BIOTRANSFORM provides European policymakers with an adequate assessment and policy development framework, knowledge base and expert support ecosystem to accelerate the transition from linear fossil-based systems to circular bio-based systems. It is therefore operating at the interface between the circular economy and the bioeconomy transitions. In this way, BIOTRANSFORM equips policymakers with the tools to set informed priorities that serve environmental, economic, and social goals, being actionable, future-proof, and align with supply-and-demand trends in related industries and value chains. BIOTRANSFORM’s “assessment package” will be tested by and provided for European policymakers, which will include 3 complementary tools: (i) resource flow analysis tool including circular innovations, (ii) a cutting-edge quick environmental, social and economic assessment tool, and (iii) a logistics management tool. To achieve this, BIOTRANSFORM develops and tests its framework to establish and roll out circular bio-based systems by applying a multi-actor approach around 6 regional cases: Andalusia (Spain), Northern Burgenland (Austria), Western Macedonia (Greece), Finland, Charles Spa Region (Czech Repulic) and North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). These regional case studies represent several important industries and scenarios for Europe such as: forestry, agri-food, lake ecosystems, lignite and minerals, and chemicals. Action roadmaps will consider specific regional available resources and infrastructures, conversion pathways, logistics, current policies, strategies, and access to finance. In other words, BIOTRANSFORM builds on the concept of regenerative bioeconomy value cycles by tapping into what is there already and connecting the dots. In this concept, carbon is stored and nutrients are recovered. This concept shall be upscaled and replicated to many further European regions to achieve Europe's ambitious goals.

Europe´s ambitious sustainability and climate goals are heavily relying on the transition from fossil-based to bio-based chemical building blocks. Lignin as abundant natural resource has substantial potential to serve as starting material for the production of functionalized aromatic compounds. Only 1-2% of the lignin annual production is used in chemical conversion. Critical challenge to overcome is the heterogeneous and complex nature hampering the full exploitation of isolated lignins. To address this challenge, COUNTLESS will demonstrate the first catalytic hydrogenolysis process operated in continuous mode at industrially relevant scale for the cost-effective and sustainable production of lignin-based platform chemicals. COUNTLESS will demonstrate the applicability and cost-effectiveness of lignin-based platform chemicals in a variety of end-use cases from bulk to specialty applications. This project is formed by key partners covering the whole value chain including feedstock suppliers, technology development experts, well-recognized industry players in the respective application fields, experts in dissemination, communication and exploitation, and experts in integrated sustainability, environmental, and techno-economic assessments. Revenue streams will result from licensing agreements and an increase in turnover and margin for COUNTLESS suppliers and application partners. We anticipate a positive NPV and IRR in 15 years of operation. COUNTLESS contributes directly to the CBE-JU SIRA and KPIs through the increased use of sustainably sourced biomass, reduction of GHG emissions through improvements in the pilot infrastructure (>50% reduction in GHG emissions and 85% using fully renewable supply) and the development of bio-based high-value products substituting current fossil-based compounds.

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.

The MPowerBIO project will obtain feedback from clusters, SMEs and investors on the concrete challenges they have regarding investments and build an online platform containing digital tools for evaluating investment readiness, as well as online training modules to build the capacity of clusters to train their SME members. The project will provide 10 training the trainers events for a total of 90 clusters across the bioeconomy, covering most of Europe, supported by the online platform. This will the improve the capacity of participating clusters to service their SME members, and allow them to test the learning on SMEs in a supervised manner, at a series of 10 regional events, helping the SMEs to prepare and present high-quality projects to investors. The best SME projects will be selected by investors, and invited to one of two European finals, which are based on the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum model, run by the consortium members. A total of 72 high-quality, screened and investment-ready SME are expected to pitch at the two final events. The proposal is based on two consecutive cycles, allowing 350 SMEs to be screened and supported over the project, with experience from the first cycle being used to improve the project second cycle. The proposal takes account of the difference in Europe in investment activities, the required skills for trainers and the different types of investors in each country. MPowerBIO will ensure that clusters become self-supporting in this respect on completion of the project, with the ability to maintain these skills within their own organisations. The project will produce a replication guide to ensure that project results can be widened to other areas after completion.

INMARE stands for “Industrial Applications of Marine Enzymes: Innovative screening and expression platforms to discover and use the functional protein diversity from the sea”. It is a collaborative Innovation Action to streamline the pathways of discovery and industrial applications of new marine enzymes and bioactives for targeted production of fine chemicals, drugs and in environmental clean-up applications. The INMARE consortium will unify the multidisciplinary expertise and facilities of academic and industry partners. This will include integrating the following core activities: advanced technologies to access and sample unique marine biodiversity hot-spots; state-of-the art technologies for construction of metagenomic libraries; innovative enzyme screening assays and platforms; cutting-edge sequence annotation pipelines and bioinformatics resources; high-end activity screening technology; bioanalytical and bioprocess engineering facilities and expertise, nanoparticle-biocatalysts; high-quality protein crystallization and structural analysis facilities and experts in IP management for biotechnology. The companies involved in the project are market leaders in enzyme production and biocatalysis processes designed to efficiently deliver safer (pharmaceuticals) cheaper (agriculture) and biobased (biopolymers) products. They also have impressive track record in environmental clean-up technologies and are committed to promoting public understanding, awareness and dissemination of scientific research. The main emphasis will be focused on streamlining and shortening the pipelines for enzyme and ‘bioactive compound’ discovery towards industrial applications through the establishing of marine enzyme collections with a high proportion of enzymes-“allrounders”. The project will also prioritize the identification of novel lead products and the delivery of improved prototypes for new biocatalytic processes.