Industrial Roadmapping
Challenges to be addressed in Industrial Roadmapping, projects’ main results, gaps to be bridged and recommendations.
Category: Industrial roadmaps
Report on needs and challenges of SME companies in the bioeconomy in NW Europe
Lack of policies related to investment and demand in the bio-based products remain large barriers to small and medium-sized enterprises working in the bioeconomy in North-West Europe. This is the conclusion of a survey carried out as part of the BioBase4SME project in 2018. The project, co-financed by InterregNWE, aimed to support SMEs in the bioeconomy with funded technical and business services, as well as training.
For the survey, bioeconomy SMEs in six countries of North-West Europe were presented with a list of barriers and asked to rate them on how they impact their business development. The SMEs were asked to rate the barrier from 1 to 5, with 5 being a barrier actively preventing business development. The questions were the same as in a survey carried out in 2014 as part of a previous project, Bio Base NWE, also co-financed by InterregNWE. This allows the two surveys to be compared and offers an insight into the progress of the bioeconomy as well as the impact of
bioeconomy policy in NW Europe.
BIO-TIC Pragmatic recommendations for action
The BIO-TIC project comprehensively examined the innovation hurdles in industrial biotechnology (IB) across Europe and formulated action plans and recommendations to overcome them. The projects is built on three pillars: an online industrial biotech community, an assessment of biomass and sustainability in industrial biotech, and an action plan for industrial biotech in Europe. As part of the action plan for industrial biotech three roadmaps to overcome barriers were developed: Market roadmap, R&D roadmap and Non-Technological roadmap.
Principal barrier to European industrial biotechnology development was cost-competitiveness, both compared to fossil alternatives and compared to other regions of the world. This was affected by many factors including the cost of feedstock, technology readiness levels, and the market support for bio-based products. The cost competitiveness issue was compounded by difficulties in accessing finance for large scale projects, an often low end user awareness of IB derived products and by a lack of skills and operational alliances to drive the sector forward.
This press release discusses ten pragmatic recommendations for action to tackle identified barriers and hurdles, and to ensure that most of the market potential is realised in Europe. These cover feedstock issues (improve the opportunities for feedstock producers within the bioeconomy, investigate the scope for using novel biomass), processing issues (promote the use of co-products from processing, improve the bioconversion and downstream processing steps, identify, leverage and build upon EU capabilities for pilot and demonstration facilities), investment challenges (introduce a long-term, stable and transparent policy and incentive framework to promote the bioeconomy, and improve access to finance for large-scale projects) and support for innovation more generally (develop the skills needed now and in the future for the IB industry, assess and improve public perception and awareness of IB and bio-based products, develop stronger relationships between conventional and non-conventional players).
BIO-TIC Summary of hurdles and solutions in industrial biotechnology
The BIO-TIC project comprehensively examined the innovation hurdles in industrial biotechnology (IB) across Europe and formulated action plans and recommendations to overcome them. The projects is built on three pillars: an online industrial biotech community, an assessment of biomass and sustainability in industrial biotech, and an action plan for industrial biotech in Europe. As part of the action plan for industrial biotech three roadmaps to overcome barriers were developed: Market roadmap, R&D roadmap and Non-Technological roadmap.
This document provides a concise overview of main hurdles and solutions collected during the multi-stakeholders iterative process. Presented solutions are discussed in more depth within either the BIO-TIC R&D roadmap or the BIO-TIC non-technological roadmap.
BIO-TIC R&D roadmap
The BIO-TIC project comprehensively examined the innovation hurdles in industrial biotechnology (IB) across Europe and formulated action plans and recommendations to overcome them. The projects is built on three pillars: an online industrial biotech community, an assessment of biomass and sustainability in industrial biotech, and an action plan for industrial biotech in Europe. As part of the action plan for industrial biotech three roadmaps to overcome barriers were developed: Market roadmap, R&D roadmap and Non-Technological roadmap.
The R&D roadmap revolves around the setting of R&D priorities and identifying needs for research, pilot and demonstration plant activities. The analysis focuses on the identification of R&D bottlenecks and required breakthroughs for large-scale deployment of industrial biotechnology in Europe by 2030 across a broad range of technological domains.
Publishable final report
The Open-Bio project aims at increasing the uptake speed of standards, certification systems, labels and data sheets for bio-based products. Public acceptance of bio-based products is increased through ensuring, verifying and visualizing the sustainable sourcing of raw materials, the effective bio-content, the end-of-life options and clear indication of their (comparative) functionality in relation to the regular products. These positive effects will indirectly result in faster growth of the bio-based product industry and increased share of bio-based in the total use of final (consumer) products and intermediates. The Open-bio project promotes these positive effects by facilitating the development and optimization of standards, (ecological) labels and product information databases.
This Seventh Framework Programme project commenced in November 2013. It is partially a follow-up on a pending pre-normative project (KBBPPS), which had initiated the development of standardised methods to test bio-based products for various properties. The current project took these proposed standards forward and elaborated a number of new ones, considering aspects as diverse as the determination of the total bio-based content of a product, its likely biodegradation in sea water, its compostability and the extent to which it can be recycled. Standardised methods help manufacturers to substantiate their claims about the biobased content and related properties of their products. Several of those proposed by the two successive projects have been submitted to the European Committee for Standardization
(CEN) and the International Standardization Organisation (ISO). Four have been adopted, and several more are being finalised in cooperation with these bodies.
In addition to that, it is important that all properties and applications are clearly communicated to the users of bio-based products. Open-Bio has established guidelines for ecological labelling of and for the product information supplied together with bio-based products. A socio-economical investigation towards bio-based products acceptance in six EU Member States complements the work. In the end, the result is intended to lead to standards and policy rules at European level.
BIOBASENWE – Bridging the innovation gap of biobased breakthroughs
RUBIZMO will identify business models with high potential for empowering rural communities to take advantage of the opportunities arising from improved value chain optimisation. It will directly supporting the creation of sustainable jobs and growth in rural economies, supporting a multi-actor approach for generation of shared-value. Ultimately, the project looks to contribute to rural development in Europe, supporting the Europe 2020 Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, as well as supporting Regional and Rural Development policy.
To do this, the project will identify innovative business models (developed or identified in existing projects under FP7, H2020, Interreg, Central Europe, etc.) with a significant potential to support modernisation and sustainable growth in rural economies, and relevant to the food sector, bio-based value chains and ecosystem services. Business models with the potential to contribute to the modernisation and sustainable growth of rural economies will be selected, packaged and classified according to their nature, comprising technologies, services, business support structures, financing mechanisms, etc.
This will result in the creation of four practical, user-oriented tools:
– Virtual library of business cases, to inspire and inform potential entrepreneurs about business opportunities;
– Guidelines on creating favourable conditions for the deployment of innovative business models, to help public authorities and rural networks create adequate framework conditions for rural innovation;
– Toolkit for clustering and network development in rural areas;
– Transformation support tool, to help individual entrepreneurs understand which business models are best adapted to their situation, and how to go about implementing change.
The project will then prepare Europe-wide upscaling and replication in rural areas using real life cases, taking account of the complexity of transferring value chains.
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Financial instrumentEuropean Union’s Cohesion Policy
INTERREG IVB NWE -
Project Website
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DurationFrom: Jan 2013
To: Dec 2016 -
CoordinatorBio Base Europe
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PROJECT CONTENTS
Bio Base NWE for Policy Makers and Advisors
Bridging the innovation gap of biobased breakthroughs. To accelerate the growth of the biobased economy, EU and local partners joined
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET BELGIUM
This factsheet gives an overview of the Belgian bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions,research initiatives, networks
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET EU
This factsheet gives an overview of the European Union’s bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions, research
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET GERMANY
This factsheet gives an overview of the German bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions, research initiatives,
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET IRELAND
This factsheet gives an overview of the Irish bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions, research initiatives,
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET THE NETHERLANDS
This factsheet gives an overview of the Dutch bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions, research initiatives,
Read moreBIOECONOMY FACTSHEET UK
This factsheet gives an overview of the UK bioeconomy innovation technology system. It includes the key government interventions, research initiatives,
Read moreStudy centre
The study centre is where you can find digital study materials, exams and process simulation.These tools are aimed to further
Read moreRoadToBio – Roadmap for the Chemical Industry in Europe towards a Bioeconomy. Engagement Guide Fact sheet 2 – Communication Guide
RoadToBio investigated public perception of bio-based products to identify societal barriers to market uptake.
A combination of literature review and expert interviews yielded insights into consumer perceptions based on which recommendations on how these barriers could be tackled were developed. Many of these are communication-related recommendations.
The recommendations presented in this Communication Guide factsheet can help to shape your communications and customise your key messages.
RoadToBio – Roadmap for the Chemical Industry in Europe towards a Bioeconomy. Engagement Guide Fact sheet 1 – Readers’ Guide
The roadmap written for the chemical industry has the aspiration to show a way on how to increase the share of bio-based or renewable feedstock to 25% of total volume of organic chemicals raw materials/feedstock used by the chemical industry in 2030. This document is intended to provide an evidence-based foundation for the EU chemical industry upon which future policy can be implemented and actions delivered.
The Readers´ Guide factsheet describes the purpose of each element of the roadmap and how they can be used by the chemical industry, policy makers and other interested parties to promote bio-based resource use.
RoadToBio – Roadmap for the Chemical Industry in Europe towards a Bioeconomy – Action Plan
The Action Plan is the first entry point to the RoadToBio roadmap written for the chemical industry. It provides an overview of the key points of the roadmap and shows all identified barriers and recommended actions identified in the project for nine product groups in which bio-based value chains already make up for a significant share, but can still be strengthened: adhesives, agrochemicals, cosmetics, lubricants, man-made fibres, paints and coatings, plastics and/or polymers, solvents, and surfactants.
For these product groups the action plan provides:
- description of current state and opportunities for bio-based products
- overview scheme identifying drivers and barriers
- chevron diagram showing the recommended actions for each barrier
For some wider issues that concern the chemical industry in the bioeconomy. referred to as general barriers, an overview is given and some recommended actions to overcome them are presented.
