The BBI JU is the largest and most ambitious initiative ever launched in the EU to develop competitive and sustainable bio-based industries. The ambition that drove its creation was to bring about the systemic change needed to develop a European bio-based industry allowing investments to remain in Europe. Thereby, BBI JU makes a strong impact in creating new jobs and clear value to all EU citizens.
With a total budget of € 115 million, the 2018 Call is the fifth in a total of seven for the period between 2017 and 2020 and is built around 4 strategic orientations: Feedstock, Process, Products, and Market uptake. The current Call moves away from a strict biomass feedstock 'push' based on historic value chains, towards a demand for biomass that enables processing in order to respond adequately to a 'pull' from the end markets. A total of 21 topics are included in the 2018 Call with 11 Research and Innovation Action (RIA) topics, 3 Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) and 7 Innovation Actions (5 DEMOs and 2 Flagships) while novel eligibility criteria have also been introduced.
BBI JU's current project portfolio is well-balanced between the type of actions and across the value chains having achieved an excellent SME participation of 38% of beneficiaries. Similar to previous Calls, the one of 2018 also respects the Horizon 2020 principles of openness, transparency and excellence.
On the occasion of the 2018 Call's opening Philippe Mengal, BBI JU Executive Director commented: ''All of us in BBI JU, together with our founding partners the European Commission and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) are proud to see the development and the geographical spread of the projects covering all corners of our continent. Every Call is a step closer towards the creation of EU's bio-based sector and it is exciting to see sectors such as the primary one to start developing such a strong interest and presence on the field. This is a clear indication that more actors see the potential, the creation of a sustainable and competitive bio-based sector has for Europe and its citizens''.
The deadline for submission of proposals to the BBI JU 2018 Call is 6 September 2018 at 17:00 CET. More information about the 2018 Call will be provided during the BBI JU Info Day on the 17th of April in Brussels.