CBE JU publishes its first circular bioeconomy call for proposals

Bio-based projects that promote circular industries will receive a boost with the first call published by CBE JU. It is the result of collaboration between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) and will provide €120 million to boost these industries focused on twelve research themes.

CBE JU (Circular and Bio-based Europe Partnership) is part of Europe’s main R&D support programme, Horizon Europe. To apply for funding, stakeholders from the bio-based industries ecosystem can apply by 22 September 2022 at 17:00 Brussels time.

CBE JU and its twelve action lines

This new call will boost circular bio-industries in the EU focusing on twelve lines of research that you can learn more about in this sheet. They are aimed at improving the sustainability of raw materials, new flows for bio-waste, new alternative sources of food and feed, bio-based materials with high requirements and the circularity of bio-industries.

The 12 lines of research to be funded will support the three objectives defined in the CBE JU Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda:

1. Accelerate the innovation process and the development of innovative bio-based solutions.

2. Accelerating the market deployment of existing mature and innovative bio-based solutions.

3. Ensure a high level of environmental performance of industrial bio-based systems.

Differences with other Horizon Europe initiatives

The programme operates according to Horizon Europe rules, with the following important differences compared to it:

• Projects of different degrees of maturity and sizes are funded, ranging from more basic R&D projects (RIAs) to the construction of pioneering biorefineries in their sector in Europe (Flagship), to demonstrator projects in real environments (IAs), complemented by cross-cutting support actions (CSAs).
• The threshold for the evaluation criterion “impact” is 4/5 for all types of actions.
• The CBE partnership supports proposals with a level of expertise (TRL) at the end of the project ranging from 3 to 8 (a wider range than Horizon Europe).
• There is a specific CBE evaluation sub-criterion. Namely, in the evaluation criterion “Impact” of innovation actions, evaluators will assess the “Ability to ensure the level of in-kind contribution to operational activities (IKOP) defined in the call/theme as % of the total eligible costs of the projects (AI 15% and AI-Flagship 20%)”).
• From this year, the role to be played by the Bioindustries Consortium partner companies is particularly strengthened, especially in IAs projects. In these projects, the BIC partner industries are required to be able to contribute “in kind” at least 15% of the total eligible costs of the project.
• The percentage of funding varies according to the type of project and applicant entity, ranging from 60% to 100% funding.

At Zabala Innovation we have extensive experience in Horizon Europe, so we can help you prepare your project to fit this call.

• #Horizon Europe