Expected Outcome:

European manufacturing industries are reinforced through biological transformation; in particular

• Access to bio-intelligent production technologies and architecture;
• Technological advances and improvements in sustainability (in particular SDGs 11, 12 and 13) arising from the integration of bio-intelligent principles, functions, structures and technologies in manufacturing;
• Substitution of raw materials by bio-based materials, or implementation of bio-based or bio-intelligent manufacturing operations, and business models leading to regenerative production.

Scope:

The biological transformation of industry is a pioneering frontier that the industry of the Union and Associated Countries can harness to enhance circularity and sustainability, while advancing production efficiency and competitiveness.

The biological transformation of industry involves the integration of bio-intelligent structures, processes, organisms or materials into technology by systematically applying knowledge from biology. This should lead to a necessary convergence of biotechnology with mechanical engineering, production technology and information technology with new possibilities for the flexible adaptation of production and value creation processes to requirements, especially in the context of sustainability.

The biological transformation of industries includes but is not limited to:

• Bio-inspired manufacturing processes (biomimicry, biomimetics);
• Development of bio-intelligent manufacturing systems or tools;
• Expanding opportunities of bio-intelligent and bio-based materials by substituting fossil-based raw materials and limiting the release of microplastics, e.g. in the textile industry;
• A systematic application of the knowledge of nature and/or natural processes aiming at optimising a manufacturing system through a convergence and the integration of technical and biological processes.

This transformation can also aid in reducing the carbon footprint of production and products, and foster circularity, while contributing to the competitiveness and digitalisation of the industry of the Union and Associated Countries.

Proposals need to demonstrate the development of digital and green technologies that facilitate the upscaled manufacturing of bio-based or bio-intelligent products in one manufacturing value chain. In addition, sustainable business models need to be developed for production and recycling of the products.

Proposals should address either advanced manufacturing techniques (e.g. additive manufacturing, extrusion, moulding etc.) to process bio-materials or bio-intelligent components for upscaled production; or bio-intelligent production technologies; or combinations of these two approaches.

The focus of this topic is on manufacturing. The development of materials beyond the manufacturing context is excluded.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

Research must build on existing standards or contribute to standardisation. Interoperability for data sharing should be addressed, leveraging on existing ontologies and metadata and though the implementation of the FAIR data principles.^[1]

Additionally, a strategy for skills development should be presented, associating social partners and civil society where relevant. Collaboration with EIT Manufacturing is encouraged, in particular on the development of skills.

All projects should build on or seek collaboration with existing projects and develop synergies with other relevant European, national or regional initiatives, funding programmes and platforms, for example with Horizon Europe Cluster 6 and its Destination on Circular Economy and Bioeconomy sectors and/or its Partnership Circular Bio-based Europe (CBE)^[2].

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership Made in Europe.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities are expected to start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

This call for proposals follows a two-stage submission scheme:

1. submission of a 10 page short proposal until 07 Feb 2024
2. selected proposals are invited to submit a full proposal until 24 Sept 2024

[1]Turning FAIR into reality: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/turning_fair_into_reality_1.pdf

[2]http://www.cbe.europa.eu