Bio-based Industries

Although pigs are actually one of world’s cleanest creatures – despite their reputation to the contrary – cleaning up after them is a challenging task. The bulk, gas emissions and associated odours give pig manure a bad name. But if you know how to extract them, there are value nutrients secreted in the slurry. The EU-funded EfficientHeat project has advanced waste disposal while giving pig farmers the potential to turn manure into money.

By far the most heated debate surrounding biofuels is the use of food crops to produce fuel, as the practice increases the competition for land and drives up the price of food . With a decade of research behind it, the European Union (EU)-funded project KACELLE has proven that crops such as wheat and maize do not necessarily need to be used in the increasing demand for energy.

Research partnerships between the EU, the private sector and Member States presented their first calls for projects and partners under Horizon 2020, the EU's €80 billion research and innovation programme, at an event in Brussels on 9 July 2014.

Public-private partnerships set up under the EU's new research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, will launch their first calls on 9 July 2014 in Brussels. The partnerships work in strategic areas such as medicines, fuel cells, air and rail transport or electronics. They represent an essential investment into Europe's economy and in a better quality of life.

They will launch calls for projects and partners at a stakeholder event in Brussels, which will be attended by the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso along with the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as well as Commission Vice-Presidents Siim Kallas, responsible for mobility and transport, and Neelie Kroes, responsible for the digital agenda.

AGROCOS is a pioneering European project which is using modern scientific techniques to explore the ancient – and still largely untapped - richness of nature to develop new products for the agrochemical and cosmetics industries.

This short video animation will guide you through the first steps you will need to take to apply to Horizon 2020.

Find out more about Horizon 2020 in this three minute animation clip which will give you a general overview of the programme specifics.

In a time of climate change, when fuel resources are under pressure and lands face potential erosion risks, humble grass seems an unlikely saviour. The European research project OPTIMA is helping cultivate high-yielding perennial grasses that could address these possible challenges, offering a number of valuable environmental and economic benefits.

Although fossil oils are dwindling, they are still our main energy source and continue to dominate the global chemical industry. However, the European Union (EU)-funded research project ICON helped breed crops to produce high-value plant oils that are expected to break the chemical sector’s dependence on petroleum.

You may have heard of the bioeconomy and wondered what it is all about. Discover it now!

EU Member States have the obligation to collect and treat domestic and industrial wastewater from urban areas under the Urban Wastewater Directive. This mandatory treatment is very costly, thus it is important to re-use the by-products thereby.

Around one quarter of all prescribed pharmaceuticals in the developed world are derived from plants, including well-known drugs such as morphine and codeine. Harvesting plants to derive such medicines can be slow, wasteful and very expensive, yet often no synthetic alternative exists.

Ethanol is relatively easy to produce and can be used in existing engines. However, the so-called first-generation technology currently used to produce ethanol is energy-inefficient, offering slim carbon savings over gasoline, and it relies on edible crops such as maize and sugar beet, which some scientists argue could drive up global food prices.

Natural rubber is a unique raw material with a whole range of applications. To reduce the current dependence on the rubber tree which mainly grows in Asia, a European substitute is vital.

What’s in Horizon 2020 for you? What are the new calls and how to apply for funding?
We invite you to the Info Day 2014 in Brussels, on 17 January, to get first-hand information on the new EU funding instrument and to find the answer to these and many other questions.

The packaging industry is under pressure to improve its environmental performance and become more competitive. In addition, food packaging safety has come under more scrutiny.

An innovative EU-funded project has addressed all three of these objectives at once, with a straightforward yet potentially revolutionary solution using tomato skins.

An EU-funded cooperation project between India and several EU countries could transform food processing by products into food ingredients and new food products by providing sustainability and competitiveness to the food industry.