Category: Uptake of RTD results

C4B project

C4B project

This project ends on: 31/12/2027

Circular Bio-Based Business models to create high-value Bio-based products in integrated value chains

Primary production in agriculture and forestry represents an essential part of the European circular bioeconomy. However, the involvement of primary producers in circular bio-based economy is still limited, and the benefits are in most cases not fairly distributed along the value chain, to the disadvantage of primary producers. Fair and sustainable business models that create opportunities for rural entrepreneurship and develop new forms of successful rural business are therefore needed. The purpose of C4B is to accelerate the development of rural communities and their economic viability by developing new fair and sustainable business models for different agricultural and forestry value chains. C4B business models will be designed to balance the share of power and profits across novel biobased value chains and to enhance the cooperation among farmers, foresters and industry. This project will advance the understanding of bio-based value chains by carrying out a holistic analysis of different case studies in EU that considers technology, business environment, primary producers’ behaviour, contractual agreements and ownership, and sustainability. By providing financial support to third parties via Open Call, C4B will demonstrate the applicability, scalability and replicability of the new business models in different business settings and geographical areas, eventually stimulating the uptake of the new business models. Joining forces with complementary and trans-disciplinary stakeholders from agriculture, forestry and industrial sector, the C4B consortium will define key R&I priorities to be implemented by means of the coming EU funding programmes to support the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, as well policy recommendations to advise Member States for implementing realistic and effective national CAP Strategic Plans that entail bioeconomy interventions.

Contact:

Francesco Sottile: francesco.sottile@pnoinnovation.com

website: https://www.c4b-project.eu/

RBRF project

RBRF project

This project ends on: 30/09/2028

Small-scale Circular Green Biorefineries for increasing farmer sustainability and competitiveness and building resilient rural areas

Rural BioReFarmeries brings together farmers, industries and other partners across Europe, to demonstrate a farmer-centred bioeconomy model aimed at maximizing the potential of Europe’s vast grasslands. The project will demonstrate a novel small-scale, decentralized, rural green biorefinery value chain, which addresses the limitations of existing green biorefineries. This small-scale decentralized model places farmers at the centre of the biomass value creation close to their farms, allowing them to co-produce inputs for their farms, with additional high value-added intermediates and products, which will be further developed in collaboration with centralized facilities and downstream industry partners. The model provides a practical implementation of the bioeconomy among a large farmer cohort and builds on the existing farm enterprises and cooperative structures of our partners, enabling collaboration, scale-up, market access, and building synergies across primary and industrial sectors. The project advances state-of-the-art for green biorefinery in terms of operational model, logistics, processing, product development and assessment methods, which collectively deliver a more sustainable and profitable model for farmers and rural communities. The model will serve as a blueprint for farmers to sustainably diversify into the bioeconomy, reducing their farm emissions while creating new products which displace unsustainable alternatives in a range of agri-food markets. Rural BioReFarmeries model will be replicated to diverse regions of Europe, supported by the development of inclusive business models and hands-on training among multi-actor groups and communities in regions of high potential. The project represents a highly replicable model for Europe’s abundant grasslands, helping farmers to deal with sustainability and profitability challenges while helping rural communities to become more resilient while realizing the potential of their local bioresources.

Contact:

Giulia Pastor: refarm@australo.org

website: https://ruralbiorefarmeries.eu/

LAB Biofine project

LAB Biofine project

This project ends on: 31/05/2027

LAB Biofine

LAB Biofine is a bold innovation and development platform for the bioeconomy. We help companies turn bio-based ideas into sustainable business through agile piloting, cutting-edge research, and international collaboration. Our activities are centred around a pilot plant based on pressurised hot water extraction and deep eutectic solvents, with advanced separation capabilities.

Contact:

Dr. Antti Kapanen, Specialist for International Networks: antti.kapanen@lab.fi

website: http://www.biofine.fi/

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project

This project ends on: 31/05/2027

Turning urban waste streams into added-value products

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON presents a first-of-a-kind flagship biorefinery designed to valorise the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and Sewage Sludge (SS) into high-added-value end and intermediate products, including coating of direct consumer products, coating of mechanical moving parts, coating of plastic moulding tools, biodegradable and compostable waste bags, green graphene-based devices and products, biodegradable soil mulch films, solid organomineral fertiliser with biostimulant properties and liquid biobased biostimulant.

Contact:

Cristina Garcia-Vera (Project Coordinator): info@circularbiocarbon.eu

website: https://circularbiocarbon.eu/

LUCRA project

LUCRA project

This project ends on: 30/06/2027

Sustainable succinic acid production using an integrated electrochemical bioreactor and renewable feedstock

LUCRA will exploit the EUs underutilized and abundant, organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste and wood sidestream as feedstocks for the largescale production of platform building block biobased chemicals with significant industrial end-user interest using a circular bioeconomy biorefinery approach.
It will provide optimized and scaleable breakthrough first of a kind innovative technology to create a step change from pilot to large scale integrated fermentation with novel electrochemical extraction of succinic acid that will facilitate its industrial implementation, business models and market feasibility. To fit the needs of the industrial level, LUCRA will optimize the hydrolysis process of the different feedstocks to obtain efficient cellulose and hemicellulose conversion. Enzymatic cocktails will be demonstrated aiming to maximize hydrolysis of fermentable carbohydrate content with low inhibitors production. The crude sugar-rich hydrolysates will be used as fermentation feedstock in an electrochemical membrane bioreactor for efficient extraction and production of SA. To demonstrate the produced SA that will be able to compete directly their fossil-based counterparts from petrochemical processes, different polyurethane dispersions and resins will be produced at semi-industrial scale.

Contact:

Tanja Meyer: tanja.meyer@bbeu.org

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

Bio4HUMAN project

Bio4HUMAN project

This project ends on: 30/06/2026

Identifying bio-based solutions for waste management applicable to humanitarian sector

As the solid waste management crisis is growing in its urgency, humanitarian aid practitioners are faced with the question of how to manage environmental challenges linked with aid that is being shipped across various humanitarian settings. One of the sound solutions how to address this challenge is to open up a streamline of cooperation between humanitarian aid operators and the bio-based sector allowing them to explore the application potential of bio-based products, systems, and innovative technological solutions. Bio4HUMAN aims to contribute to the identification of bio-based solutions for solid waste management that have the potential to be applicable in various humanitarian settings. To achieve this goal, Bio4HUMAN will conduct a scoping exercise that will come up with a list of solutions but also identify existing supply chain gaps. Following that, it performs life cycle assessments of the proposed solutions and evaluates their applicability with regard to socio-economic and governance aspects. To explore if solutions fit the purpose of key solid waste management stakeholders and to explore the possibility of their acceptance by the community, local businesses, and local authorities, Bio4HUMAN conducts a feasibility evaluation process in 2 African locations. Simultaneously, the project will develop a replication roadmap that will contribute to the future replicability of the solutions identified. Altogether, all of the Bio4HUMAN’s actions will help to improve ways of addressing waste management challenges under humanitarian contexts and to the reduction of waste littered in the environment. In the long run, Bio4HUMAN is expected to contribute to the development of innovative and sustainable value chains that will benefit consumers and citizens in Europe and beyond.

Contact:

Andrea Motola: Andrea.ratkosova@enspire-science.com

website: https://bio4human.eu/

Brilian project

Brilian project

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

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/

BIORADAR project

BIORADAR project

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/

 BlueMissionMed project

 BlueMissionMed project

Project concluded

SUPPORTING THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA BASIN FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU MISSION RESTORE OUR OCEAN AND WATERS

BlueMissionMed will Inspire, Inform, Assess, Mobilise, Connect and Empower all the actors that can Take a Role in preventing and eliminating pollution in the Mediterranean sea and waters.

The BlueMissionMed Coordination and Support Action (CSA) will design, structure and support a well-functioning basin scale innovation ecosystem, ensuring fast progress towards the achievement of EU Mission “Restore Our Oceans and Waters by 2030” objectives and important impact on the society.

The project builds on, connect and structure existing initiatives and activities to disseminate and upscale solutions and mobilise relevant actors with the specific aim of addressing the Objective 2 of the Mission, namely “prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters”.

BlueMissionMed will engage stakeholders from Policy, Business, Research&Innovation and Civil Society, as well as the so-called Ecosystem Enablers to synergize the actions of the Mission Lighthouse in the Mediterranean basin.

Specifically, the project will support the development and deployment of transformative innovative solutions in all forms: technological, social, business, governance by:

  • BOOSTING A WELL-FUNCTIONING BASIN SCALE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM ATTRACTIVE TO INVESTORS AND BUSINESSES
  • FACILITATING COHERENCE, ALIGNMENT AND MONITORING OF EU, NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLICIES, INITIATIVES AND ACTIONS ONGOING THE MEDITERRANENAN BASIN
  • PROVIDING TECHNICAL SERVICES, GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS MODELS TO SUPPORT AND GUARANTEE A SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEDITERRANENAN BASIN
  • ENSURING ENGAGEMENT OF ALL STAKEHOLDERS, INCLUDING THE SOCIETY AT LARGE, THANKS TO A ROBUST AWARENESS RAISING AND CITIZEN SCIENCE APPROACH

Contacts:

Fedra Francocci: coordinator@bluemissionmed.eu

website: https://bluemissionmed.eu/