CBE JU supporting activities for the New European Bauhaus Academy, a network for re-skilling and upskilling towards a sustainable construction ecosystem

Code: 29937 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-2-S-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 06/07/2023 | End submission calls: 04/10/2023

The successful proposal will contribute to the objectives of the New European Bauhaus Academy to support the upskilling and re-skilling of three million workers in the construction sector over the next five years, in line with the overall objectives of the European Green Deal, the European Climate Law, and the ’Renovation Wave’ strategy. This action will put a special focus on increasing the quality and quantity of vocational training opportunities, notably programmes on bio-based solutions relevant for the construction ecosystem.

This topic will help advance the transition from an extractive, mineral-based and fossil hydrocarbon-fuelled construction economy to a regenerative bio-economy and circular system of material reuse.

Supporting the capacity of regions in environmental sustainability assessment for the bio-based sectors

Code: 29062 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-S-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

While the bioeconomy carries great potential for achieving various policy aims related to sustainability, sustainability is not an intrinsic characteristic of the bioeconomy, but a potential it could achieve. For this reason, and to achieve the expected benefits, improving our capacity to assess the environmental impacts of bioeconomy (including any bio-based activity) development is of great importance. Regions can be considered the most appropriate territorial level at which to implement bioeconomy strategies, including for the innovative bio-based sectors.

The aim of this action is to support decision-makers to incorporate considerations of ecological limits into their regional bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps, when it comes to circular bio-based activities.

EU-wide network of pilot plants and testing facilities, improving SMEs and start-ups' access to scale-up

Code: 29060 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-S-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Availability and accessibility of testing and pilot infrastructures is a key element to increase and integrate the research and innovation capacity of stakeholders across the Union, especially SMEs and start-ups that often lack the ability of performing scale-up research in-house. While the number of open access facilities is growing across Europe, there are considerable discrepancies in geographic distribution and scale, which means that many SMEs and start-ups have difficulties in getting access to scale-up facilities beyond pilot scale. As a consequence, local bioeconomy potential is not fully exploited, particularly in under-represented countries and regions. Besides making available and updating a EU-wide database of such facilities, there is also a need of turning it into a community, bringing together demand and offer and providing matchmaking and networking occasions for pilot facilities, open access labs and test rigs on one side and SMEs, start-ups, research groups and large companies on the other.

Optimised forest-based value chains for high value applications and improved forest management

Code: 29058 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

European forests are important providers of multiple feedstocks and services including biomass used for a wide variety of uses, where the assurance of sustainability plays a key role. However, they are presently facing increasing pressure from climate change and other environmental pressures.
Forest operators need to adapt to these fast-changing conditions to ensure the continued role of forests in providing biomass, enhancing biodiversity and absorbing atmospheric carbon. Sensing, data acquisition and predictive technologies can prove a key enabler for data-driven decision making in forest-based operations. These range from maintaining forest health through monitoring and corrective actions, to quality control of wood and non-wood biomass, to support decision making on the best application of each biomass (wood and non-wood, when applicable) component.

Robust and optimised industrial biotech and chemical/industrial biotech processes

Code: 29055 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-03 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Industrial biotech processes often have limitations of scaling up and continuous processing. There is an additional complexity of reduced biocatalyst robustness and poor process metrics, especially when applied in sequence with chemical pre-processing. Industrial biotech processes can be used to replace chemical conversion steps which may pose safety or resource efficiency issues (e.g. necessitating complex reactions with protective groups, hazardous solvents etc.), or may be high in energy demand (heat, pressure) etc. Vice versa, some biotechnological conversion steps can be difficult to scale up because of e.g. substrate inhibition, difficult product removal, co-factor regeneration: in this case, chemical conversion steps can provide improvements.

Development of novel, high-performance bio-based polymers and co-polymers

Code: 29052 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-04 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Many bio-based monomers and polymers are (relatively) new: while some are well characterised and already produced at industrial scale, there are hundreds of molecular structures with limited application outside the lab, which may be worth exploring in view of future upscaling and market uptake. Often, bio-based polymers have a limited application space in comparison with established fossil-based counterparts also due to some undesired properties (e.g. brittleness, low glass transition temperature). Co-polymerisation or blending with other materials could also be one way to provide a solution to overcome at least some of these issues, but research in the field is scarce due to their (relative) novelty and unavailability of materials in sufficient quantity (at least at pilot scale) to perform testing and characterisation.

Pre-normative research to develop standards for biodegradability of bio-based products in controlled and in open environments

Code: 29050 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-05 Grant | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The amount of waste littered in the open environment and causing pollution from harmful substances released from such waste streams, e.g., from plastic littering, has reached the level of a global emergency, especially affecting soil and water quality and biodiversity in land and marine environments. The overall low level of recycling of many waste streams, including collected plastic waste, is also part of such global pollution challenge. Biodegradability of materials and products for targeted applications may offer viable end-of-life solutions in case of safe and sustainable biodegradation either under controlled conditions, i.e., in composting plants and anaerobic digestors, or in open environments. However, there is still a need for clarity on how to label biodegradable products and a lack of standards covering the range of conditions under which a (claimed) biodegradable material actually biodegrade to the desired extent and in the desired time frame to ensure a safe end-of-life.

Improve fermentation processes (including downstream purification) to final bio-based products

Code: 29048 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-03 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Fermentation of bio-based feedstock is powerful but often still cost-intensive and resource-intensive process. This is mainly due to costly enzymes, low process yields, high by-product toxicity, poor microorganism growth, high nutrient requirements but also inefficiencies in downstream purification. Moreover, most used biocatalysts are optimised for converting conventional sugars and are less effective (or unable) to deal with second generation and non-food quality sugars, thus preventing the exploitation of additional sources of biomass feedstock. Solving all these issues may require the development of new metabolic pathways and the scale-up of related processes to industrially relevant scale. In addition, the presence of by-products often requires complex and expensive downstream purification processes, especially when the desired end products are non-volatile.

Recycling bio-based plastics increasing sorting and recycled content (upcycling)

Code: 29044 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-04 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The scope of this topic focusses on the recycling of bio-based plastics which are not already recycled with the conventional (fossil-based) plastics (bio-based PET, for example, is recycled with fossil-based PET). This means that bio-based plastics made of ‘drop-ins’ polymers are excluded from the scope.

Development of scalable, safe bio-based surfactants, with an improved sustainability profile

Code: 28998 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-05 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Surfactants are often classified by:

• feedstock for synthesis,
• biodegradability, safety and environmental effects,
• application
• chemical structure (drop-in or dedicated chemical structures).

Safety and sustainability performance improvements in bio-based surfactants are expected to have cascading impact in existing but also novel markets/applications.

Bio-based surfactants often face limitations for larger uptake such as high costs and niche applications. Moreover, their EU production is at present mainly based on primary biomass (vegetable oils, sugar and starch), bringing land use impacts but also often influencing the degree of feedstock imports. In view of the foreseen upscale of the bio-based production capacity, feedstock diversification should be sought. Other challenges are related to wider bio-based surfactants’ production/supply issues and upstream as well as downstream production process challenges, affecting the OPEX (and often CAPEX as well). For applications where surfactants are found in end products, substitution of conventional ones can result into complex re-formulation effects, affecting market uptake by brand-owners, together with an existing uncertainty of steady supply.

Selective, sustainable production routes towards bio-based alternatives to fossil-based chemical building blocks

Code: 28995 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-06 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The production of a wider portfolio of bio-based platform chemicals is presently at low maturity, and CAPEX (and OPEX) investments are still needed to scale up production.

The bio-based platform chemicals portfolio remains relatively limited, with an approximate of 90% of the global bio-based production capacity accounted by a limited amount of platform chemicals. It is essential to progress further with the market penetration of bio-based chemicals, with a holistic consideration of sustainability across the value chain.

High performance, circular-by design, biobased composites

Code: 28993 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-07 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Many sectors applying composites in their products have set a target of shifting from fossil-based towards bio-based and/or materials with a high recycled content. Current commercial bio-based polymers and natural fibre-based materials are however suited to respond only to a part of the projected increased demand. Limitations include not being fully compatible with current industrial processing, not being able to fully meet target application requirements, and/or their higher cost vs existing solutions.

Processability during manufacturing (including aspects of thermal stability), technical performance of the end product along its life cycle, and durability are some of the key challenges to address for bio-based composites. It is also important to address the end of life and circularity challenges of composites, including recycling, re-using or upcycling.

Optimised and integrated wood-based value chains

Code: 28991 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IAFlag-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

This topic aims to considerably increase resource efficiency by promoting cooperation of companies of different scales and other actors and move towards “zero waste, zero pollution” operations. The feedstock in scope of the topic are woody biomass from sustainably managed forests and wood industry side streams and residues.

For this purpose, seamless and efficient integration of processing technologies of main and side flows of woody biomass between various companies and other actors is needed, specialising manufacturing of diverse materials and products. This may be achieved by the creation of a symbiotic ecosystem with clusters of companies of different scale and technology providers using the residual streams of large-scale industrial plants, but also exploiting the technical opportunities from emerging manufacturing systems.

Expansion and/or retro-fitting of biorefineries towards higher-value bio-based chemicals and intermediates

Code: 28988 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IAFlag-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Many biorefineries in Europe were built in the past decades with a rather narrow product scope (e.g., biofuel plants, pulp and paper mills).
New technologies allow expanding their production capacity to convert bio-based feedstock to added value products, following the cascading approach, and/or to produce new and higher-value products to take full advantage of the existing assets and keep them competitive with the current market requirements. In addition to that, there is a wealth of CAPEX from dismissed or declining industrial assets that could be converted as parts of the biorefinery while exploiting the existing infrastructures, resulting in lower CAPEX, and other economic and technological benefits (e.g., shorter lead times, faster implementation, fewer production time losses and lower risks compared to fully greenfield plant construction).

Bio-based packaging materials with improved properties: barrier, food contact, forming, printability, safety, recyclability /circularity-by-design

Code: 28985 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IAFlag-03 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The packaging business is undergoing considerable transformations due to pressing legislative changes, the issue of plastic littering and changes in customer behaviour. While consumer products make up a considerable share of packaging products, industrial packaging products also need to be considered. Future packaging products need to be bio-based, recyclable and/or biodegradable, lightweight and functional. A challenge is represented by the seemingly opposing requirements of barrier/surface properties (obtained by innovative coatings or multi-layered structures) and the need to make the product easy to recycle (easier with fully bio-based or mono-material structures).

Valorisation of aquatic biomass waste and residues

Code: 28946 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IAFlag-04 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Phyto-management; curing soil with industrial crops, utilising contaminated and saline land for industrial crop production

Code: 28923 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-R-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Production of safe, sustainable, and efficient bio-based fertilisers to improve soil health and quality

Code: 28920 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Small scale biorefining in rural areas

Code: 28916 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023-IA-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 26/04/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Small-scale biorefineries are attractive, especially to rural stakeholders, because they may not require a high level of initial investment in comparison to large-scale facilities and, therefore, often provide a quicker return on investment. In addition, technology providers benefit from this model because of its high replication potential across Europe.

Cost-effective production routes towards bio-based alternatives to fossil-based chemical building blocks

Code: 23527 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-03 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

Europe needs to diversify the sources of sustainable feedstock for its chemical industry, for not only improving on environmental sustainability performance of industrial processes and products, but to also enhance their strategic autonomy and resilience.
Accelerating the development of the bio-based chemicals portfolio will be key for growth of the bioeconomy and towards accelerating further on the fossil-based feedstock substitution.
The reduction of GHGs emissions is a priority for the chemical industry, as an energy-intensive industry sector.
Bio-based platform chemicals, derived from sustainably sourced feedstock and with a lower carbon footprint, can contribute to realising this priority.

Co-processing of mixed bio-based waste streams

Code: 23524 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-04 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The CBE JU scope includes a variety of bio-based waste and side streams from different sectors: residual streams from agriculture and horticulture, forestry, horticulture and from aquatic biomass cultivation, processing, and from fisheries; food and feed waste (from the food and feed production/processing); bio-waste other than food waste from production processes, e.g. textiles, wood, pulp and paper, etc., including post-consumer waste; sewage and wastewater sludge; used cooking oil; construction and demolition waste that include wood-based component, residues and by-products from the bio-based industry.
These streams may contain impurities as well as polymers and mineral components.
Converting bio-based waste streams in renewable raw materials is more necessary than ever. However, industry sets stringent requirements for the composition and purity of renewable raw materials to ensure proper processing and meet product requirements.

Maximum valorisation of sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock in multi-product, zero-waste, zero-pollution biorefinery

Code: 23522 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IAFlag-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The objective of this topic is to deploy solutions with the highest circularity levels, while extracting maximum value from the bio-based feedstock to produce bio-based products in the scope of CBE and prevent and control any pollution from bio-based industries.

High performance bio-based polymers for market applications with stringent requirements

Code: 23511 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The wide variety of molecular structures of bio-based polymers can offer significant opportunities to develop products tailored to specific applications.
Tailor-made bio-based polymers for these applications can benefit from their inherent physical/chemical properties, and from their potentially higher sustainability when compared with fossil-based counterparts. Some of these specialty polymers or their components may heavily depend on imports from outside the EU. Their production routes need to be designed, and their properties tested and proven useful and applicable under stringent conditions as demanded by specific market sectors. Innovative bio-based polymers in scope may be synthesised from bio-based building blocks, produced through biotechnology, other sustainable bio-based processing technologies, or through the functionalisation with biocatalysts or by other means of biopolymers extracted from bio-based feedstock.

Bio-based coatings, barriers, binders, and adhesives

Code: 23509 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

Packaging, construction, agriculture, aquaculture, marine operations, textiles, furniture, wood-based industry and transport are some of the industrial sectors looking for bio-based alternatives to fossil-based coatings, barriers, binders, and adhesives.

The abovementioned sectors can benefit from bio-based alternatives with improvements in both areas through biotechnological solutions and other innovative technologies available; however, so far only a few products are available. Research should focus on novel, viable alternatives in collaboration with customers, consumers and end users.

Circular-by-design bio-based materials to improve the circularity of complex structures

Code: 23507 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-03 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The recycle of the complex structures (e.g., multi-layered products, multi-material products and composites) remain a challenge that needs to be tackled can often be challenging due to their composition but also due to differences in practices across Europe in sorting, collection, and treatment of waste. Research and innovation should address current materials/components (in the aforementioned complex structures) that are currently fossil-based, or non-circular bio-based or partly bio-based/fossil-based, aiming for circular bio-based alternatives.

Proteins from alternative and unconventional sources

Code: 23501 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-04 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

Today’s largest source of protein for human consumption is based on farm animals, which often involve multiple sustainability issues. Moreover, low-grade or speciality proteins not suitable for food or feed applications could serve as feedstock for the bio-based industry.

Biogenic carbon capture and use (CCU) for circular bio-based products

Code: 23497 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The circular economy and the sustainable bioeconomy sectors need to promote technological solutions for carbon capture and use (CCU) and the production of sustainable renewable-carbon-based products.

Biogenic carbon capture and use (CCU) for circular bio-based products

Code: 23465 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The circular economy and the sustainable bioeconomy sectors need to promote technological solutions for carbon capture and use (CCU) and the production of sustainable renewable-carbon-based products.

Cooperative business models for the sustainable mobilisation and valorisation of agricultural residues, by-products, and waste in rural areas

Code: 23356 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

Successful proposals will support the Bioeconomy Strategy and the Common Agriculture Policy by promoting diverse forms of cooperation among primary producers to produce sustainable valueadded bio-based products in fair bio-based value chains.

Alternative sources for high added value food and/or feed ingredients

Code: 23354 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IAFlag-02 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

In line with the Farm to Fork strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system, biodiversity strategy, and the European Green Deal priorities, successful proposals will support the large-scale production of high value food and or feed ingredients from alternative sustainable sources (excluding animal sources), without impacting or regenerating local biodiversity and ecosystems.

Sustainable fibres biorefineries feedstock

Code: 23352 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-05 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

A successful proposal will contribute to the European Green Deal, the EU Bioeconomy strategy and its action plan, the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Sustainable Textiles strategy, the Zero pollution action plan25, as well as the New European Bauhaus initiative and the EU Industrial Strategy, as well as the upcoming Sustainable Product initiative41. The growth of European fibrous bioeconomy is also a powerful tool for revitalising marginal areas suffering from desertification or experiencing socio-economic difficulties.

Developing and validating monitoring systems of environmental sustainability and circularity: collection of best practices and benchmarks

Code: 23350 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-S-01 | Programme name: Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 22/06/2022 | End submission calls: 22/09/2022

The successful proposal will support bio-based industries, traders, and certification companies in tracing environmental impacts and circularity of industrial bio-based systems to enable responsible production in the industrial bio-based systems in the EU, in line with the 2030 Climate Target Plan and the EU Zero pollution action plan. Project outcomes will contribute to enhancing circular biobased systems to operate according to planetary boundaries, replacing fossil-based systems and their carbon footprint, mitigating climate change, restoring biodiversity, and protecting air, water, and soil quality along supply chain of biological feedstock and industrial value chains within the EU and Associated Countries and across borders.

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcome: Monitoring systems and assessment of the environmental impacts and circularity of bio-based systems for the EU single market and for international trade.