Bio-based value chains for valorisation of sustainable oil crops

Developing and deploying climate-positive industrial crop feedstock in Europe compatible with the objectives of biodiversity protection is essential for the EU’s strategic autonomy and industrial competitiveness. Oil crops are key feedstock for numerous bio-based chemicals and materials; their large variety could enable the enhancement of existing bio-based value chains and the creation of new ones.

The scope covers the industrial use of plant oil crops including cascading use of their side-streams/residues. Algae are out of scope of this topic, as well as biofuel applications. Respecting the ‘food first’ principle, multipurpose oil crops are in scope.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Demonstrate large scale cultivation of low-ILUC-risk oil crops, providing environmental gains and enhanced ecosystem services[[Examples include: i. Catch cropping ii. Relay cropping iii. Intercropping. Developments and optimisation of the growing schemes can come from: i) Mechanisation ii) Crop growth cycle (precocity) of main and catch crop iii) Agronomics, including species rotation/association etc.]] at local scale, to:
  1. validate sustainable agronomic practices and cultivation schemes (including where applicable cultivation on marginal[[See glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).]] and/or contaminated soils) in view of further integration of the crops in scope into current practices; implement measures to ensure avoidance of potential negative effects of large-scale cultivation systems (e.g. impact of monocultures/risk of habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species etc);
  2. prove high yield/productivity maximising land use efficiency, taking into account where applicable any trade-offs between lower yield with additional social and environmental benefits (including long-term effects), and break-even costs.

The feedstock in scope can include established oil crops as well as promising ones (already proven at least at TRL 6). Proposals may also include a limited amount of activities at lower final TRL, e.g. small field trials, on crop breeding approaches adapted to local pedo-climatic conditions, including via gene editing, to speed up the crop and trait optimisation[[The traits may be related to promising but not yet optimised oil crops and the demonstration of their final application e.g. primarily to ensure the high yield, but also covering for such traits as seed shattering, or asynchronous flowering, causing losses and inefficient harvesting, or reduced toxicity, or other aspects affecting oil quality and performance, as relevant, and may also include the environmental optimisation e.g. improved water stress or water scarcity tolerance, better adaptation to various aspects of the soil marginality, increased carbon sequestration etc.]], in view of further upscale beyond the project duration.

• Demonstrate innovative biorefinery processes at large scale to convert oils from the targeted crops into bio-based SSbD[[Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design, see glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).]] chemicals and materials. The demonstration should include aspects related to optimisation of oil extraction and treatment, conversion of oil into intermediates and products, process(es) yield and selectivity as well as resource efficiency. Chemical, biotech and physical-chemical approaches are in scope.
• Address downstream processing (separation and purification) to ensure that biorefinery products meet final application requirements. The scope should also include cascading valorisation of co-products, residual biomass and side streams considering all steps of the value chain, to benefit the overall business case.
• Assess the replication potential of the demonstrated value chain(s) across Europe, taking into consideration different environmental and cultivation conditions.
• Perform an assessment of environmental impacts[[Ongoing initiatives on Natural Capital accounting concepts for sustainable industrial oil crops can be potentially taken into account (in case data is available).]] including aspects related to land use, required inputs, CO₂ footprint from cultivation and harvesting and further processing of targeted crops, biodiversity impacts[[Biodiversity assessment should include in particular impacts on the pollinators, other invertebrates, small mammals, birds, soil organisms and plant agrobiodiversity, surrounding habitats, potential invasiveness of selected oilseed crops.]].
• Moreover, include a task to integrate assessment based on the safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) framework[[See glossary of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024 (https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents).]], developed by the European Commission, for assessing the safety and sustainability of demonstrated bio-based chemicals and bio-based materials. Under this context, projects are expected to contribute to and develop recommendations that can advance further the application of the SSbD framework.
• Depending on the selected type of soils, measures for ensuring the safety for the operators and end-users as well as the environment should be ensured (in particular but not exclusively in case of contaminated soils).
• Develop guidelines for recommendations to farmers, biorefinery operators and policy makers (in particular local and regional authorities) to ensure mutual benefits.
• Address any regulatory bottlenecks or related issues relevant to the targeted end market(s), ensuring compatibility in the perspective of potential future scale-up.
• Maximise the socio-economic impact, by identifying strategies for engaging local communities and stakeholders and providing support training, and proposing incentives and/or other schemes for adopting sustainable oilseed crops for biorefineries in a value chain approach, for example (but not exclusively) in case of areas facing environmental pressures such as drought, biodiversity decline, etc or socio-economic difficulties such as depopulation, disadvantaged communities and others.

Proposals should implement the multi-actor approach and ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic, across the sustainable circular bio-based system, including primary biomass producers (farmers) and other rural and civil society actors (including SMEs and NGOs) bio-based industries, end-users, local communities, local and regional authorities, education and research sectors, including on social innovation practices based on effective cooperation models.

Proposals may consider making existing/new industrial assets (e.g. labs, test rigs, etc.) accessible to researchers, SMEs, etc., for visiting, or training and testing bio-based processes.

Proposals should seek for links and complementarities and avoid overlaps with past, ongoing and upcoming EU funded projects, including those funded under H2020, HEU and the BBI JU and CBE JU[[e.g. MIDAS and MARGINUP! under call HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-01-02 ‘Marginal lands and climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly crops for sustainable industrial feedstocks and related value chains’. H2020 (COSMOS), BBI JU (FIRST2RUN, LIBBIO), HE Cluster 6 (CARINA, MIDAS). Include a task to cooperate with CBE JU ongoing and parallel projects related to agricultural business models (e.g. BRILIAN, ROBOCOOP-EU), HORIZON-CBE-2024-XX CSA: New forms of cooperation in agriculture and the forest-based sector. This also applies to the cooperation with projects funded under the parallel topics in the present call, which is encouraged, as relevant.]] as well as with other instruments[[In particular the topic HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-04 Remediation strategies, methods and financial models for decontamination and reuse of land in urban and rural area.]].

Proposals should also describe their contribution to the Specific CBE JU requirements, presented in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2024[[https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents]].