Abstract
Biotech4Food brings together 26 partners from eight EU regions, with a budget of EUR 4.36 million, including EUR 3 million from the I3 Instrument. Based on the S3 partnership ‘Ingredients for a Circular Economy’, it accelerates the development and market introduction of innovative ingredients and bio-based products through three new agri-food value chains. The project applies industrial (white) biotechnology and marine (blue) biotechnology to deliver cleaner processing technologies, circular use of biomass, and high-protein food solutions. In Central Macedonia (Greece), a Less Developed Region, Biotech4Food strengthens local capacity through technology transfer and SME participation, linking them with advanced R&D and markets from other regions to support a more competitive, sustainable, and resilient European agri-food sector.
The consortium of the project, based on the S3 partnership ‘Ingredients for a Circular Economy’, brings together 11 clusters / RTOs and 15 companies. In total 26 partners from 8 regions focus on cross-sectoral and interregional collaboration to accelerate the development and the commercialisation of innovative ingredients / products, novel and/or improved, biobased ingredients, based on the definition of 3 new value chains.
Creating a community brings companies together in a forum with a focus on implementation of biotechnological solutions for challenges of the agri-food industry. There is also a collaboration between companies and RTOs which opens opportunities. Biotech4Food enhances an interregional ecosystem where actors from in transition and less developed regions will exchange with more developed regions.
Biotech4Food aims to build a conducive ecosystem enabling investment and innovation across new value chains at the nexus between biotechnology and the agri-food industry. The objectives are aimed to make the agri-food industry more sustainable, by innovation investment projects, with cleaner processing technologies, more circular manufacturing practices, efficiently valorising biomass resources and side streams and developing new ingredients for sustainable food, nutrition and agri-food systems.
Technologically, the project focusses on industrial (white) biotechnology (fermentation, enzymes, microbial proteins, etc), and marine (blue) biotechnology (micro- and macroalgae, marine biomass, enzymes, etc.), deploying TRL6+ innovative biotech solutions, and aims to meet ambitious environmental, societal, industrial, digital and climate policy targets.
Within the Biotech4Food project, the agri-food SMEs will be supported to set-up interregional innovation investments at the nexus between biotechnology and the agri-food industry, on the road towards commercialisation and scale-up of their business. There is a clear need for broad advisory and financial support that will provide the SMEs the tools to overcome the barriers and hurdles identified.
Biotech4Food supports 15 companies in their implementation projects based on innovation and biotechnology, close to the market.
Biotech4Food works on the building of 3 new value chains linked to biotechnologies.
The 15 companies are implementing the innovation projects.