CBE JU benefits
Boosting EU’s industrial competitiveness & resilience
Greening industries
Supporting sustainability (biodiversity, soil health)
Boosting local economies and revival of regions
Promoting SMEs & startups
CBE JU's funding creates value
De-risking investments by funding highly innovative first-of-their-kind biorefineries across Europe which would otherwise struggle to secure additional funding sources.
In 2024 the CBE JU-funded SWEETWOODS lead partner Fibenol, agreed with the Latvian government on a €700 million investment to build a commercial-scale biorefinery in Latvia based on the Sunburst™ technology, replicating the successful project’s model at a larger scale. This illustrates how CBE JU helped de-risk investments.
Attracting private investments: each euro of CBE JU funding attracts €3.5 from the private sector for) and helps retaining investments in Europe.
Validating and scaling up bio-based solutions with high replication potential. The success of CBE JU-funded EMBRACED demonstration plant proves that innovative recycling and biorefinery technologies are not only environmentally transformative but also economically viable and socially accepted and can be replicated at a large scale.
Biotech and biomanufacturing power Europe’s competitiveness
Europe needs to strengthen its sustainable production capacity and modernise its industrial base. Biotechnology and biomanufacturing are critical technologies for Europe’s future, essential to achieving climate neutrality, industrial competitiveness, and strategic autonomy. In its March 2024 communication 'Building the future with nature', the European Commission highlighted the transformative role of these technologies and called for strategic actions to help them grow.
CBE JU plays a central role in the European bio-based sector by funding projects that turn biotechnology into market-ready products. It is recognised as a strategic financial instrument for scaling up biotech innovation in Europe.
We want to create the right environment for this sector to grow and deliver global solutions to societal and environmental problems.
With 220 projects and 19 first-of-their-kind flagship biorefineries across Europe, the partnership is:
Reducing GHG emissions and resource use.
Creating circular value chains across sectors
Strengthening local supply chains and industrial capacity.
Fostering job creation, especially in rural and coastal regions.
The 19 first-of-their-kind industrial scale flagship biorefineries are the best example of how CBE JU has contributed to increasing biomanufacturing capacity at European level. By providing highly innovative bio-based solutions for a wide range of sectors like packaging, construction, textiles, and cosmetics across Europe, these projects create new jobs and regional supply chains and boost local economies.
AFTERBIOCHEM converts sugar industry side streams and organic waste into valuable bio-based molecules for the flavourings, fragrances, hygiene products, pharmaceuticals, and other sectors. This will increase the circularity and economic sustainability of the European sugar beet sector, the largest in the world.
PEFerence is producing FDCA, a bio-based chemical used to make recyclable and renewable plastic packaging that can replace fossil-based PET with superior technical and environmental performance compared to its traditional fossil-based counterpart.
SWEETWOODS is using hardwood waste to produce high-value compounds for a wide range of end-products, such as biodegradable compost bags and bio-based asphalt. These innovations show low emissions and high resource efficiency.
SCALE has built the world’s first fully integrated microalgae biorefinery to produce food supplements, animal feed and cosmetic ingredients, capturing CO₂ and minimising land use.
PLENITUDE has built a sustainable mycoprotein biorefinery process to produce plant-based proteins for food, significantly reducing emissions and resource and land use compared to traditional animal production.
These CBE JU projects make it clear that biotechnology is not confined to niche use cases, it is already penetrating mainstream industrial markets.
CBE JU boosts local economies
Sparking rural development across Europe
CBE JU drives sustainable growth in rural areas
CBE JU promotes the role of primary producers in circular bio-based systems and value chains, creating alternative income sources and new business opportunities in regions where they are most needed.
A thriving bio-based sector is a provider of new kinds of skills that boost local economies and prevent outmigration of young people. CBE JU-funded projects are delivering support through the emergence of local value chains leading to social and economic benefits for regions.
CBE JU supports Europe’s competitiveness across sectors
Textiles
CBE JU helps greening the textile industry
CBE JU is funding projects that untap the potential of the current technological advancements in several areas such as material sciences, process and environmental engineering, biotechnology, manufacturing systems, information technology and others to tackle the challenges of the bio-based textiles sector in Europe. These projects produce innovative textiles, replacing fossil-based fibres and chemicals with bio-based high-quality alternatives and enhance circularity through the development of efficient recycling technologies.
© Nina Pulkkis, VVT - CBE JU-funded GRETE project
Chemicals
CBE JU is building the bio-based future of Europe’s chemical industry
CBE JU projects are advancing a sustainable chemical industry by bringing bio-based solutions to the market. From turning sugar beet residues into valuable organic acids in France, to using hardwood residues for the production of valuable bio-based components in Estonia and creating fully recyclable bio-based plastics in the Netherlands, these innovations are reshaping Europe’s bioeconomy.
Powering small businesses
CBE JU-funded projects offer opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop technologies and business models that can drive Europe's green economy while helping companies to scale up their own technologies and improve their market access.
With a CBE JU funding share of one‑third, industrial SMEs, including biotechnology ones, are important technology providers in CBE JU-funded projects. Many of them are leading large flagship projects, such as AFYREN for the AFTERBIOCHEM project and FIBENOL for SWEETWOODS.
Other small enterprises are involved in a variety of sectors, such as chemicals, food, feed, materials, engineering, construction, waste processing, recycling, plastics packaging, agriculture and aquaculture.
