Category: Standardisation, LCA, labelling and regulatory hurdles

D7.2 – First Stakeholder Workshop

Posted on by LIFT Team

The first stakeholder workshop of the BioMonitor Project took place on October 23rd, 2018, at the CEN-CENELEC Meeting Centre Brussels, from 9:00 to 12:30. 31 participants attended the workshop, of which 19 were external stakeholders and 12 were BioMonitor partners. From the external stakeholders, 7 came from research organisations, 6 from industry and industry associations, 4 from policy institutions and 2 from statistical institutions.

At the workshop, the project was presented by the coordinator Prof. Justus Wesseler (WUR), followed by a presentation of Dr. Stephan Piotrowski (NOVA) on indicators for the monitoring of the bioeconomy and by Dr. Hans van Meijl (WEcR) on the BioMonitor Model Toolbox. These presentations served as a background for the following group discussions which had the objective of receiving input from the stakeholders regarding the objectives, criteria and indicators that should be included in the monitoring system of the bioeconomy to be developed.

After this group discussion, a presentation by Ortwin Costenoble (NEN) on the BioMonitor trainings followed. Also on this part, group discussions were organised with the objective of identifying training needs by data providers (industries, governmental organisations, researchers), data managers (statistical offices), and data users (customs, (inter-)national policy makers, industries).

In the following two sections, both discussion parts are summarized and conclusions are drawn. All presentations can be found as attachments to this report.

Deliverable D1.2: Mapping of relevant value chains and stakeholders

Posted on by LIFT Team

This report details the methodology employed in order to identify, select and map exemplary bio-based value chains for further analysis within the STAR-ProBio project.  In order to determine their strengths, weaknesses, costs and benefits, a long-list of bio-based value chains was subjected to a systematic review of their promise with regards to a two-tiered set of criteria.  Tier 1 covered analysis of feedstock variability, multi-regional supply chain, a variety of end-of-life options, gaps in sustainability schemes, EU preference feedstock, multi-sector application and potential for growth, and Tier 2 examined their relevance to target feedstock and technology preferences of EU-based bio-economy initiatives and other relevant sustainability schemes.  The final resulting 4 bio-based values chains were mapped fully at each supply chain stage for visualisation of system dynamics, interconnections, chain actors, employed conversion routes, and existing/potential end-of-life options. These maps are made available in the report.

THE EUROPEAN BIOECONOMY IN 2030

Posted on by LIFT Team

This White Paper is the result of discussions between the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) that cover different segments
of the European Knowledge-Based-Bioeconomy (KBBE) and a series of open meetings with their array of stakeholders. The
primary focus of this document is to elaborate on common themes and joint priorities across the widely diverse sectors relevant
for the European Bioeconomy. Naturally through the different roles of the sectors and the different stakeholders, each ETP will
put specific emphasis on the common goals while following their own specific objectives. Consequently this White Paper does
not replace, but complements, the Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs) of each individual ETP.

Acknowledgment:
This White Paper is the result of a successful collaboration between the following European Technology Platforms which have
been working together for two years in a project funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
(Contract KBBE-2008-226526: BECOTEPS – Bio-Economy Technology Platforms). The stakeholders represented in all the ETPs are
industry and academia. In addition, farmers, forest owners, consumers and civil society organisations are represented in the
relevant ETPs.

BECOTEPS – The Bio-Economy Technology Platforms join forces to address synergies and gaps between their Strategic Research Agendas

Posted on by LIFT Team

The nine European Technology Platforms (ETPs) that focus on the Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) join forces in this support action ‘BECOTEPS’.

The main objectives and the respective activities will be:

  1. Achieve closer and more coordinated collaboration between the KBBE ETPs.
  2. Develop recommendations for better interaction between KBBE ETP stakeholders along the product chains and the sustainability issue regarding multidisciplinary research, application and policy issues.

BECOTEPS will help to link science and application by addressing synergies and gaps i) between the SRAs of the ETPs and ii) with respect to the research preparedness of the scientific community by topical workshops on cross-cutting KBBE issues.
The first workshop will address trust and collaboration in the food and feed chain, the second the integration of the non-food chains, and the third cross-cutting sustainability issues. The workshop recommendations on research and policy will be summarised in a White Paper.

3) Encourage discussions among public research initiatives – European and national – and between the public and the private research initiatives to foster implementation of the Strategic Research Agendas based on the recommendations developed between the ETPs. In addition, BECOTEPS will promote the KBBE concept with the European Commission, European Parliament and national ministries in the member states including the relevant ERA-NETs.
A small number of dissemination events will be held to discuss the KBBE, recommendations from the workshops on implementing cross-cutting issues from the ETPs’ Strategic Research Agendas (including Lead Markets, SMEs, education and training), and future collaboration.

PROJECT CONTENTS

THE EUROPEAN BIOECONOMY IN 2030
This White Paper is the result of discussions between the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) that cover different segmentsof the European
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    Acceptance factors for bio-based products and related information systems

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    To ensure the effectiveness of measures that support the demand of bio-based products work package 9 of the Open-Bio project on “Social Acceptance” targets the identification of key criteria for the market acceptance of bio-based products and related standards and information systems, including labelling options for bio-based products. This report represents the second deliverable of work package 9 and provides an overview of the relevant acceptance factors for the following three target groups: (1) consumers, (2) businesses and (3) public procurement officials. The report summarize the findings from qualitative focus group research and quantitative survey on consumer acceptance and the
    overall results of a two-stage Delphi survey targeting the business community and public procurement officials (based on separate survey questionnaires).

    Product information list guidelines

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    With the development of a Product Information list, the project aims at developing a European product information database of bio-based products that could be used for public procurement (B2P) and communication among producers of bio-based materials (B2B). The database should also be used to promote the uptake of bio-based products in consumer markets (B2C).

    EU bio-based label description and strategy

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    The objective was to assess the suitability of ecolabel criteria for bio-based products, or in other words, to find out whether the existing
    criteria of ecolabels can be applied to bio-based products, whether there are conflicts of harmonization and whether additional criteria can or have to be added in order to adequately label bio-based products. The task concluded that yes, indeed, it was possible to design the criteria of a multi-issue ecolabel in a way that they give credit to the advantages of bio-based products and provide them in an advantage (see D7.3). It was decided not to design a completely new label, but to suggest changes to the existing EU Ecolabel.

    The EU Ecolabel and bio-based products

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    One of the Open-Bio work packages dealt with the question, whether the EU Ecolabel can be extended to explicitly cover bio-based products, and if yes, how. The objective was to assess the suitability of ecolabel criteria for bio-based products, or in other words, to find out whether the existing criteria of ecolabels can be applied to bio-based products, whether there are conflicts of harmonization and whether additional criteria can or have to be added in order to adequately label bio-based products.

    The most important findings of this research is written in this article.

    Validated biogasification test

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    This report contains a review of existing standards on anaerobic digestion and biogasification of (bio-based) products and the development of a horizontal test methodology, testing scheme and acceptance criteria for (bio-based) products to be compatible with biogasification as end-of-life option. Also an evaluation of benefits and shortcomings with a specific focus on products and components most likely to end up in gasification plants, i.e. bio-based plastics and bio-based packaging materials.

    This research has not been limited to Europe, but was carried out on a worldwide basis.

    Validated standard for decentralized composting

    Posted on by LIFT-Team

    The objective of task 6.2 “Validation of decentralized compostability test standards” of the Open-Bio project is the development of a test scheme to evaluate if bio-based products can be disposed in a home composting system without having a negative impact on the produced compost. This implies that no visual contaminants, toxic residuals and/or not-biodegradable constituents may remain present in the compost. This work is a follow-up of work carried out earlier in the project (Deliverable 6.3 “Review on decentralized composting” and Deliverable 6.4 “Draft standard on decentralized composting”).