In my previous blog post, I discussed a number of collaborative grant schemes and highlighted the opportunities and benefits of collaborative research to quicken the transition to a low carbon economy. In this blog post, I would like to take the opportunity to present you with details of a European (FP7) funded collaborative project that PNO consultants are participating in called BIO-TIC, which is focused on roadmapping the future for industrial biotechnology (IB) in Europe. Such pan European initiatives are becoming increasingly common and based around workshops and interviews with experts in this field and stakeholders to best understand the needs of the sector. Therefore of you are active in IB or if your activities are potentially relevant, we would be very interested in your comments.
Innovation in IB is a key enabler for the green sector to thrive in the modern economic environment; it will reduce the threat of climate change, replace dwindling fossil fuel resources and develop a more sustainable and resource-efficient industry.
Bio-Business Cases
The BIO-TIC project is “a solutions approach” centred on an extensive exercise comprehensively examining the hurdles that industrial biotechnology companies across Europe must overcome. The BIO-TIC project has identified five major ‘Bio-Business Cases’ which are EU-competitive and have the potential to introduce cross-cutting technology ideas. These are:
- Bioplastics (PHA and PLA)
- Chemical building blocks
- Advanced Biofuels
- Biosurfactants
- CO2 as feedstock.
Hurdles
However, major hurdles continue to hamper the full exploitation of its potential in Europe such as technological bottlenecks, market entry and institutional barriers as well as funding challenges. To overcome them, three roadmaps are being developed. This roadmapping process will comprehensively examine the innovation hurdles for IB across Europe and develop recommendations and tools to overcome these barriers.
Roadmaps
The BIO-TIC roadmaps will serve to highlight important areas and formulate action plans on how the various stakeholders can work together to overcome the major current and future issues that hamper the huge potential that IB for Europe to be realised. The three roadmaps are:
- The market roadmap aims to obtain a comprehensive overview of the market potential for industrial biotechnology, including segmented market opportunity assessment and projections, and to provide information on the current and potential future value chain composition and stakeholders
- The technology roadmap revolves around the setting of R&D priorities and identifying needs for pilot and demonstration plant activities.
- The non-technological barriers roadmap is aimed at identifying regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit IB innovation towards identified market opportunities in the market roadmap.
The project is ambitious and aims to boost European competitiveness in bio-based markets. It will enable companies and researchers in the IB arena to translate new technological innovations into commercial opportunities, especially through the alignment of key R&D areas with end user requirements. Additionally, the project will establish a transparent methodology for annual reporting on biomass use for non-energy bio-based products.
Cooperation platform
Key to increasing innovation in industrial biotechnology is enabling collaboration. BIO-TIC partnering is a cooperation platform that provides access to thousands of companies, universities, research institutions and various other stakeholders of the European bio-based community. If you are an IB company or researcher operating in the IB field and you would like to find out more or participate in the project and provide your views and opinions on the future of IB, please contact us at info.uk@pnoconsultants.com.
Full details regarding the project can be found at http://www.industrialbiotech-europe.eu/about/
