As the solid waste management crisis is growing in its urgency, humanitarian aid practitioners are faced with the question of how to manage environmental challenges linked with aid that is being shipped across various humanitarian settings. One of the sound solutions how to address this challenge is to open up a streamline of cooperation between humanitarian aid operators and the bio-based sector allowing them to explore the application potential of bio-based products, systems, and innovative technological solutions. Bio4HUMAN aims to contribute to the identification of bio-based solutions for solid waste management that have the potential to be applicable in various humanitarian settings. To achieve this goal, Bio4HUMAN will conduct a scoping exercise that will come up with a list of solutions but also identify existing supply chain gaps. Following that, it performs life cycle assessments of the proposed solutions and evaluates their applicability with regard to socio-economic and governance aspects. To explore if solutions fit the purpose of key solid waste management stakeholders and to explore the possibility of their acceptance by the community, local businesses, and local authorities, Bio4HUMAN conducts a feasibility evaluation process in 2 African locations. Simultaneously, the project will develop a replication roadmap that will contribute to the future replicability of the solutions identified. Altogether, all of the Bio4HUMANs actions will help to improve ways of addressing waste management challenges under humanitarian contexts and to the reduction of waste littered in the environment. In the long run, Bio4HUMAN is expected to contribute to the development of innovative and sustainable value chains that will benefit consumers and citizens in Europe and beyond.

In the coming decades, society faces the formidable challenge of providing sustenance for a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Fortunately, the burgeoning field of biotechnology holds significant promise in addressing this challenge by revolutionizing food production. The central aim of this proposal is to pave the way for the widespread adoption of an innovative technology known as cellular agriculture, which is poised to play a pivotal role in facilitating the global protein transition. Cellular agriculture, in essence, represents a breakthrough methodology for producing a spectrum of sustainable food products. Lead by 8 organisations from 7 countries, representing the innovation ecosystem, APROVALS aims to facilitate the seamless integration of emerging cellular agriculture technologies into the global food landscape, through two main activities: - Sandbox for Innovation: APROVALS offers a dedicated sandbox environment where innovators can test and refine their solutions. This sandbox acts as a fertile ground for experimentation, enabling startups and SMEs to develop their technologies and bring them to market. - Interconnected Stakeholders: The project places a strong emphasis on fostering collaboration among key stakeholders involved in cellular agriculture: 1) Start-ups and Growing SMEs: These enterprises are provided with essential support to advance their technologies and successfully navigate the journey from innovation to market. 2) Innovation Support: Tailored support initiatives are crafted to mitigate risks associated with the innovation process, fostering a conducive ecosystem for cellular agriculture innovation. 3) Regulators and Policymakers: APROVALS actively engages with regulators and policymakers to establish robust protocols and a legal framework. This framework serves to safeguard the market and consumers while simultaneously preventing unwarranted regulatory hurdles that could impede progress in cellular agriculture.

Unlocking the full potential of the bioeconomy and its value chains requires a systematic and collaborative perspective for) the development of new skills, educational approaches and organisational solutions to provide education and training services. The aim of the BIObec project is to develop a holistic framework for multi-level Bio-Based Education Centers (BBEC) flexible enough to answer the present and future needs of the industry and of the surrounding ecosystem at local, regional, national and/or international levels. The project will design 6 BBEC pilots assuring a wide geographical coverage in Europe and addressing different topics linked to the variety of value chains and institutional contexts (vocational to university level, primary producers, processors, SMEs to MNCs). BIOBEC will clarify the needs of the different regional ecosystems and will provide detailed design, economic and financial assessment, governance plans for the educational training centres, as well as plans for life-long-learning programmes. It will also develop collaborative tools to maximize the synergies between them at the European and international level. The project will mobilise a network of 19 partners, which are leaders in Bioeconomy Education from different perspectives (ranging from academia to industry) together with a wide network of Implementation and Replication Working Groups and local stakeholders based in the EU. This network will pave the way for implementation and replication of the BBEC, in order to boost the contribution of the education sector for the development of the bioeconomy.

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 MPowerBIO project will obtain feedback from clusters, SMEs and investors on the concrete challenges they have regarding investments and build an online platform containing digital tools for evaluating investment readiness, as well as online training modules to build the capacity of clusters to train their SME members. The project will provide 10 training the trainers events for a total of 90 clusters across the bioeconomy, covering most of Europe, supported by the online platform. This will the improve the capacity of participating clusters to service their SME members, and allow them to test the learning on SMEs in a supervised manner, at a series of 10 regional events, helping the SMEs to prepare and present high-quality projects to investors. The best SME projects will be selected by investors, and invited to one of two European finals, which are based on the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum model, run by the consortium members. A total of 72 high-quality, screened and investment-ready SME are expected to pitch at the two final events. The proposal is based on two consecutive cycles, allowing 350 SMEs to be screened and supported over the project, with experience from the first cycle being used to improve the project second cycle. The proposal takes account of the difference in Europe in investment activities, the required skills for trainers and the different types of investors in each country. MPowerBIO will ensure that clusters become self-supporting in this respect on completion of the project, with the ability to maintain these skills within their own organisations. The project will produce a replication guide to ensure that project results can be widened to other areas after completion.