RECOVER is a disruptive RIA proposal built upon the actual needs to solve the contamination of agro-fields with non-biodegradable agro-plastics as well as to improve municipal waste handling by decreasing drastically the packaging fraction going to unsustainable waste management routes. We intend to reach our ambitious objectives applying biotech solutions that will include symbiotic bioprocesses between previously reported high powered microorganisms through microbiotic systems vectored by several insect species. Indeed, one of the main innovations in our proposal is the combination of endogenous and exogenous microorganisms and their inoculation on insects. This will allow achieving higher levels of biodegradation and direct conversion (at the same time) of agri-food plastic wastes in insect by-products such as chitin, that can be converted in chitosan (high value as bioplastics raw materials and other interesting industrial applications due to anti-microbial activity) that will be used in active packaging, enhanced mulching films and biofertilizers applications. RECOVER will help providing novel biotechnological solutions applying microorganisms, enzymes and insects to degrade conventional plastic packaging and agricultural films waste streams but also result in new feedstocks for the bio-based industries. The process will be optimized and performed either ex-situ in composting reactors (preferred route for non-recyclable plastics from municipal solid waste or for agricultural films that can be collected easily) or in-situ in the case of bioremediating soil pollution, by e.g. mulching films, further contributing to the long-term removal of non-biodegradable polymers from the environment. In addition, RECOVER can solve the microplastics pollution at the level of both industrial composting and soil.

Poor nutritional regimes are main drivers of metabolic diseases and intestinal dysbiosis. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevalence is expected to reach 7% of the global population by 2023, and to curb its rise is an urgent public health need. Intestinal dysbiosis is a determinant factor in the progression of insulin resistance to T2D, shifting host metabolism though undefined mechanisms whose understanding would be crucial to allow personalized interventions. Advances have been limited by microbiome complexity and inter-individual variance. DiBaN binds together the necessary combination of expertise to address this question, based on the concept that the initial driver of the nutritional effects is the metabolic shift that takes place in the intestinal bacteria which is transduced to the host. In this context, technological breakthrough tools for novel food development, that ensure the promotion of a healthy microbiome-host metabolic interface, are an urgent need to prevent dysbiosis and T2D. DiBaN will overcome current limitations in nutrient-testing by developing advanced ex-vivo platforms that fully recapitulate the in vivo setting of dysbiosis and insulin resistance, that will be validated with in vivo omic data. To warrantee the health promoting effects of novel foods we will test a new concept in the emerging field of insect food technology, that an adequate insect’s metabolic-intestinal health ensures the healthy properties of its derived products. The validation of this idea will also serve to identify biomarkers for the monitorization of the insect’s health status. A. domesticus will be the testing model of choice, due to its excellent nutritional profile, that will be boosted by complementing the insect’s diet with microalgae bioactive-rich extracts. All these data will be integrated for the design of a pilot artificial intelligence (AI)-based application for the prediction of personalized responses to nutritional interventions.