Establish cooperation and partnership with brand owners and consumer representatives to improve the market access of sustainable bio-based products - BBI.2017.S1

Date de clôture : 7 sept. 2017  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

The implementation of bioeconomy solutions and related value chains on large scale depends heavily on the market acceptance of bio-based products. The fact that the price of bio-based products generally tends to be higher than the relevant fossil-based counterparts is still hindering the widespread take-up of these products. In addition to developing more features and better performance for the bio-based products and justifying a potentially premium price, the bio-based industry also needs to further increase consumers’ and brand owners’ awareness of the sustainability of bio-based products.

Whereas Topic BBI 2016.S3¹ set out to build a ‘think and do’ platform to increase mutual knowledge of possibilities and opportunities between producers and potential users of bio-based products, this topic focuses on involving brand owners and consumer representatives in the ‘targeting’ of bio-based value chains. The aim is to deliver products for relevant and necessary applications in consumer markets.

The specific challenge is to provide routes and means to increase cooperation and partnership between the different actors to achieve the market uptake of bio-based products. Industry should cooperate with brand owners and consumer representatives since they have a strategic role in better understanding market behaviours and needs. Meeting this challenge will also accelerate the crossing of the ‘valley of death’ from the research phase to commercialisation of a new product.

¹ http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/bbi-2016-s03.html

Proposals should develop the structure and procedures for and implement the cooperation of the bio-based industry and brand owners and consumers to incorporate their knowledge and expertise on market changes and trends. The aim would be to increase market acceptance of bio-based products.

Proposals should seek complementarity with the projects funded under other topics^1,2 to avoid overlap and promote synergies.

Proposals should also involve other stakeholders who could accelerate the marketability and public acceptance of bio-based products through new policies and strategies, for example local communities, local authorities, and other industrial actors.

The industry should actively participate to help prove the benefits of the project results to the full bio-based sector.

Work should also build upon existing standardisation documents and allow for the necessary pre-and co-normative research for the development of new standardisation documents and validated approaches, including B2B and B2C communication.

Indicative funding: It is considered that proposals requesting a contribution of maximally EUR 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.

¹ For example BBI.S2 – Communication and awareness (2015); https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/bbi.s2-2015.html

² For example BB-05-2017 – Bio-based products: Mobilisation and mutual learning action plan; https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/bb-05-2017.html

• contribute to KPI 1: create at least 2 new cross-sector interconnections in bio-based economy clusters;
• higher brand owners’ involvement in and commitment to the bioeconomy, increasing the marketability of bio-based products;
• higher consumer awareness of sustainability and of the opportunities associated with bio-based products with better features and improved performance compared with the relevant fossil-based counterparts.

Socio-economic science and humanities
Cross-cutting Key-Enabling Technologies (KETs)