The 5.83 million euro project will help start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to overcome technological and non-technological barriers on their path to turn bio-based research into commercial innovation. BioBase4SME offers training, innovation biocamps, workshops and innovation coupons worth up to 100.000 euros. The BioBase4SME partnership includes eight organisations from six different countries.
The bio-based economy creates a big opportunity for Europe with locally produced bio-based feedstocks rather than imported fossil resources used to produce materials, chemicals and energy. This in turn creates 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 euros 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 euros. 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.
“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” said Dr. Lieve Hoflack, Manager of the BioBase4SME project. “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. This three-year (2013-2015) project mentored 755 companies in total and granted 30 innovation coupons worth 10-30.000 euros for technological assistance to SMEs and start-ups. The work done within the innovation coupon scheme created a substantial leverage effect: up to 71 million euros of investments and the creation of 320 new jobs in the biobased economy in the coming years.
BioBase4SME intends to do even better!
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