RIBES will address the need to enhance the uptake of biobased innovations through pioneering governance and business models developed on the convergence of the circular bioeconomy, social innovation and rural development, thus contributing to the shift from a linear to a circular economy in 9 European regions lagging in innovation. Project activities will focus on specific sub-national levels but will also encompass proactive dissemination and replication at the country level. Participating regions have been selected based on various socio-economic indicators and data concerning the characteristics of the agricultural and biobased sectors, demographics, innovation capacity, etc. RIBES will perform an in-depth multidisciplinary assessment of regional bioeconomy ecosystems and research possible correlations between the socio-economic trends, innovation bottlenecks and the role of the primary sector. RIBES will create a significant impact by delivering innovative and tailored governance solutions and business models capable of fostering grass-rooted circular bioeconomy value chains, with particular attention devoted to the advanced sustainability of regional inclusive biobased entrepreneurship solutions, thus contributing to strengthening rural development and innovation in participating regions. RIBES will implement 9 local Multi-actor Transformative Forums (MTFs) based on the Living Lab and Open Innovation concepts to address complex societal challenges and problems by putting stakeholder participation and deliberation processes at the centre, aiming at systemic transformative change (instead of only addressing symptoms) in the three pillars of technological, social and economic innovation to co-create tailored business and governance models.

Sustainable bioeconomy transition is an acknowledged pathfinder to achieve the Green Deal ambitions. A regionalised bioeconomy is seen as a promising leverage point for green growth. Many European regions have already adopted bioeconomy strategies. However, the majority of regional stakeholders lack actionable knowledge to translate them into practice and embed them into society, industry and research by simultaneously considering planetary boundaries. Regions heavily relying on GHG-intensive economies - that are particularly critical for realising the Green Deal - face even more challenges to unlock their bioeconomy potential. The concept of bioeconomy model regions tackles the urgent need to concretise bioeconomy into tangible transition measures. Model regions are characterized by a systemic approach, draw on technological and societal innovations, are able to link sectors and contribute to sustainable development in economic, ecological and social dimensions. BIO2REG therefore aims to enable regional stakeholders of GHG-intensive economies to unlock their regions’ bioeconomy potential by transitioning towards model regions. BIO2REG paves the way for regional stakeholder to actively initiate and shape transition based on a regions-to-regions approach. Embedded in a network of regions for regions, interregional exchange and cooperation will be facilitated. Specifically, regional stakeholders will be capacitated by i) provision of a regionalisation concept for model regions, ii) mapping best practices on circular and sustainable bioeconomy, iii) guides for bioeconomy potential assessments, iv) mentoring and training services v) formation of transition alliances and v) policy recommendations to adapt strategies and funding. A key component is the adoption of a multi-actor approach by co-creating tools and guides with regional stakeholders as well as engaging with regions by guided on-site exchanges with stakeholders from other regions.

The loss of antibiotic effectiveness due to increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health. The IMI2 AMR Accelerator will develop new agents to treat and prevent infections caused by MDR and XDR bacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria. The COMBINE proposal addresses Pillar A, the Capability Building Network (CBN) of the AMR Accelerator programme. The COMBINE consortium will form a Coordination and Support Office (CSO) that will support the delivery of projects across the AMR Accelerator, as well as with efficient communication among projects of the Accelerator and within the AMR community. In addition, we will establish an IT infrastructure that will allow for the FAIRification, collection, aggregation, storage, sharing, and analysis of vaccine and antibacterial preclinical and clinical data sets. When setting up the CSO, we will build on learnings from the two IMI ND4BB projects: ENABLE (an antibacterial discovery and development engine) and TRANSLOCATION (which has built an information centre for data sharing). COMBINE partners will work to accelerate scientific discoveries in the AMR field by optimisation and standardisation of animal infection models, and development of improved models for translation of preclinical animal efficacy data and statistical analysis of clinical data. This will set new standards for the translational and predictive relevance of preclinical data and facilitate optimized design for new clinical trials. Results will feed into study and trial design throughout the AMR Accelerator to achieve more stringent and reliable development programmes.