Retrofitting of (bio)refineries industrial plants towards higher-value bio-based products
Funds retrofitting an existing industrial or biorefinery plant to produce higher-value bio-based chemicals or materials than its old process line.
This call runs as a single-stage Horizon Europe Innovation Action inside the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking's 2025 work programme, with one grant expected at a fixed EU contribution of EUR 20,000,000 published as both the minimum and maximum figure. Proposals follow the page-limit and layout rules set out in Part B of the Application Form and are submitted once through the EU Funding …
Proposals must retrofit an existing industrial or biorefinery plant with a new biomass conversion process, producing bio-based chemicals or materials at TRL 8 and validated end-products at TRL 6 or higher, and must address cascading valorisation of residual streams across the value chain; production of food or feed ingredients is out of scope. The project must follow a Multi-Actor Approach that builds the retrofitted site's full value chain, including the appropriate involvement of biomass suppliers and logistics providers, and must design and test a training programme to upskill or reskill the plant's own workforce and its wider ecosystem. Proposals must also apply the European Commission's safe-and-sustainable-by-design framework and contribute recommendations for improving it, and must show complementarity with past and ongoing bio-based research funded under Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, BBI JU and CBE JU.
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