On the 24th of April 2024, CBE JU published its 2024 annual call for project proposals, with the focus this year being dedicated to advancing competitive circular bio-based industries throughout Europe. Along with this call, the company announced that any successful proposals would become eligible to receive a share of 213 million euros.

The call made it clear that in order to be considered, the company had to offer a proposal which aligned with one of the eighteen topics that have been created to accomplish CBE JU’s objectives. The deadline for applications from all of the stakeholders within the circular bio-based sector, is the 18th of September 2024.

The overarching aim for CBE JU in 2024 is to continue their support of technologies which are able and ready to be scaled up, and which will eventually be ready for industrial deployment. It is important to support the growth, expansion and development of these technologies as, once they are deployed, they will boost investment and job creation, both at regional and local level. Overall, this process aligns with CBE JU’s objectives and it becomes clear why the company is supporting these developments.

CBE JU’s objectives are to ‘Accelerate the innovation process and development of bio-based innovative solutions.’ The company’s second objective is to, ‘Accelerate market deployment of existing mature and innovative bio-based solutions.’ Their final objective is, ‘Ensure a high level of environmental performance of bio-based industrial systems.’

To be selected as a successful project, the applicant must show that their plan aligns with CBE JU’s aims and also supports the implementation of these aims through being focused on one or more of the eighteen listed topics. The call is currently open to a variety of stakeholders including farmers, brand owners, companies, research organisations and local authorities, plus many more.

The eighteen topics that must be supported within the proposal fall under four categories, ‘Innovation actions – flagship (IA-flagship)’, ‘Innovations actions (IA)’, ‘Research and innovation actions (RIA)’ and ‘Coordination and support actions (CSA)’. Under each of these categories there are smaller topics, for example, the flagship category includes, ‘Bio-based value chains for valorisation of sustainable oil crops’ as well as, ‘Bio-based value chains for valorisatin of sustainable natural fibre feedstock.’ Under the RIA category, there are topics such as, ‘ Biotech routes to obtain bio-based chemicals/materials replacing animal-derived ones’ and ‘Sustainable, bio-based alternatives for crop protection’.

Moving forwards, CBE JU is prepared to fund three different types of projects which fall into a specific ‘action’ category. These actions include ‘Innovation Actions (IAS’ which ‘will scale up activities from prototype to product validation and market replication. Among them, Flagships (IA-FLAGs) will deploy the first-of-its-kind industrial and commercial scale production plant in the European market.’ Another action will be ‘Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs)’ which ‘will establish new knowledge or explore the feasibility of new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. The final action will be ‘Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs)’ and these ‘will structure stakeholder communities, support technological visions and outreach, and disseminate and exploit research results, among other objectives.’

Once all the proposals have been submitted, CBE JU will collect them and evaluate them and the results will be revealed by February 2025.