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Agroalimentation and bioeconomy

Likewise, the circularity approach in the bioeconomy seeks to reduce the total amount of waste and its associated impact, promoting the reintegration of by-products or waste in other production cycles to generate new products or increase their added value, minimising soil, air and water pollution, thus helping to avoid damage to the environment, the climate and biodiversity.

The technologies and innovations surrounding biology, associated with other sciences and the new information and communication technologies, will be the protagonists of change, promoting simultaneous progress in the intensification of production and the environmental sustainability of the production system as a whole.

The challenge is to make possible the production of higher quality foodstuffs at reasonable prices and adaptation to consumer demands, with a reduction in the impact derived from their production, both in terms of emissions and in terms of the water footprint or the use of chemical products in the production process, through improvements in the efficiency of the use of inputs.

All of this, in addition to guaranteeing the sustainable use of resources, such as soil and water, the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems, ensuring their maintenance for future generations, and the development of sustainable food models. Along these lines, it will also be possible to make progress in rural development as another element of the bioeconomy.

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Sustainability and circularity, a key issue

The keys to ensuring the proper functioning of the bioeconomy are sustainability and circularity.

Our figures

+80

European projects submitted to food and bioeconomy

30%

Success rate of approval in the presentation of European projects

Agroalimentation and bioeconomy

Bioeconomy and the future of the agri-food sector

The agri-food sector is currently facing a series of global challenges in order to adapt to an increasingly competitive environment. It is a question of efficiently combining the search for greater sustainability throughout the entire process. This sustainability has three aspects that must be addressed together: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability.

The bioeconomy is an economic model based on the use of renewable biological resources and their transformation into new products or services with higher added value, such as bioenergy or other bioproducts like food additives from fibres or natural oils, new bioplastics or the use of lignin to obtain new molecules.  This model arises as a response to current environmental and social challenges to guarantee the supply and fair distribution of food, mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce the use of fossil fuels. It also generates new opportunities for economic development and employment, especially important in rural areas.

Research and innovation

On the one hand, if we talk about research and innovation in agri-food and bioeconomy, Horizon Europe stands out as the largest source of public funding in the European Union (EU), with a total budget of 95.5 billion euros. The programme, divided into several thematic clusters, devotes around €9 billion to Cluster 6 on “Natural Food, Bioeconomy, Agriculture and Environment” for the period 2021-2027.

Similar to Cluster 6, the public-private partnership programme Circular Bio-based Europe (CBE JU) funds projects that develop innovative and sustainable bio-based solutions, focusing on raw materials, processing, products, as well as cross-cutting aspects of communication and environmental sustainability.