CLIB Webinar “Financing Focus: CBE JU Call 2026” – Key Takeaways

On 16 April 2026, CLIB hosted the webinar Financing Focus: CBE JU Call 2026, bringing together more than 50 participants from industry, research, and public institutions to discuss funding opportunities under the upcoming Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) call. 

The session opened with a comprehensive overview of the CBE JU Programme and the 2026 call by Oliver Zobell, Call Coordinator at CBE JU. He outlined the strategic objectives, funding instruments, and expected impacts, and addressed participants’ questions on eligibility and evaluation criteria. 

CLIB Senior Project Managers Sarah Refai and Tatjana Schwabe‑Marković shared practical insights from their hands-on experience supporting successful EU-funded projects. Their input focused on structuring strong consortia, aligning project ideas with call texts, and clearly demonstrating impact, innovation, and EU added value in proposals. 

A presentation highlighting the topics ranked as most interesting by participants ahead of the webinar, ensured the agenda directly reflected the audiences‘ priorities. This interactive approach continued throughout the event: participants were invited to share their contact details and potential project contributions via an online whiteboard. After the webinar, all attendees received an overview of all topics and the online contributions to support follow-up discussions and consortium building. 

The webinar concluded with several project pitches and contribution offers, underlining the strong interest in collaboration by: 

  • Phytowelt GmbH 
  • Stahl Italy Srl 
  • Cardiff Metropolitan University 
  • Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (KSA) 
  • IFEU – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg 
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 

This event contributed to CLIB’s activities in connecting stakeholders, shaping competitive project ideas, and supporting access to European funding opportunities in the bioeconomy. Interested members are encouraged to follow up with CLIB to further develop consortia for the CBE JU Call 2026. 

The call is now available at the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.