The EU unveils a new strategy to boost the European bioeconomy

The European Commission has defined a new framework to guide the EU’s bioeconomy over the next decade. The document combines financial support, regulatory streamlining and new investment instruments aimed at accelerating the industrial expansion of solutions based on biological resources and promoting their uptake in strategic sectors. The plan mobilises specific funding lines for research, demonstration and industrial scaling, includes measures to develop markets for bio-based materials, introduces requirements to ensure the sustainable supply of biomass and foresees mechanisms to attract private capital through tools inspired by existing models.

The strategy is based on a diagnosis shared by European institutions and the sectors involved: research in biotechnology and biomanufacturing has progressed, but its industrial deployment remains limited by regulatory, financial and market bottlenecks. The new framework seeks to reduce these barriers through a combination of EU funding and coordination with national and regional instruments, together with more agile rules for launching new facilities and technologies.

Innovation and industrial scaling

“Europe has demonstrated its potential in bio-based innovations, but if it does not develop its own industrial capabilities in this field, it will depend on third countries,” says Damián Muruzábal, head of the Food and Bioeconomy Area at Zabala Innovation. For this reason, one of the central pillars of the new strategy is to boost applied innovation and industrial investment, promoting the scaling and industrialisation of bio-based solutions.

Brussels identifies two critical stages in the progress of the bioeconomy: between demonstration and the first commercial-scale production, and between this stage and subsequent industrial scaling. To fill this gap, the plan states that the funding foreseen in the next Multiannual Financial Framework will incorporate instruments for research, demonstration and industrial deployment. These include the European Competitiveness Fund and a dedicated Horizon Europe window for areas related to biotechnology and the bioeconomy. The Commission intends these resources to create a continuous flow from laboratories to production phases, with a focus on large-scale projects and the establishment of biorefineries and biomanufacturing units for advanced production of bio-based materials and compounds.

While the next EU budget arrives, the framework foresees the use of instruments already in operation. These include public–private cooperation programmes, greater support for early-stage risk investments and lines adapted to industrial transition. These tools will be integrated with recommendations from the European Investment Bank (EIB), whose analysis has identified the need to reinforce companies’ capacity to address technical validation phases and early scaling.

Access to finance

The strategy also includes specific measures to improve access to finance for start-ups and scaling companies. From 2026, the Scale-up Europe fund will channel capital towards growing companies developing biological technologies. This instrument will be coordinated with the EIB and national financial authorities. The plan also incorporates services from the European Innovation Council (EIC) applied to bioeconomy technologies and the revision of the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE-JU), co-managed by the Commission and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), of which Zabala Innovation is an associate member.

In parallel, the document highlights the importance of introducing financial tools capable of attracting private capital to industrial projects. To this end, Brussels announces that it will identify new mechanisms based on models such as the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund and will work with national financial institutions to deploy compatible instruments. Coordination of this architecture will fall to a new Bioeconomy Investment Deployment Group, planned for 2026–2028, which will bring together EU institutions, public banks and private actors. Its role will be to structure project portfolios, share risks and strengthen access to finance for biomanufacturing facilities and bio-based material production.

Infrastructures and markets

The expansion of pilot, demonstration and scaling infrastructures constitutes another pillar of the plan. Access to facilities with intermediate technology readiness levels is considered a recurrent obstacle for developing bioprocesses. The proposed framework links existing services such as Green Assist and the Enterprise Europe Network, foresees additional development of infrastructures associated with Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) in biotechnology and biomanufacturing, and proposes the creation of coordination mechanisms between industrial platforms. The strategy also includes support for industrial deployment projects within the IPCEIs themselves.

The chapter dedicated to markets contains several tools aimed at creating and sustaining stable demand for bio-based materials and technologies. The Commission proposes setting up a European Bio-based Alliance that would bring together companies willing to engage in joint procurement, with an estimated value of up to €10 billion in bio-based materials by 2030. The document also envisages measures to support the development of products based on bioprocesses and to promote demonstration facilities with intermediate Technology Readiness Levels.

The EU also identifies specific sectors where bio-based products are expected to scale and achieve greater competitive projection, such as plastics and polymers, textiles, bio-based fertilisers and sustainable construction materials.

Regulatory framework and biomass

In regulatory terms, the main objective is to accelerate authorisations, harmonise standards and speed up the classification of bio-based products. The strategy therefore proposes introducing sandboxes to test biotechnological solutions under controlled conditions, more agile authorisation procedures for microbial processes and streamlined permits for biomanufacturing activities. The plan also foresees a European forum of regulators and innovators from 2026, a guidance document for classifying new bio-based products, and a single entry point for authorisations and assessments.

The biomass section focuses on ensuring its future availability through management practices that respect ecological limits. The European Commission prioritises secondary biomass, by-products, waste and circular valorisation as core elements. This approach to biomass also entails new criteria for biodiversity protection, as well as initiatives to financially reward farmers and foresters who adopt soil conservation practices or contribute to strengthening carbon sinks. Finally, the framework analyses the global context and argues that diversifying partners and markets will reduce risks in supply chains for bio-based materials.