Europe-wide environmental benchmarking system of the industrial bioeconomy sectors

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’.

The implementation of the European Green Deal will continue to guide R&I in this destination. R&I actions under this destination will take forward the zero-pollution ambition, contributing to reach the 2030 targets for pollution reduction in air, water and soil, as stipulated in the zero-pollution action plan. The activities will help establishing a clean industry, contributing to the EU Clean Industrial Deal^[1], and will aim to address, among others, pollutants of concern, including of emerging concern, also in view of the environmental objectives of the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan^[2]. Destination ‘Clean environment and zero pollution’ will help substituting hazardous chemicals and bringing innovation on safe and sustainable by design chemicals to ensure protection of human health and the environment. It will also continue the work on PFAS, the “forever chemicals”, started in the same destination in WP2025. It will also support the implementation of the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive^[3] and the Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive^[4].

This destination will support the zero-pollution ambition in the industrial bio-based and bioeconomy sectors. The principles of the new EU bioeconomy strategy, underpinned by the principles of the circular economy, will allow for the replication value chains with improved resource efficiency and environmental performances, also enabled by innovative approaches designed in the Strategy for European Life Sciences, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and the upcoming Biotech Act.

Furthermore, R&I activities under this destination will underpin EU water legislation and the European Water Resilience Strategy^[5] by addressing water quantity and quality issues in specific sectors as well as across broader water systems, supporting EU policies and international conventions. The destination will also support the Marine Strategy Framework Directive^[6], particularly in its efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems such as contamination and underwater noise.

R&I actions under this destination will aim to underpin the conclusions from the Strategic Dialogue on EU Agriculture and the Vision for EU Agriculture and Food^[7], and support the next reform of the CAP with scientific evidence.

R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[8].

Expected impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to "achieve a clean environment, ensure water resilience, and enable the transformative change necessary to reduce air, water and soil pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems, while respecting planetary boundaries". More specifically, they should contribute to one or several of the following expected impacts:

• Advancing scientific understanding and innovative solutions for identifying, preventing and mitigating pollution aim to effectively protect human health and safeguard the environment, preserving cleaner water and seas, healthier air and soil, and resilient forests.
• Innovative circular bio-based systems and biotechnologies are developed and made available to all stakeholders to progress towards the clean environment and zero-pollution ambition.
• Farmers and other actors in the food chain are empowered to make informed decisions and to apply novel strategies to prevent, reduce and remediate pollution from agriculture and the food system, contributing to the zero-pollution ambition.
• Effective solutions to remediate and decontaminate aquatic pollution are developed, made available and implemented contributing to reducing pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to the environment.

[1] Clean Industrial Deal - European Commission

[2] European Chemicals Industry Action Plan – European Commission

[3] Directive - 2008/50 - EN - EUR-Lex

[4] Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive (IED 2.0) - European Commission

[5] Water resilience strategy - European Commission

[6] EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive - European Commission

[7] Vision for Agriculture and Food - European Commission

[8] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

The successful proposal funded under this topic will provide guidelines to industrial operators as well as administrators for contributing to the objectives of the Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive, the Clean Industrial Deal and the Zero-pollution Action Plan, addressing technical goals in the scope of the Communication on boosting biotechnology and biomanufacturing in the EU and in the new EU bioeconomy strategy.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• innovative circular industrial bio-based systems – including biotechnologies and biomanufacturing – within the EU bioeconomy are deployed to decrease the environmental footprint of industries, not harm biodiversity and address climate neutrality.

Scope:

Industrial bio-based systems – made by the supply chain of bio-based feedstock and the industrial value chains - are key elements for the establishment of a fossil-free economy in the EU and Associated Countries (AC). Innovative industrial bio-based systems - also enabled by biotechnology applications - have the capacity to deliver products and services with improved environmental performances. To support the deployment of the best among such systems, it is necessary to create a framework which facilitate the benchmarking. The European Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) - based on the recently revised Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emission Directive (IED 2.0) - collects information on innovative techniques, including emerging^[1] and transformative techniques, and assesses their level of development and their environmental performance, including their cost-effectiveness and their trade-offs.

Proposals should:

• establish a forum of experts and stakeholders in the bioeconomy and in industrial bio-based systems, including representatives from academia, industry, and government. Members of the forum should be part of the project consortium and should cover, at least, the specific sectors as described in the bullet point below;
• animate the work of the forum to:
  • select and collect data on emerging techniques (as defined in Art. 3.14 of the IED 2.0) along the whole supply and value chain of industrial bio-based systems, on a worldwide basis, but especially those being tested or used in the EU and ACs. Assess their level of development and environmental performance, including their cost-effectiveness and trade-offs. Industrial bio-based systems in scope of this topic do not include food/feed, biofuels/bioenergy and health and medical devices;
  • align the selection, the collection of relevant data and the assessment of such techniques with the approach of the European Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) and with the EU Bioeconomy Monitoring (Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy);
  • give emphasis on relevant emerging techniques including, but not limited to, specific sectors: i) pulp & paper and bio-based chemicals, including the treatments and further conversion of industrial residues and waste from these sectors, ii) mechanical and chemical recycling of bio-based plastic, iii) bioremediation applications - also enabled by biotechnology - to remediate and regenerate polluted ecosystems. The scope of bioremediation applications should include landfills and mining;
  • include data on climate change mitigation/adaptation and on the capacity for biodiversity protection and enhancement of the selected techniques, where relevant;
  • align the collection of life cycle assessment (LCA) information, according to the Environmental Footprint recommendation, and the methodological guidance of the voluntary Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Framework^[2], where applicable;
• integrate the collected information and data into the Sevilla process through INCITE and into the EU Bioeconomy Monitoring (Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy).

International cooperation is encouraged, for example in the collection of data on emerging techniques.

Synergies with projects funded under the topics on bioeconomy in the current and past Cluster 6 work programmes, and with projects assessing the best practices in the biofuels/bioenergy sectors under Cluster 5 work programmes are encouraged.

[1] ‘Emerging technique’ means a novel technique for an industrial activity that, if commercially developed, could provide either a higher general level of protection of human health and the environment or at least the same level of protection of human health and the environment and higher cost savings than existing best available techniques, Art 3 IED 2.0.

[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022H2510