MPowerBIO

Summary

Creating the bioeconomy lies at the heart of Europe’s solution to the economic and environmental challenges facing society now and in the future. If Europe is to meet its green ambitions and build self-sufficiency and security in areas such as food supply, it will need to look to its biological resources. It will be key to use these smartly and sustainably.

However, this transition will not happen spontaneously; it will need to be encouraged and nurtured. The companies that will create the required innovation will need funding and support. Public funding does exist at the EU level – including through initiatives such as the BBI JU – while at the national level there may be grants, loans, equity investments and venture capital, depending on the country. Due to the lack of awareness among project promoters and few support structures put in place for companies seeking investment, many of these tools are underexploited even within the BBI JU community. The key is to build awareness and create clusters. These are already well-positioned and well-networked, helping SMEs to connect, engage and collaborate with other innovation actors, such as large enterprises, research organisations, public authorities and investors.

To address this, the MPowerBIO project will seek feedback from clusters, SMEs and investors on the challenges facing sourcing investments. To assist, it will build an online platform with digital tools for assessing investment readiness. It will also provide training with ten ‘train the trainer’ events for 90 clusters across the bioeconomy, covering most of Europe, supported by the online platform. MPowerBIO will ensure that clusters become self-supporting, with the ability to maintain these skills within their own organisations. Ultimately, the project will be replicable to other areas.