Boosting biorefinery competitiveness through biotech

Expected Outcome:

Successful proposals will contribute to the implementation of the EU initiative on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, the EU Life Sciences Strategy, the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU Biotechnology Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Chemical Industry Action Plan and the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act.

Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Full industrial scale biorefinery and related value chain(s) for the sustainable production of bio-based products using biotech as a key enabling technology.
• Availability of bio-based products meeting market and technical performance requirements as relevant for their respective application areas.
• Improvement of sustainability, circularity and resource efficiency compared to relevant benchmark(s).
• Contribution to increasing the EU’s strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness.

Scope:

Biorefineries integrating biotechnologies, underpinned by sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock, have a huge potential to transform the EU manufacturing landscape, spurring socio-economic growth, fostering job creation and contributing to defossilisation of the EU economy.

Europe is strong in life sciences including industrial biotechnology. However, research results often struggle to be deployed to the market; in most cases, scale-up needs de-risking and requires overcoming challenges in large-scale process and reactor design, cell productivity, efficient use of feedstock, operative condition stability, reactor sterility and efficient integration of downstream operations among others.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Demonstrate (at TRL 8) a sustainable and robust biomanufacturing route to obtain bio-based product(s). The proposal should focus on processes in which biotechnology is the key enabling technology; the integration of (upstream and/or downstream) supporting unit operations based on technologies other than biotechnology is in scope. Products in scope include chemicals, intermediates, polymers, ingredients and enzymes. Food and feed ingredients as main application are out of scope. Optimisation of selected cells, enzymes and/or microorganisms is also in scope provided that the starting TRL is at least 6.
• Demonstrate (at TRL 8) the further conversion or use of the obtained biorefinery product(s) into at least one end-product driving the business case; validate it (TRL 6 and above) in relevant market applications. Additional end-product(s) with high prospective market potential can be targeted, reaching at least TRL 6.

In addition to the specific requirements applicable for the type of action, as described in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2026^[1], proposals under this topic should:

• As part of the multi-actor approach (MAA), ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic and across the sustainable circular bio-based system, including feedstock providers, policymakers and end users.
• Address compliance with EU regulatory frameworks as relevant for targeted products and applications, identify potential gaps and provide recommendations to overcome them. Perform a risk assessment on impacts, potentially deriving from the use of biotechnology, on human and ecosystem safety and identify adequate mitigation measures. Assess the adequacy of policy and regulatory means to manage these risks and provide recommendations to overcome potential identified bottlenecks.
• Include a task to apply the SSbD framework, developed by the European Commission, for the assessment of the production process of targeted biorefinery product(s) as well as the chosen derived end product(s). For more information on the SSbD framework and criteria, refer to Safe and sustainable by design.
• Seek complementarities and avoid overlaps with past and ongoing R&I projects addressing similar challenges, including those funded by BBI JU/CBE JU and under Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe (under Cluster 6 and other Clusters of Horizon Europe).

[1] https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents