International dimension of the circular bio-based economy: seeking win-win opportunities

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’, which require innovative and agile governance models and tools to support transformative change within planetary boundaries.

R&I supporting decision-making is a key enabler for the Vision for Agriculture and Food that aims to secure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the EU's farming and food systems within the boundaries of our planet, as well as to meet the objectives set out in the Common Agricultural Policy.

Besides, the R&I supporting the bioeconomy, with a focus on bio-based solutions and the role of biotechnology, needs to be further strengthened, in line with the new EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Communication on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing and the Life Sciences Strategy.

There is also a need to unlock the potential of applied digital and data technologies to support sectors covered by this cluster in becoming more competitive, sustainable, resilient and inclusive in line with the evolving EU policies on cyber, data and data technologies and digital services, notably the European Data Strategy, the Europe’s Digital Decade Policy Programme, the AI Continent Action Plan and the upcoming EU digital strategy for agriculture. This destination will contribute to the development, support and take up of digital and data-based solutions to implement the European Green Deal, while fostering innovation and supporting start-ups, thereby supporting the EU Competitiveness Compass.

The destination supports the European Ocean Pact, aiming at bringing coherence across all EU policy areas linked to the ocean, supporting a resilient and healthy ocean and coastal areas and promoting the sustainable blue economy. In particular, land-sea connection areas are crucial for addressing the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme events, and hydrological crises. When relevant, actions are encouraged to align with the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’, leveraging its digital infrastructures (such as the Digital Twin Ocean), stakeholder networks, and knowledge systems to enhance governance, environmental observation, and policy-support tools across terrestrial and aquatic systems.

This destination implements research actions to address water challenges in the EU and support the European Water Resilience Strategy by advancing the capacity for proper management of water sources.

In line with the global approach on R&I, this destination will foster and support regional and international initiatives, encourage international cooperation, contribute substantially to the implementation of key international treaties and to the work of various international bodies, assessments and other initiatives, and help achieve international commitments, notably under the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement.

Knowledge and advice are key to improving competitiveness, sustainability and resilience. R&I actions under this destination will support effective Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) that are at the heart of the 2023-2027 CAP’s cross-cutting objective as a key mean to bridge the gap between science and practice. Synergies with the EU-CAP Network, and particularly the EIP-AGRI Operational Groups supported by the CAP, will be further exploited.

The European Research Area is further integrated, and the global efforts are well-coordinated for impact-oriented science on food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture-forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, and environment.

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^[1].

Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible pathways to "developing innovative governance models and tools enabling sustainability and resilience", and more specifically to one or several of the following expected impacts:

• improved evidence-based knowledge, tools and science-society-policy interfaces support effective policy mixes and multi-level governance that are capable of anticipating a changing world, enabling a just sustainable transition for all, engaging society at large and balancing economic, social and environmental goals;
• competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the economy are supported by more accessible and interoperable environmental observations and improved Earth Intelligence;
• productivity is boosted and transformative changes required by the European Green Deal are facilitated, leaving no one behind, thanks to enhanced digital and data technologies, flows of existing and new knowledge, solutions and skills among actors and communities, as well as maximised synergies between initiatives.

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

Expected Outcome:

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

• improved multi-level governance capable of anticipating a changing world and enabling a just sustainable transition for all, as related to the potential of bio-based innovation and industry in the global bioeconomy to deliver on multilateral climate and biodiversity targets;
• improved stakeholder engagement and trust, related to the global dimension of sustainable bioeconomy, with a focus on circular bio-based solutions and approaches with reduced carbon footprint as well as biotechnology, biomanufacturing and biorefining.

Scope:

This topic is in line with the Commission communication on: Building the future with nature: Boosting Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the EU, the Life Sciences Strategy, the EU Biotech Act, the Clean Industrial Deal, the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act, the policies related to the fair green transition (i.e. EU Green Deal ambition of leaving no one behind) as well as the EU global commitments on climate change and biodiversity.

Proposals should:

• analyse bottlenecks and opportunities (in terms of measurable socio-economic and environmental impacts) of the international cooperation in sustainable and fair/just bio-based circular innovation, identifying key interested players active in this area, including the European circular bio-based industry, international organisations (e.g. OECD, FAO, Global Bioeconomy Summit) and like-minded international partners, civil society actors). The focus should be on actions in selected key areas (including, but not limited to biorefining^[1], biotechnology^[2], biomanufacturing, environmental applications, international biomass trade analysis, circularity of bio-based economy, intellectual property (IP) aspects, global infrastructure mapping, etc). This should take into account the diversity of approaches, perspectives and initiatives in non-EU contexts (e.g. G20 work on bioeconomy), in view of effective international cooperation and dialogue on circular and fair bio-economy/bio-based economy;
• develop an inclusive and transparent networking approach to support stakeholder engagement and international dialogue (via existing structures, platforms, bioeconomy databases and dashboards^[3], and other instruments^[4]), considering the role of the governance actors, propose suitable trust-building measures (e.g., co-creation, sharing of best practice, mutual learning), aiming at the global common challenges and win-win solutions, with impact on sustainable economic development, UN SDGs^[5], climate and biodiversity);
• prepare a roadmap for next steps of international cooperation in this area, provide recommendations to policy makers on national and regional level, and other interested stakeholders (e.g., industry), propose solutions to ensure long-term impact, including by linking to existing activities and by applying suitable digital means (e.g., webinars, scientifically robust social media use, etc.).

Proposals are encouraged to work together with relevant initiatives including those of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy, Bioeconomy Monitoring System, etc.).

Synergies with activities under the Circular Bio-based Europe (CBE) Joint Undertaking and International Bioeconomy Forum as well as Global Bioeconomy Summit are encouraged.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines.

International cooperation is strongly encouraged, in particular with South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

[1] With focus on bio-based materials and chemicals. In case bioenergy is considered, it should be covered in the frame of the cascading use of biomass and ensuring synergy with Horizon Europe Cluster 5.

[2] With focus on industrial, agro-food, environmental or marine biotechnology sectors. In case health biotechnology is considered, ensure synergy with Horizon Europe Cluster 1.

[3] e.g. DataM - Bioeconomy - European Commission

[4] Among others, European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, Circular Cities and Regions Initiative, Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking, etc.

[5] In particular SDG 8, 9 and 12.