Improving biomass flows for a sustainable and circular bioeconomy

Expected outcome

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

• enhanced capacity of private and public stakeholders to increase resource efficiency in collecting, processing and using primary and secondary biomass, ensuring that ecosystems and biodiversity are protected and restored, emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants reduced, and human needs for biomass satisfied in sufficient and fair way, including food security;
• increased environmental, social and economic value added from the various uses of biomass, including bio-waste, e.g. food losses and food waste;
• reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and (air, water and soil) pollution, due to avoiding landfilling and incineration of bio-waste;
• demonstrated environmental, social and economic and social benefits for the municipalities involved in the collection and provision of bio-waste.

Scope

Successful proposals should contribute to the implementation of the new EU bioeconomy strategy and its action plan; and the Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive, e.g. on bio-waste management. Project outcomes will contribute to the objectives of the recent initiatives on Circular Economy, Biotechnology, Competitiveness, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Vision for Agriculture and Food and Life Sciences.

Bioeconomy provides solutions to various challenges. However, companies see themselves challenged to satisfy the growing demand for biomass in the future. There are solutions to increase the sustainable production, including to reduce pollutants, and adjust the demand, e.g. better valorise unused/under-exploited sustainable biomass resources (including unavoidable food waste and industrial residues), and degraded land, apply new breeding techniques and increase resource efficiency through circular design and circular business and consumption models.

Bio-waste represents a vast underutilised biomass resource with substantial potential for valorisation. Private and public actors that aggregate biomass waste streams, pretreat them and standardise them for further valorisation are well placed to foster its improved use. In addition, they play an essential role to increase the transparency of biomass waste supply flows and to provide platforms to match supply and demand. By supporting these types of actors, Europe can increase its capacity to transform more bio-waste into valuable commodities and contribute to sustainable and circular bioeconomy objectives and solutions based on biological resources (including ecosystems).

Proposals should address all the following activities:

• study and optimise business models for the aggregation, pre-treatment, standardisation and primary valorisation of under-utilised biomass resources, including bio-waste from food losses and food waste and/or primary production/industrial biogenic residues. Engage with local governments to create compelling business cases and to showcase best practices that highlight the environmental, social and economic, benefits of bio-waste valorisation. In this context, the successful proposals should collaborate with local communities and stakeholders to ensure that biomass valorisation practices are socially acceptable and beneficial to communities, the environment and the economy;
• support local, regional, and national bioeconomy actors, and develop new or strengthen existing platforms (at least 5) by connecting biomass suppliers, and users, both in urban and rural settings; provide guidance and links to local, regional, or national biomass plans; and facilitate business decisions, especially for SMEs. Additionally, map and study various types of platforms, potentially also digital marketplaces, that match biomass supply and demand within local, regional, and EU contexts;
• identify barriers to and best available practices for the development of biomass platforms (e.g. end-of-waste criteria), and provide recommendations to address them, in national, regional and EU context;
• develop tools and innovative approaches to optimize bio-waste collection, processing and logistics, enhancing resource efficiency and ecosystem health, as well as reducing costs. Exploit the potential of digital solutions to improve the traceability and management of bio-waste streams. Advance innovative and competitive business solutions, developing and testing technological innovations for biomass aggregation, pretreatment, and standardisation, including from under-utilised biomass resources, and processing towards added-value products.

Proposals should pay particular attention to areas where biomass is neither fully valorised nor utilised to its full potential, such as Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraine and other EU candidate countries.

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, the EU Food Systems Monitoring Dashboard), the Circular Biobased Europe Joint Undertaking, the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, the New European Bauhaus and BIOEAST Initiative; as well as considering the topic ‘HORIZON-CL6-2026-CIRCBIO-10: Understanding biomass flows in Europe’. When addressing the collection, pre-treatment and valorisation of food losses and waste, proposals should explore potential links with the work of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste.

The multi-actor approach should be followed, involving concerned actors such as primary producers, industry representatives, regional/local authorities, research institutions.