Brussels, 31 January 2014 – ERA-IB launches a fifth international joint call for multilateral research projects using Industrial Biotechnology (IB). ERA-IB, an ERA-NET started within the European Framework Programmes for research and technical development joins forces with the ERA-NET EuroTransBio (ETB). Through collaboration of these two ERA-NETs in a joint call more funding will be available and the geographical coverage is expanded. The main purpose of the call is to generate joint European research and development activities and to stimulate and unify researchers and academics who are specialized in IB to work closely together and share funding and research projects.

The following ERA-IB partner organizations will participate in the call and will fund one or more projects: Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT) Belgium (also partner in ETB); Styrelsen for Forskning og Innovation (DASTI) Denmark; Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (ADEME) France; Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (FNR) Germany; Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) Germany (also partner in ETB); Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek(NWO) Netherlands; Norges forskningsråd (RCN) Norway; Narodowe Centrum Badan i Rozwoju (NCBiR) Poland; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Portugal; Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii (UEFISCDI) Romania; ???? ?????????? ???????? ????? ???? ??????????? ? ??????-??????????? ????? (Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises) (FASIE) Russia (also partner in ETB); Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), Spain; Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) Turkey; Technology Strategy Board (TSB) United Kingdom; and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) United Kingdom.

Under the umbrella of ETB, these partners will participate in the 5th joint call: die Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) Austria; Service public de Wallonie, Direction générale opérationnelle de l’Économie, de l’Emploi et de la Recherche (SPW-DGO6) Belgium; Tekes palvelee suomalaisen elinkeinoelämän ja tutkimuksen uudistumista  (Tekes) Finland; and Agencia de Innovación y Desarrollo de Andalucía (IDEA) Spain.

Call regulation

Joint projects must have a minimum of three and maximum of eight participants from a minimum of three different ERA-IB-2 and/or EuroTransBio partner countries. The participation of an industrial partner in the consortium is mandatory. Submissions of proposals will be in two steps: pre-proposal and full proposal. The deadline for submitting pre-proposals is the 31st of March 2014 and full proposals must be submitted by the 30th of June 2014. Projects are expected to start in early 2015.

Call topics

The call covers the following: ‘Industrial biotechnology for Europe: an integrated approach’.

Funding is available to fund innovative industrially relevant research and development projects on one or more of the following topics:

Processes

• Conversion of industrial by-products and biomass into value-added products

• Novel systems for new, more sustainable processes (bio-catalysts such as enzymes, micro-organism and cell-free biosynthesis systems)

• New compounds from existing, but not well studied biological systems, by understanding their metabolic pathways

• Modelling and optimisation of biological unit operations / modelling for the improvement of cellular bio-processes

• Process development, intensification and/or integration in existing industrial processes (e.g. downstream and scale-up, process design, scalability)

Products/markets

• Development of new functional materials / properties from renewable resources

• Development of platform chemicals including bio-monomers, oligomers and polymers

• Biomaterials, pharmaceuticals, functional food/feed ingredients *

Function-based bio-products: from function to process

• Function-based bio-products and bio-process design

 *Please, check national/regional regulations since some of these topics may be not suitable for all agencies.

Projects are also required to assess environmental impacts.

Link to the call documents: www.era-ib.net/call-documents-5thCall

Link tot ERA-IB-2: www.era-ib.net