BIOINTENSE is directed at addressing the challenges of low productivity and process intensity frequently hampering the implementation of bioprocesses in industry. For the future of the next generation of chemical processes in Europe it provides the opportunity not only to address intensification but also to enable this in a rapid manner. BIOINTENSE will make use of µ-technology to develop economically feasible intensified processes by integration of separation and process control, and to create tools to speed up the characterization and assessment of different process options and technologies and biocatalysts for increased process intensity. A strong focus lies in increasing the scale of biocatalytic and cascade reactions and to improve the fundamental factors that affect the economic feasibility. Both numbering up and scale-up methodologies will be tested.The BIOINTENSE consortium is ideally suited to address the challenges in KBBE.2012.3.3-03 and to meet the objectives, as it spans across disciplines, academia and industry: SMEs with a strong technology base in the areas of integrating separation in bioprocessing, biocatalyst development, immobilization, μ-reactor fabrication, and on-line monitoring will ensure top of the line industry focused research with a strong focus on scale-up and implementation.There is an urgent need for these challenges to be overcome to move towards a European Knowledge Based BioEconomy to exploit the environmental savings and economic potential if such bioprocesses were in place. Building on the recent advances in molecular biology, the time is now right to develop the necessary process engineering methodologies and implementation strategies to unlock the full potential of bioprocesses.