Press Release, Monday 26 September 2016
The European
Commission has launched through its INTERREG NWE Programme a three-year project
“BioBase4SME” to further support the development of the biobased economy in North
West Europe (NWE). The €5.83 million project will help start-ups and Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) to overcome technological and non-technological barriers on
their path to turn biobased research
into commercial innovation. BioBase4SME
offers training, innovation biocamps, workshops and innovation coupons worth up
to €100,000. The BioBase4SME partnership includes eight organisations from six
different countries.
The biobased economy
creates a big opportunity for Europe. Locally produced biobased feedstocks
rather than imported fossil resources are used to produce materials, chemicals
and energy, creating a new knowledge and technology intensive economy with high
employment potential and with reduced environmental impact. The European bioeconomy showed a
turnover of €2.1 trillion and employed 18.3 million employees in 2013 and has a
huge growth potential.
The BioBase4SME network, representing leading
biobased economy experts, will advise SMEs from across North-West Europe on how
to develop new ideas into marketable products. The project will offer training,
innovation biocamps, workshops and innovation coupons worth up to €100,000.
These coupons can be used for technological assistance such as scale-up to
pilot scale, Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), techno-economic evaluation, market
research, feedstock analysis, social acceptance, and business planning support
or a combination thereof.
Dr. Lieve Hoflack, Manager of the
BioBase4SME project, says: “We expect to bring at least 20 promising innovations closer to the
market, resulting in new investments and job creation, and provide training to
about 200 entrepreneurs active in the biobased economy, thus boosting their
innovation capacity. Other main outputs are a strong, interregional network to
guide entrepreneurs towards successful innovation and improved regional support
for the biobased economy in terms of innovation and investment climate,
regulatory framework and public approval.”
BioBase4SME is a follow-up of the highly
successful Bio Base NWE project (www.BioBaseNWE.org). This three-year (2013-2015) project mentored 755 companies in total
and granted 30 innovation coupons worth €10-30,000 for technological assistance
to SMEs and start-ups. The work done within the innovation coupon scheme
created a substantial leverage effect: up to €71million of investments
and the creation of 320 new jobs in the biobased economy in the coming years.
BioBase4SME intends to do
even better!
For more
information regarding training, biocamps, workshops and innovation coupons,
please visit http://www.nweurope.eu/BioBase4SME or contact the Bio-Innovation Agent in your region (for Ireland see below).
Notes to editors:
1. The BioBase4SME partners are:

For Belgium
Bio Base
Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP), Ghent, Belgium, http://www.bbeu.org/pilotplant/
Ghent
Bio-Economy Valley, Ghent, Belgium, http://www.gbev.org/en
Materia Nova,
Mons, Belgium, http://www.materianova.be/
For France
Association
of the Chambers of Agriculture of the Atlantic Arc (AC3A), Nantes, France, http://www.ac3a.fr/AC3A_en.php
For Germany
CLIB2021 Cluster Industrielle
Biotechnologie, Düsseldorf, Germany, http://www.clib2021.de/en
For Ireland
tcbb
RESOURCE, Premier Green Energy Pilot Plant Hosting Centre, Cabragh Business Park, Thurles, Ireland, http://www.tcbbresource.ie/
For The Netherlands
REWIN
Projecten, Breda, The Netherlands, http://www.rewin.nl/
For the UK
The
National Non-Food Crop Centre, York, UK, http://www.nnfcc.co.uk/
2. INTERREG North-West Europe Programme
BioBase4SME
is 60% funded by the INTERREG NWE Programme. The Interreg North-West Europe
Programme fosters transnational cooperation to make the North Western Europe a
key economic player and an attractive place to work and live, with high levels
of innovation, sustainability and cohesion. http://www.nweurope.eu/