On 13 and 14 May 2024, COST partnered with the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) to organise a COST Connect event on biobased resources, materials, and solutions.
The event, the first collaboration between two complementary funding programmes, invited COST Actions and CBE JU funded projects to reflect and exchange on the main questions, challenges, and issues in the broad domain of circular, biobased materials and applications.
About Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking
Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is a €2 billion partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) that funds projects under Horizon Europe that advance competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe.
CBE JU organises yearly open calls for proposals to fund projects in research, demonstration, and industrial deployment. With over 90 ongoing projects, the CBE JU aims to accelerate the innovation process and development of bio-based innovative solutions, to accelerate market deployment of the existing mature and innovative bio-based solutions, and to ensure a high level of environmental performance of bio-based industrial systems.
Complementary to COST’s commitment to excellence and inclusivity, CBE JU’s widening participation strategy aims to step up the participation of less-represented countries and regions with high potential for bioeconomy in projects funded by the partnership.
“Bringing together participants from both the CBE JU and COST Action projects for open exchange and networking has been hugely beneficial. This event underscores the importance of wider cooperation and aims to bridge gaps and foster inclusivity, ensuring that advancements in biobased materials and solutions to benefit all regions across Europe.”
Virginia Puzzolo, Head of Programme at CBE JU
Open exchange
The COST Connect format includes a mix of presentations from projects and stakeholders coupled with interactive sessions and designed to maximise networking opportunities and facilitate the exchange of ideas. This is the sort of multidisciplinary dialogue that can lead to actionable insights and future collaborations in the pursuit of circular, sustainable biobased materials and products.
Participants exchanged openly to address topics such as advancing bio-based solutions in agriculture; sustainable practices in bio-based construction; lessons and strategies in scaling bio-based production; interdisciplinary collaboration in developing bio-based technologies; and meeting stakeholder expectations in bio-based value chains.
Among the COST Action and CBE JU projects present included:
The PURPLEGAIN COST Action is looking into the application of purple bacteria biotechnology for resource recovery from waste. The network will share information, facilitating technology and knowledge transfer between the academic and industrial sectors, related to PPB applications for resource recovery from organic waste sources which is fundamental for the deployment of applied research to the market..
The PLENITUDE CBE JU project is developing food-grade protein sustainably by integrating an aerobic fermentation plant with a conventional first-generation biorefinery. This will help to meet the growing demand for protein without the impact on CO2 emissions or on biodiversity.
“I co-ordinate the CBE JU flagship project Plenitude that has built a first of its kind facility producing sustainable protein. It was great to hear about the different COST projects across Europe and topic areas. There are some great opportunities for collaboration and many common challenges and shared learnings for example how to best scale bio-based production.”
Craig Johnston, representing the Plenitude CBE JU project
COST Action Holistic design of taller timber buildings (Helen) is working towards optimised holistic approaches to improve the performance of taller timber buildings (3-10 stories) and to widen their competitiveness and use across the EU and rest of the world. The design of timber buildings is more complex and the network is here to understand multidisciplinary aspects like insurance related issues and circular economy elements like repairability, reusability, and adaptability.
The REDWine CBE JU project is working to demonstrate the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of using the CO2 created during red wine fermentation, a by-product, for algae production. The overarching objective is to reduce the overall contribution wine production has on global warming and valorise the outputs.
“With this COST Connect event, I had opportunity to find interesting contacts for the next CBE-JU calls. Following the REDWINE project presentation, new ideas from other participants came to make a follow up project. We have some ideas to build a proposal and this event solve expertise failures and brought new insights. It’s always good when you get different approaches for the same problem.”
Miguel Cachão, representing the REDWINE CBE JU project
The COZYME COST Action is establishing a pan-European network on the computational redesign of enzymes. It aims to developed tailored enzymes that are thermostable for novel industrial applications whilst also training young researchers in developing and utilising computational tools to support this transition.
“The diversity and quality of projects attending this COST Connect is testament to the variety and breadth of research and innovation happening in the bioeconomy sector. Connecting COST Actions with the CBE JU funded projects will help to further ensure the feasibility of concepts already under development and spark ideas for future innovative solutions. We look forward to seeing what comes from the connections made during the last two days.” concludes Bart Veys, Head of Policy at COST.
Further information
The CBE JU 2024 call for project proposals is open for submission until 18 September 2024 at 17:00 CET. CBE JU funds three types of actions:
- Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs): establish new knowledge or explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution
- Innovation Actions (IAs): scale up activities from prototype to product validation and market replication.
- Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs): structure stakeholder communities, support technological visions and outreach, and disseminate and exploit research results.
Discover more about the CBE JU open call.
Meanwhile, the current COST Open Call (OC-2024-1) for new research network proposals remains open until 23 October 2024 at 12.00 (noon) CEST. Discover more about the simple one-step application process to submit a new COST Action.
