CLIB International Conference 2025: Biotech Made in Europe – Ready to Create Impact!

Biotech  Made in Europe – Ready to Create Impact! Perhaps never has a CIC’s motto been so in tune not only with the current spirit of the times of the biotechnology sector, but also with the overall socio-political mood. Is Europe “Ready to Create Impact”? Nearly 200 participants from industry, academia, associations, investors, and politics gathered in Düsseldorf to examine this statement over two days with presentations, discussions, and numerous talks. It became clear that Europe must keep up if it does not want to fall behind and be left behind. This year’s presentations gave many hopeful examples that promising catalysts exist, biotechnological processes are being established by well-known companies, and even waste can be recycled into new materials. In many places, the cheerful family reunion atmosphere of CIC was accompanied by an almost fierce determination not to throw these achievements overboard, but to use them to create a better future.

After the opening words of our CLIB Chairman Roland Breves and his wake-up call for Europe, Maarit Nyman, Senior Expert on industrial bioeconomy at DG GROW (European Commission), stressed the importance of de-fossilising the EU economy, where biotech was recognised as an important part across a range of sectors. In her remarks, Marit pointed out that while biotechnology is back on the agenda, its implementation will have to be increased via shorter time to market and access to finance, but also communication beyond the biotech bubble. In her video greeting, Minister Mona Neubaur (MWIKE) made it clear that a climate-neutral society will also rely on biotechnological innovations, dialogue with experts (e.g. in the new NRW Bioeconomy Council) as well as cross-border dialogue, to ensure that expertise grows through exchange.

In their initial keynote, Juliane Merz and Silko Grimm (both Evonik) took the audience on their journey throughout the Rheticus project, which aims to use CO₂ as renewable feedstock for production of carbon-neutral specialty chemicals. Michael Brandkamp from EBCF made it clear, there is no use in closing your eyes to ignore the problems. To tackle the global challenges, bioeconomy is not an option – it is a must!

The first session on Catalysts for the new Industrial Deal was opened by moderator Carolin Mügge (RUB). In the following, the speakers explored cutting-edge biosolutions that harness nature’s ingenuity, innovative approaches to CO₂ utilization that turn a climate challenge into an opportunity, and green chemistry breakthroughs that are redefining what’s possible in sustainable production.  Mads Mourier (Novonesis) emphasized the importance of industrial biosolutions in EU’s green transition. The second talk was given by Philipp Arbter (Colipi) who presented two fermentation technologies based on organic waste stream or CO₂ valorisation to produce a so called “climate oil”. The last presentation of this session was held by Yamini Satyawali (VITO) who emphasized process innovations in oleochemical industry by using enzymes and membranes.

As warm-up for the next session “Valorising Waste – Unlocking New Feedstocks”, our moderator Kathrin Greiff (ANTS department of the RWTH Aachen University) gave a short introduction into material cycles. As the first presentation, Sebastian Beblawy (EveryCarbon) showed how EveryCarbon converts spoiled, unrefined, and heterologous waste streams in an open culture fermentation into valuable products such as sustainable substitutes for polystyrene. In the following, Lars Blank from RWTH Aachen presented results of his large joint project “Mix-Up” which has successfully targeted one of the largest waste streams: plastic. As the final talk of this session, Oscar K. K. Bedzo (Celignis) presented the BIONEER project, which aims to replace fossil based functional building blocks by carbohydrate- derived components from lignocellulosic biomass.

The first day of the conference ended with an engaging panel discussion moderated by Sarah Hickingbottom from FutureBridge. Christian Lenges (IFF) prepared the participants for the discussion on “How to regulate for impact?” in a short presentation. Completed by Stefanie Bröring (Ruhr University Bochum), Sebastian Kunz (Südzucker), Christian Patermann as former member of the European Commission, and Mark Redshaw (Evonik Ventures), the panel argued that Europe has to provide a robust and coherent policy framework for the requirements of bioeconomy. Investors, companies, and consumers can be attracted and engaged by transparent and constant rules for new products targeting a clear aim, like the preservation of health or safety. They also emphasised the need for a constant dialogue between companies and policy makers, potentially facilitated by a structured dialogue platform inviting all stakeholders to contribute.

Moderated by Andreas Worberg, the second day started with insights into biotech processes. In the first keynote, Patrick Rose (SPRIN-D) emphasized the will of his agency to support innovations, e.g. in the ongoing Biomanufacturing challenge where 6 teams out of 8 are still in funding (among of them 2 CLIB members). As a representative of a global company that has already brought numerous biotechnological processes to application, Stephan Freyer (BASF) picked up the thread in the second keynote and showed pathways to successful biomanufacturing and various biotech processes that BASF has established in Europe in recent years. As efficient downstream processes have become increasingly important in biotech, Tamara Janković (TU Delft) presented a clever way to address product inhibition by smart technologies.  René Rozendal (Paques Biomaterials) showed how this spin-out treats industrial wastewater and how they produce PHA from organic waste by mixed culture fermentations.

The last session “Fabricated by biotech – Dressed for impact” was all about the impact biotechnology can have in the textile industry. It was opened by Isabella Tonaco (Sustainable Chemistry for the Textile Industry – SCTI), who compared the textile industry to the wild west – a highly competitive and territorial industry in which sustainability often is just starting to emerge and companies have to navigate a mass of different certificates. Maike Rabe (Hochschule Niederrhein, University of Applied Sciences) and Constantin Singer (OceanSafe) presented how they – together with many other partners – try to support companies and develop new solutions in the textile sector, e.g. in the project KLARTEXT. In the following, Vincenza Caolo (Qorium) presented their developments in replacing leather with cell-culture based leather – produced similarly to cell-cultured meat using fibroblasts taken from cows and grown on a scaffold. Rudi Breier (Textilchemie Dr. Petry) concluded the session by showcasing how biotechnology has been used in textile production for more than 30 years, replacing chemical processes with enzymatic ones.

The CIC2025 was concluded by another round of topic lounges which addressed the catalysts, the waste valorisation, and the textile sector. Here, all participants got another opportunity to ask questions, discuss developments, and find new network contacts. We hope you enjoyed this year’s CIC, whether it was taking part in our give-away dice game, the exciting presentations or an intensive exchange over a coffee. Now it is up to all of us to make Europe ready for impact!