The OLinWASTE project aims to revolutionize the biorefinery sector by establishing an integrated zero-emission system for olive mill waste. Leveraging advanced anaerobic digestion technology, the project will convert olive mill waste into high-value products such as bioimmunostimulants, biopesticides, biofertilizers, bioplastics, and bioenergy. This innovative approach will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, soil pollution, optimize resource flows, and enhance environmental sustainability. By creating a system digital twin, OLinWASTE will ensure efficient material, energy, and waste management. The project will also focus on noise and odour reduction, thermal energy recovery, and soil, water, and air quality protection. This innovative approach not only creates new revenue streams for the olive oil industry but also sets new benchmarks in waste management and energy efficiency. The mission of the project is to support the olive sector and biogasification operators in improving their environmental performance, circularity, and overall sustainability. With a consortium of leading universities, research institutes, and industry partners, OLinWASTE is set to establish new benchmarks in sustainable waste management and renewable energy production, promoting circularity and cutting the carbon footprint in the olive oil and biogas sectors. By fostering innovation and collaboration, the project aims to create scalable, sustainable solutions that can be widely adopted, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

Adhesives and coatings are an integral part of consumer products used in our daily lives. Today, the vast majority of adhesives and coatings on the market are formulated using fossil-based and harmful chemicals, which conflicts with the EU-level goal of reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources and protecting the health and well-being of citizens and the environment. The SuperBark project will exploit natural components in softwood bark, a major industrial side stream of forest industry, to develop 95% bio-based adhesives and coatings for wood panels and packaging paper with the functional, safety, and sustainability standards required by the industry and consumers. The project partners will deliver this through 1) extraction of polyphenols from bark using a novel alkaline fractionation technology and conversion of cellulose-rich bark residues into cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) 2) development of adhesive and coating formulations using bark polyphenols and CNF that meet technical requirements and build on Safe and Sustainable by Design principles set out by the JRC and 3) combination of digital technologies in process design, system dynamics modelling, and data analysis to accelerate the adhesive and coating developments and evaluate technical, socio-economic and market opportunities. The project findings will be disseminated to scientists, policy makers, society, and industrial actors in relevant sectors, including furniture, construction, transportation and packaging, to raise awareness on the benefits of the adhesives and coatings developed from bark components. The exploitation of results from SuperBark will have a measurable economic impact on the consortium companies and will also translate into clear environmental and health impacts to the society, in alignment to the objectives set in the CBE JU annual work program.

BIOSWITCH main aim is to bring Europe to the forefront of the bio-based economy, encouraging and supporting brand owners to switching to bio-based approaches by following a holistic, systemic approach built on two pillars: (1) a framework where brand owners are placed as the centre of the public administration-bio-based industry-consumers triangle through a set of events and communication actions; and (2) the BIOSWITCH toolbox as the ultimate instrument that will assist them in the bio-based transition journey. Main novelty is a bio-based transition level self-assessment test to be done by brand owners so they can get access only to the tools that match their needs. The framework will support the mapping and analysis exercise, where information about brand owners needs, motivations and incentives will be gathered. Perceived risks and mitigation actions will be identified and awareness and discussions with consumers will be fostered. Then, the BIOSWITCH toolbox will be developed and validated through four brand owner driven cases studies (NOPA Nordic, ALPRO, ZAFER and Grupo La Caña) that represent four different bio-based transition strategies from chemistry, forest, food and agro sectors and different levels of bio-based transition level. A replication plan development and toolbox roll-out will be conducted. Both regional and pan-European approaches will be considered all along the project. Main impact to be achieved will be reaching brand owners that are not familiar with bio-based approaches (at least 81 clusters that are not BIC members), and increasing brand owners interest in bio-based strategies, as well as triggering their level of involvement and commitment to bioeconomy (it is foreseen that and at least 180 brand owners from partners networks can be reached). Bio-based product acceptance will be also increased as at least 550 attendees are expected in all project foreseen events.

BalticSeaH2 will establish the first, largescale interregional hydrogen valley in Europe. BalticSeaH2 will build a main cross-border Hydrogen Valley between Finland and Estonia and connects it with local valleys in different countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The ultimate goal is to develop an international hydrogen economy and markets that work optimally both from the technical, economic and environmental perspectives across country borders in the Northern Europe, more specifically around the Baltic Sea. The project will develop, scale and demonstrate hydrogen use in production, storage and distribution, and in Use Cases in different sectors from industry, mobility and energy. The learnings from the cross-border build-up of a hydrogen economy will be shared with specifically identified Connected Valleys and replicated across borders between them, but furthermore, shared to boost replication and initiate new hydrogen valleys across Europe. The cross border Main Valley is to be located in the region of Southern Finland – Estonia. These regions are already connected with a natural gas pipeline, transmission cable and maritime operations and the Transmission System Operators (TSO) in both countries collaborate actively in the further development of the cross border infrastructures. The cross border nature of the Main Valley makes is possible to develop cross border markets and businesses for green hydrogen production, transport and use from the start, including also development of cross border neighbouring pricing zones for renewable electricity to reach optimized system, market and business designs for an efficient hydrogen economy.