Climate change will require concerted innovative ideas and actions at the local/regional level. A sustainable European bioeconomy will not only ensure the protection of the environment and biodiversity, but will also drive the renewal of European industries, the modernisation of primary production systems and lead to the creation of jobs, particularly in rural areas, through the active participation of all regional stakeholders in their local bioeconomies. RuralBioUp project will strengthen the cooperation among regional key actors and knowledge holders, empowering them to establish an inclusive and long-lasting ecosystem (the RuralBioUp Regional Hubs) to support the mainstreaming of bio-based business models in rural areas. In particular, RuralBioUp will establish 9 Regional Hubs (30 stakeholders per Hub) in 6 EU countries, that will co-design and implement 9 Action Plans on 18 value chains. Regional Hubs will be empowered by RuralBioUp's partners with mentoring, coaching and training activities in the implementation of their Action Plans. Thanks to this, at least (a.l.) 1.000 innovators will be supported (through networking events and study visits) and a.l. 50 new collaborations fostered (e.g. partnership agreements between companies and/or farmers, solutions funded, etc.) to adopt small-scale bio-based solutions in rural areas. The project will leverage synergies between existing EU networks (EuBioNet, BioEast, etc.), clusters, and regional organisations and will build upon previous research results (Power4Bio, BE-RURAL, Enabling, Transition2Bio, Biovoices, etc.) by integrating and extending the existing knowledge and data in order to propose different rural business models and new bio-based value chains in the targeted regions, through the realisation of a digital tool (the RuralBioUp One-Stop-Shop) supporting regional actors to take science-based and informed decisions.

The overall goal of BE-Rural is to realise the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting relevant actors in the participatory development of bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps. BE-Rural will investigate the particular characteristics of the selected regions at a macro level, as well as existing best practices and business models geared towards the bioeconomy. This higher-level analysis will aid in the assessment of the 'bioeconomy potential' of the selected regions. This work will set the foundation for the implementation of a series of regional Open Innovation Platforms to kick-start the co-creation process, bringing together key stakeholders from academia, policy, business and civil society to develop ideas and capitalise on this bioeconomy potential. Activities will include research & innovation capacity building workshops, educational seminars and webinars, summer schools, and Bio-based Pop-up Stores. Building from this, the proposed 'Network of Knowledge' will aim to share knowledge and lessons learned from the Open Innovation Platforms at an inter-regional level, further disseminating best practices, closing the information gap on issues related to sustainability, and increasing capacities of regional authorities and stakeholders.

Livestock farming is a crucial pillar of the rural economy in Europe. However, it also causes pollution with a significant impact on air quality and climate change. Europe annually produces over 1.4 billion tonnes of manure, with cattle contributing 75%, and pig and chickens representing 12% each. Livestock is by far the main primary European sub-sector responsible for NH3 (~1.5Mt/y) and CH4 (~166Mt/y) emissions. Despite many efforts in the past decades, current manure management and disposal on farmland as fertilizer still poses significant pollution problems such as soil degradation, eutrophication of surface waters and pollution of groundwater. In this vein, new opportunities are foreseen for small-scale biorefineries, which have the potential to provide diversification opportunities to the rural actors. In this context, ManuREfinery aims at deploying a smart, modular, mobile and sustainable small-scale decentralised biorefinery that will convert livestock manure into added value biobased feed (microbial protein, caproic acid, protein-enriched grass cake) and bioingredients (sodium nitrate, ammonium bicarbonate, p-rich ashes) for fertilisers. The Manurefinery solution exhibits high scalability/replicability potential by integrating: 1) Advanced thermo- and bio-chemical modular and mobile feedstock conversion units. 2) Digital twin and data science for multicriteria decision making and process optimization, upscaling and replicability. 3) Sustainability (economic, social, environmental) and circularity assessment framework. 4) Strategies to boost the engagement of livestock stakeholders and enhance social acceptance of the solution. 5) New, sustainable and replicable business models for income diversification in the livestock sector. ManuREfinery will be demonstrated at TRL 6-7 in 2 pig farms (Romania and Spain), 1 cow farm (Slovenia) and 1 poultry farm (Romania), thus fostering the transition of CEE regions towards a sustainable bieconomy.