Skip to main content

€120 million available for advancing Europe’s circular bioeconomy

Publication date:

Today CBE JU published its first call for project proposals. A total of €120 million will be dedicated to advancing competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe across 12 topics. All stakeholders of the bio-based industries ecosystem can apply by 22 September 2022, 17:00 Brussels time.

12 funding topics to support three CBE JU objectives

The Call’s funding supports three CBE JU objectives defined in the CBE JU’s Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda:

  1. Accelerate the innovation process and development of bio-based innovative solutions
  2. Accelerate market deployment of existing mature and innovative bio-based solutions
  3. Ensure a high level of environmental performance of bio-based industrial systems

Project applicants will support the implementation of these objectives via 12 topics with a total indicative budget of €120 million:

  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-01 Biogenic carbon capture and use (CCU) for circular bio-based products - €10 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-02 Cooperative business models for sustainable mobilisation and valorisation of agricultural residues, by-products, and waste in rural areas - €10 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-03 Cost-effective production routes towards bio-based alternatives to fossil-based chemical building blocks - €12 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-04 Co-processing of mixed bio-based waste streams - €12 million         
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IAFlag-01 Maximum valorisation of sustainably sourced bio-based feedstock in multi-product, zero-waste, zero-pollution biorefinery - €14 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IAFlag-02 Alternative sources for high added value food and/or feed ingredients - €14 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-01 High performance bio-based polymers for market applications with stringent requirements - €9 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-02 Bio-based coatings, barriers, binders, and adhesives - €9 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-03 Circular-by-design bio-based materials to improve the circularity of complex structures - €9 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-04 Proteins from alternative and unconventional sources - €9 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-R-05 Sustainable fibres biorefineries feedstock - €9 million
  • HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-S-01 Developing and validating monitoring systems of environmental sustainability and circularity: collection of best practices and benchmarks - €3 million

Take a look at the call topics’ description.

Three types of projects invited for funding

CBE JU will fund three types of actions:

  • Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) will establish new knowledge or explore the feasibility of new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution.
  • Innovation Actions (IAs) will scale up activities from prototype to product validation and market replication. Among them, Flagships will deploy the first-of-its-kind industrial and commercial scale production plant in the European market.
  • Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs) will structure stakeholder communities, support technological visions and outreach, and disseminate and exploit research results, among other objectives.

Take a look at each topic text to see what is the required type of action and at the call page for further information on the types of action.

What are the requirements for participation?

All stakeholders of the bio-based industries ecosystem – farmers, brand owners, companies, research organisations and local authorities, to name just a few - are invited to apply for CBE JU funding.

The requirements for submitting a proposal are detailed in the call documents published on each topic page.

How to apply?

The CBE JU call’s budget comes from Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation funding programme. It is published on the EU’s Funding & tender opportunities portal.

Applicants have to submit their proposal electronically, following the link from the respective topic page.

The call will open for submissions in early July at the latest. As of that moment, applicants will be able to submit their proposal electronically, following the link from the respective topic page.

Please consult the Horizon Europe online manual for more information on the submission of proposals. For general questions related to Horizon Europe procedures and IT issues, please contact the Research Enquiry Service or the IT helpdesk respectively. For specific questions related to CBE JU, please contact info [at] cbe.europa.eu.

Consider applying as an expert evaluator

Are you an expert in the fields of this call but are not planning to submit a proposal? Consider applying as an evaluator to help CBE JU select the best proposals in this and future calls:

  • Create or update your expert profile via the European Commission’s Funding & tenders portal  
  • E-mail experts [at] cbe.europa.eu by 29 June 2022, mentioning your expert profile number (format EX20XX1234567).

What happens after the proposal submission?

After the call closure on 22 September 2022, CBE JU will organise the evaluation of the submitted proposals with the help of external experts selected from the European Commission’s expert database. Take a look at the evaluation criteria outlined in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022.

The proposals selected for funding will be known by the end of February 2023 at the latest. If the subsequent Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) is successful, the grant agreements with the selected project teams will be signed by the end of May 2023.

Where to find more information?

Take a look at the call page for more information and follow the links to the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2022, as well as FAQ for applicants.

CBE JU has launched a free networking platform to help stakeholders get in touch with each other, pitch their project ideas or offer their services and search for partners. Join over 1,000 CBE JU community members on the platform and schedule meetings with your future project partners.

You can also watch back the CBE JU info day about the call and download the presentations from the event website.