The Biomasud certification system of the quality and sustainability of solid biofuels (http://biomasud.eu/), was created within the BIOMASUD interreg IV project in 2013 with the aim of covering all typical Mediterranean biomass resources used as solid biofuels in small and medium heating installations: domestic, commercial, institutional etc. The label is owned by several partners established in Spain, Portugal and France.Presently, the label includes wood chips and pellets, olive stones and some types of nut shells. Also within Biomasud project, a GIS tool that provides information about sustainable biomass resources and costs available in different Mediterranean countries was updated and upgraded with new information about agroindustrial residues and pellets production and producers Presently, some solid biofuel companies are already producing under the Biomasud quality label in Spain, and others have also shown the interest to adopt it in Spain and Italy, but there is a strong need for development of the label along the whole Mediterranean area where the biomasses and solid biofuels under the label are widely produced and used in the domestic sector market out of any standards. Moreover, there is also a need to extend the label to new biomasses that are used in the Mediterranean area and which are not covered by the label, this making therefore more difficult their appropriate combustion in stoves or small-medium size boilers. Finally, it is also important to mention that, in order to improve the label, a research is needed to develop new and/or review the existing Biomasud label analytical limits and sustainability tools along the value chain, including, the GHG calculation procedure. In the described context, the overall goal of the project is the improvement, dissemination and market development of the Biomasud label in order to promote the sustainable use of the Mediterranean autochthonous solid biofuels in the domestic sector.

The main objective of BioRural is to create a pan-European Rural Bioeconomy Network under which related stakeholders will cooperate to promote the currently available small-scale bio-based solutions in rural areas to increase the share of Bioeconomy, giving increased value in such remote areas. Such framework will contribute in bridging the gap between the available novel high-end bio-based solutions and the everyday European rural life by assessing the existing situation of European rural Bioeconomy, capturing grassroots-level needs and ideas, promoting effective exchange of knowledge and information and investigating the possible opportunities for regional development through the expansion of bio-based solutions integration in rural Europe. This way, BioRural will develop a transition framework towards a sustainable, regenerative, inclusive and just circular Bioeconomy across all Europe at local and regional scale and support innovators to scale-up inclusive and small-scale bio-based solutions in rural areas. To do so, the project will: (i) Assess and evaluate the current performance of the European rural Bioeconomy in the EU and identify factors affecting innovation adoption and diffusion of bio-based solutions in rural areas; (ii) Create four regional Rural Bioeconomy Platforms (RBPs) that will form a European Rural Bioeconomy Network (ERBN); (iii) Assess and promote success stories of bio-based solutions in rural areas; (iv) Develop and continuously optimise an online open stakeholders’ tool, named BioRural Toolkit; (v) Facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity building for the European rural Bioeconomy through a series of workshops in local, regional and European level; (vi) Create rural development blueprints for regional and business scale-up of resilient and circular bio-based solutions in rural areas and (vii) Disseminate and communicate all activities for maximum visibility and rural Bioeconomy expansion.