
Claudia Iasillo: iasillo@apre.it

website: https://www.bluerevproject.eu/

3-CO project

3-CO project

Posted on by Louis Ferrini
This project ends on: 31/01/2026

Concise Consumer Communication through Robust Labels for Bio-based Systems

The aim of the 3-CO project is to develop and demonstrate viability of a supportive framework for Label and Certification Schemes (LCS) on Business-to-Consumers (B2C) communication for industrial bio-based products (BBPs) that enables and supports consumers to make more sustainable buying choices.

The supportive framework will consist of actionable guidelines for LCS owners that reflect consumers’ and other stakeholders’ needs, digital solutions to support better-informed decision-making processes of consumers as well as policy recommendations on deploying social measures.

In terms of approach, 3-CO will

  1. assess the LCS and metrics in the bioeconomy,
  2. iteratively engage consumers to understand their decision-making processes and motivation towards sustainability consumption, and needs and requirements towards future labelling of BBPs,
  3. co-develop smart digital solutions for consumers to support their behavioural change towards responsible consumption,
  4. assess measures for social engagement/innovation supporting consumers, industry and public bodies to switch towards socially and environmentally responsible behaviour, and
  5. create guidelines for the design of labels for BBPs for owners of environmental labelling and information systems, public authorities and industry designers.

The project aims to improve the sustainability performance and competitiveness in the bio-based systems.

Impact of the 3-CO project will include

  1. improved transparency of BBP value chains and information to consumers and public authorities through digital solutions,
  2. support of environmentally responsible decision-making through LCS,
  3. improved understanding of metrics on environmental, societal and economic value generated by BBPs, and as a wider impact
  4. innovative governance models.

3-CO will help to increase the market share of sustainable, circular BBPs, influencing the business of companies that make and offer these.

Contacts:

Kaisa Vehmas: kaisa.vehmas@vtt.fi

website: not available