BIOTRANSFORM: A new Horizon Europe project kicked-off!

PRESS RELEASE 25 October 25

We are delighted to announce the official start of BIOTRANSFORM, a HORIZON EUROPE Coordination and Support Action funded by the European Union, under Grant Agreement No. 101081833, with a budget of approximately 2 million EUR. The project started in October 2022 and will last 30 months. On 18 -19 October 2022 the project’s kick-off meeting was held in Vienna, Austria. During the meeting all partners presented their involvement and responsibilities in the project and shared their ideas and ambitions for a successful implementation to achieve the specific project objectives.

BIOTRANSFORM provides European policymakers with an adequate assessment and policy development framework, knowledge base and an expert support ecosystem to accelerate the transition from linear fossil-based systems to circular bio-based systems. It is therefore operating at the interface between the circular economy and the bioeconomy transitions. BIOTRANSFORM’s “assessment package” will be tested by and provided for European policymakers. To achieve this, the project develops and tests its framework to establish and roll out circular bio-based systems by applying a multi-actor approach around 6 regional cases: Andalusia (Spain), Northern Burgenland (Austria), Western Macedonia (Greece), across Finland, Charles Spa Region (Czech Republic) and North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). These regional case-studies represent several important industries and transition scenarios for Europe such as: forestry, agri-food, lake ecosystems, lignite and minerals, and chemicals. Action roadmaps will consider specific regional available resources and infrastructures, conversion pathways, logistics, current policies, strategies, and access to finance.

The BIOTRANSFORM consortium, led by the VTT, consists of 10 partners across 8 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Luxemburg, and Spain). The consortium members are: VTT, Alchemia-Nova, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, VITO, CTA, CluBE – Cluster of Bioeconomy & Environment of Western Macedonia, CLIB – Cluster industrielle Biotechnologie, Bioeast Hub CR, Association of cities and regions for sustainable resources management and Q-Plan International.

The consortium will launch its social media accounts and website in due time to publicise all project activities. Stay tuned!

Project Coordinator: jussi.lahtinen@vtt.fi

Dissemination Manager: kanellos@qplan-intl.gr