With a share of 34 %, bio-waste is the largest single component of municipal waste in the EU. Recycling of bio-waste is key for meeting the EU target to recycle 65 % of municipal waste by 2035. Bio-waste can significantly contribute to a more circular economy, delivering valuable soil-improving material and fertiliser as well as biogas, a source of renewable energy. Biochar is a pure, high carbon form of charcoal, obtained through the pyrolysis of biomass, such as bio-waste. Biochar helps regenerate soils by enhancing water-holding capacity, nutrient uptake, soil fertility stimulating microbial activity and diversity and acts as a carbon sink. However, a lack of understanding and evidence of the agronomic benefits and economic returns mean that biochar faces barriers to become a widespread soil improver. Biogas from anaerobic digestion (AD) is a renewable energy source. Yet the cost of disposal of its effluents (digestates) reduces profitability and uptake of new AD projects, even though the digestate is rich in nutrients and can be used as a biofertilizer. Research shows that the combination of digestate and biochar creates a biofertilizer with increased fertility, improved stability and excellent soil regeneration properties. Furthermore, biochar could be a powerful additive to enhance microbiological activity in AD plants. The FENIX project will optimise Biochar for different soils using AD digestate. FENIX will demonstrate the agronomic and economic returns of its soil improver in field tests (TRL 8) in three countries in the West and South of Europe. FENIX brings together partners that cover the full value chain and with entrepreneurs that will be ready to take up the project results. Successful completion of the project will contribute to the recovery of abandoned poor soils, increase EU’s soil quality and water retention capacity, climate change mitigation, secure and independent energy supply, and sustainable bio-waste management.

The EU has a significant amount of waste biomass available, more than 900 million tons per year, and 98% of this material ends up in landfill, incinerators, or rotting in open dumps. According to the 2023 Circularity Gap Report, the global economy is now only 7.2% circular. The EU has great potential to convert bio-waste into bio-based products that can be used in multiple bio-applications. This revalorisation can directly support 5-10 times more employment and generate 4-9 times more added value than energy use. Circular Business Models in Bioeconomy (CBMB) face many challenges to become sustainable and profitable. Firstly, primary producers, the owners of the valuable feedstock, are often not integrated into the bioeconomy value chains, and they are often small scale and are fragmented, reducing their ability to negotiate with those higher up the value chain. The result is a suboptimal distribution of benefits and incentives. The main challenges in designing CBMB consist of: - lack of knowledge sharing and collaboration between stakeholders - need for new supply chains and logistical networks - difficult scale up of innovative technologies - understanding of the potential synergies and symbiotic relationships between sectors - overcoming poor public acceptance - complex and fragmented policy schemes, As a result of this, there is a lack of demonstrated and replicable systemic bio-solutions for the territorial deployment of the circular bioeconomy. The PRIMED Project PRIMED will co-create innovative forms of cooperation to integrate primary producers in novel bioeconomy value chains with a multi-actor approach. To do so, PRIMED will develop novel CBMB to produce high-value bio-based products through advanced biorefineries, and will demonstrate them in five Living Labs (LLab): PRIMED will also empower multi-actors to co-design a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate the bioeconomy, with an Open Access knowledge hub and toolkit (PRIMED digital toolbox).

SEMPRE-BIO aims to demonstrate novel and cost-effective biomethane production solutions and pathways, deemed essential to achieve the European Green Deal and climate and energy targets for 2030 and the net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to increase the market up-take of biomethane related technologies. To that extent, SEMPRE-BIO will set up three European Biomethane Innovation Ecosystems (EBIEs), based in Baix Llobregat (ES), Bourges (FR) and Adinkerke (BE), which are representative of the different baseline situations for biomethane production across Europe Those initial EBIEs will facilitate long-term replication, by creating an active flow of information and resources for ideas to transform into reality. Through the EBIEs, SEMPRE-BIO will build a process by which more innovators and entrepreneurs will be able develop and launch solutions to solve problems related to the larger-scale and cheaper production of biomethane, faster. This process will create new technical expertise, helping to diversify the technology portfolio, and will allows businesses to better know their potential customers. Additionally, EBIEs will provide the means to create economic stability and resource sharing. The value of EBIEs lies in the access to resources for the start-ups and the flow of information for the ecosystem’s stakeholders. This information flow will create more future investment opportunities for the right institutions to connect with the right ideas for their businesses and portfolios, at the right time, for the right reasons. Overall, the challenge is to decrease investment and operational costs, to optimize feedstock supply, use, identify alternative feedstock as well as reduce their costs, to improve plant efficiency and operations, to factor in the carbon savings and to increase and monetize co-benefits, such as from the commercialization of the digestate or the valorization of residual gas streams.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with 1.8 million deaths expected globally in 2021. Lung adenocarcinomas (LUAD) represent 1/3 of all lung cancer cases. Despite notable advances, current treatments remain ineffective, resulting in <25% survival beyond 5 years. Due to the high heterogeneity of molecular abnormalities driving lung cancers, targeted therapies are applicable to only a small subset of patients. There is therefore an urgent unmet need for developing novel therapeutic approaches generally applicable to LUAD patients. Alternative pre-mRNA splicing (AS) allows the synthesis of different protein variants from a single gene by differential selection of exonic sequences. Increased inclusion of exon 9 of the gene NUMB encodes a protein isoform that promotes cancer cell proliferation. This occurs in the vast majority of LUAD tumours, correlating with worse disease prognosis. Supported by the ERC PoC VALSL, we developed an innovative therapeutic approach based on the use of Antisense Oligonucleotides (AONs) that regulate NUMB AS. Our proprietary AONs correct NUMB pathological splicing, inhibit cancer cell proliferation and reduce tumour growth in four different mouse models of LUAD, including 2 Patient-Derived Xenograft models. With support from the EIC Transition, we will bring this technology to a stage where it is ready to be validated in clinical trials. We will optimise our lead AONs by improving their chemistry, formulation and administration and will carry out regulatory pre-clinical studies. These will pave the way to the first application of AON-based splicing modulation in clinical oncology. To commercialise this technology, we also aim to develop the business plan for a spin-off company, AON Therapeutics. In the long term, our project has the potential to generate compounds, presentations and delivery methods that can be applicable to other target AS events and/or cancer types, as well as to other AS-related diseases.

The cooling production, coupled with renewable electricity generation, are considered a cornerstone technology to meet increasing global cooling demand whilst decarbonise various sectors. According to the International Energy Agency, only accounting the air-conditioning sector, consumes about 20% of the overall electricity used globally and is expected to be doubled by 2050. Improving the efficiency, reliability, affordability, and environmental performance of cooling systems is critical to maximum benefit for society and the environment. HydroCool project will develop a novel cooling production concept that can significantly improve the cooling system performance beyond the state-of-the-art. The solution is based on the hydraulic compression and expansion of CO2 in a reversible cycle capable of delivering cooling for a wide range of application such as food, data centres or air conditioning [-40ºC;+12ºC]. By switching from solid to fluid dynamics, HydroCool will enable both isothermal compression using liquid piston fluid and energy recovery between expander and compressor. Preliminary studies indicate a potential to nearly double the Coefficient of Performance through these two mechanisms. The hydraulic compression is also expected to lead to a significant improvement of the system lifespan, operating cost and reliability due to reduced friction and limited use of lubricants. Additionally, HydroCool offers an opportunity to accelerate the move in favour to CO2, displacing the use of environmentally harmful HFC and CFC refrigerants with high Global Warming Impact, that combined with the high system performance, improves considerably the cooling sector footprint by almost halving its impact. Thus, HydroCool will improve the affordability, performance, sustainability, and scalability of the CO2 based refrigeration system. In the project, a hydraulic CO2 cooling system will be engineered, implemented, and tested at 17.6kW scale to achieve TRL4.