The HOOP Project will help to unlock bio-based investments and deploy local bio economies in Europe through a systemic and cross-cutting approach. It will offer Project Development Assistance (PDA) to a group of 8 lighthouse cities and city clusters - to build the technical, economic, financial and legal expertise needed to develop concrete investments to valorise OFMSW (Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste) or UWWS (Urban Wastewater Sludge) with the aim of obtaining safe and sustainable bio-based products. Each PDA will contain detailed implementation assistance and a defined Circular Business Model tailored to each participating lighthouse city, as well as financing mechanisms to be used for mobilising investment. Moreover, HOOP will launch stakeholder engagement and citizen science initiatives to allow for the co-design of an improved collection of OFMSW for its later optimum valorisation. It will promote behavioural change and acceptability of biowaste-based products, as well as food waste prevention. The HOOP Project will also feature the HOOP Urban Circular Bioeconomy Hub (UCBH), an online platform that will provide opportunities to replicate the PDAs of the lighthouse cities in other follower cities (currently composed by 26 committed cities from all around Europe) – under the launch of the Network of Follower European Cities. HOOP continues the work of the projects VALUEWASTE, Scalibur and WaystUP!, funded under topic CE-SFS-25-2018 and coordinated by the three technical leaders of HOOP. The HOOP Consortium covers the whole value chain, from biowaste recovery to valorisation and characterization of the final products and unites complementary stakeholders with the deep multi-disciplinary knowledge crucial to PDA creation and the achievement of project objectives. It includes partners from 10 EU member countries, 5 municipalities and 3 clusters of cities.

Adopting effective technologies and practices to improve the management of N/P flows remains a challenge. Additionally, the local dimension of N/P sources and the diversity of water and soil ecosystems across different locations limit the impact of uniform policy measures and related governance models. Addressing this is a priority of EU environmental governance. NPower will create four Regional Clusters (RCs), to guarantee representativity, replicability and impact of developed solutions at EU level: RC1 in Spain (representing South Europe), RC2 in Belgium (Central Europe), RC3 in Finland (North Europe), and RC4 in Ireland (West/Insular Europe). We will act in the paradigmatic region of Murcia, Spain, in which the main challenges of the management of N/P flows are represented, and involve the other 3 RCs to assure the solutions developed are applicable in as many European realities as possible, helping restore ecosystems across the EU. To do so, NPower will 1) model N/P flows across the 5 key sectors to create a regional N/P budget for RC1, 2) demonstrate 6 recovery technologies, 8 recovered fertilizers and 20 BMPs within and among covered sectors that reduce and promote circular economy schemes, 3) design and showcase region-tailored governance measures to halt air, water, and soil N/P pollution, 4) guarantee EU representativity via knowledge transfer among RCs, and 5) disseminate effective N/P limiting solutions to practitioners and policy makers at local, regional, national and EU level. NPower solutions will be assessed on their environmental, socio-economic and behavioural effect. NPower will avoid the emission of 483 k ton N and 2.1 M ton P, saving the EU 14.3B€. Guidance for practice and recommendations will contribute to harmonised regional policies and regulations in line with the key EU directives and strategies (Water Framework Directive, Nitrates Directive, European Green Deal, Clean Environment & Zero Pollution ambition, and Bioeconomy Strategy.

The SYMBA project aims at creating a new and innovative IS method to be replicated within EU according to the local/regional bio-based industrial ecosystem. SYMBA will implement a user-friendly and accessible AI database suggesting regional IS innovative processes to create zero-waste value chains, ensuring more local supply chains; a better distribution of economic and social benefits among the stakeholders and an increase in the economic value of final products. SYMBA solution, aligned with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, is based on a threefold approach: 1) Creation and validation of new IS methodology for the bio-based sector, starting from existing knowledge and lessons earned from SYMBA consortium partners. 2) Individuation of criteria to select regional hubs 3) AI database including Monitoring tools, waste relation matrix, networking and cooperation with ongoing EU and local networks. The partnership has been intentionally selected by its expertise, network with key external stakeholders and geographical reach, bringing together 5 EU countries (IT, ES, BE, NL, DE) to consolidate the maximum outreach of the initiative. It consists of 9 partners with complementary competences: 4 RTD centers (CIRCE, CTB, AIMPLAS; CET); 1 large industry (NVMT); 1 pilot facility (BBEPP); 1 innovative SME (ENCO) and 2 networks (CKIC and ICLEI) with a valuable background in applying IS approach in the bio-based sector, providing services to companies and creating awareness and networking among citizens, policy makers, EU initiatives. Through the involvement of different industrial sectors: agri-food (NVMT); packaging (AIMPLAS); wastewater (CET); textile (CTB); waste valorisation (BBEPP), SYMBA will demonstrate how to shift from a linear to a circular economy contributing to deliver bio-based solutions with reduced environmental impacts on soil, water and air quality.

Fertilisation is key to feeding the growing world population, yet the most common fertilisation scheme based on conventional fertilisers poses threats to the environment (e.g. eutrophication caused by nutrient leaching) and sustainability of the EU food system (due to high dependence on fertiliser imports from third countries). Thus, among the key EU political priorities is to reduce by 20% the use of conventional fertilisers by 2030 and to decrease nutrient losses by 50%. A promising solution for this aim are alternative fertilisers produced from recovered nutrients from secondary raw materials (e.g. bio-waste, sewage sludge). However, their wide scale deployment is hindered by lack of awareness about alternative fertilisation, concerns regarding their technical viability and the disparity of legislations that creates a state of uncertainty. In this context, FER-PLAY is a comprehensive approach to gather, harmonise, select and complement the knowledge on alternative fertiliser value chains and diffuse it to promote the wide-scale production and application of alternative fertilisers with best environmental, social and economic performance as well as technical and regulatory viability. Thus, FER-PLAY employs a unique methodology for mapping the value chains, select the most promising ones and assess their impacts. FER-PLAY engages key stakeholders in co-creation of results and broadly disseminates them. The consortium gathers key players from the whole value chain: (1) alternative fertiliser producers from all the main types of secondary raw materials (producers of digestate- 183 members, of compost- 120 members and of struvite), (2) entities representing conventional (1.5M members), organic (100,000 members) and young (200,000 members) farmers, (3) a Pan-European network with +100 members representing public administrations, supported by (4) waste valorisation and agriculture research institutes, (5) market strategists and (6) communication experts.

BIORECER aims to ensure the environmental performance and traceability of the biological feedstock used by the bio-based industries, deploying guidelines to strengthen the current certification schemes. Within this approach, the added value, the use, as well as social acceptance of bioproducts will be increased. To fulfill this goal, BIORECER is structured in three main technological pillars: 1) to develop a multidimensional assessment framework for an aggregated analysis on the biological feedstocks and their associated supply chains; 2) to create a BIORECER Innovation ecosystem living-lab with a multi-agent approach, testing the framework in 4 bio-based systems supply chain cases of study, and 3) to use all this knowledge to complement current certification schemes including new criteria for certifying biological resources’ sustainability, origin, and traceability, and ensure applicability at EU and global scale. The transition to a bio-based economy is expected to deliver substantial environmental and economic benefits. Specifically, BIORECER will assess the impact of current and adapted certification schemes on consumers and bio-based industries stakeholders’ WTP along with industries and consumers’ acceptance of new bio-value chains from biological feedstocks, including residual feedstock and waste. The project proposes first to design and develop a multidimensional framework to analyze and define the assessment of the environmental performance of biological resources and traceability that will be subsequently validated in 4 full bio-based systems and applicable to a wide range of bio-based value chains. This approach will be unfolded by the joint creation of two levels of interaction: a physical one through the creation of a BioResources Stakeholders Platform (BRSP) and a “digital” one through a BIORECER ICT tool (BIT) to amplify the “scope” of the project.