Open Innovation Test Beds for nano-enabled bio-based materials (IA)

• Establish Open Innovation Test Beds (OITB) by upgrading existing or developing new materials facilities and pilot lines, and make available to industry and interested parties, including SMEs, their services for the design, development, testing, regulatory (including safety) and environmental assessment, and upscaling of specific material compositions;
• The focus is on new nano-enabled bio-based materials' functions, features, capabilities, robustness and properties, processing techniques and optimisation of process parameters, from the transformation of bio-based building blocks and to the production of new, eco-friendly, nano-enabled bio-based materials relevant to various applications, covering the full scale of new or existing industrial and consumer products;
• Proposals should assess regulatory, safety, economic and technical barriers and should develop and validate tools to enable in-line quality control processes;
• Open access at fair conditions and cost as well as outreach and dissemination across Europe, based on a distinct methodology;
• Materials should be demonstrated in relevant industrial environments;

Proposals submitted under this topic are encouraged to include actions designed to facilitate cooperation, across Europe, with other projects; to enhance user involvement; and to ensure the accessibility and reusability of data produced in the course of the project.

Proposals should therefore include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the LEIT Introduction in this Work Programme. In particular, they should demonstrate the likelihood of an additional turnover of at least 4 times the requested EU funding, within 5 years of the end of the grant.

Activities should start at TRL 4 and achieve TRL 7 at the end of the project.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 7 and 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Nano-enabled bio-based materials can contribute to a stronger circular economy and more sustainable growth, with due consideration to life-cycle impact as well as their potential to substitute scarce materials. Novel approaches should be deployed for industry to produce new, eco-friendly, nano-enabled bio-based materials with advanced properties and functionalities relevant for various applications.

The challenge is to upscale and demonstrate in an industrial environment the sustainable conversion of different types of feedstock and bio resources in value-added novel, advanced, nano-enhanced bio-based materials and their application in products.

The Open Innovation Test Bed should help industrialise a new generation of nano-enabled bio-based materials. Proposals must address all the following impact criteria:

• Realisation of open and upgraded facilities at the EU level for the design, development, testing, safety assessment, and upscaling of nano-enabled bio-based materials, easily accessible to users across different regions of Europe;
• At least a 20% increase in the number of new SME users for existing test beds;
• At least 15% improved industrial process parameters and 20% faster verification of materials performance for highly promising applications;
• At least 20% improvement in industrial productivity, reliability, environmental performance, durability, and reduction of life-cycle costs of these materials;
• Facilitating access to finance (for SMEs in particular) for investing in these materials or in applications using them;
• Identification of regulatory requirements and regulatory barriers to market introduction.

Relevant indicators and metrics, with baseline values, should be clearly stated in the proposal.