Project description
Innovative technology for sustainable bio-based colourants
The EUR 38 billion colourant industry has an environmental and social impact, including high greenhouse gas emissions and harmful mining practices. Many colourants are difficult to recycle and take centuries to biodegrade. To address these challenges, Sparxell has created the world’s first bioinspired plant-based colourants that match the performance of traditional products. The EIC-funded BIOSPECTRA project aims to develop this innovative technology and facilitate the scale-up and market entry of these vivid, non-toxic, biodegradable, and low-carbon colourants. The technology is already making an impact in cosmetics and fashion. The project will partner with major brands to test these solutions.
Objective
The €38bn colourant industry comes with extraordinary environmental and social costs. Produced using a wide range of metals, metal oxides, microplastics and petrochemical products, modern colourants are associated with huge greenhouse gas emissions (up to 27 kg CO2e / kg of synthetic dye), destructive and unethical mining, and long-term damage to the environment, biodiversity and human health. Many colourants are impossible to recycle, may take up to 500 years to biodegrade and cannot be sourced renewably.
Consumer and regulatory pressure is driving industry to seek safer, more ethical, and more sustainable solutions without sacrificing the performance consumers are used to. It has proven impossible, however, to move away from traditional colourants due to a lack of suitable replacements. While existing ‘state-of-the-art’ colourants lie at the root of the problem, emerging solutions have failed to fully address the industry’s need for safe, sustainable and high-performance alternatives.
Inspired by nature and backed by world-leading research, Sparxell has developed the world’s first plant-based colourants to rival the performance of today’s state of the art products. Our patent-protected technology is already proving revolutionary in the cosmetics and fashion industries (amongst many others), and we have partnered with some of the world’s largest brands to evaluate and trial our award-winning products. The BIOSPECTRA project will complete our development programme and facilitate the scale-up and market entry of our vivid, non-toxic, biodegradable and low carbon colourants.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering colors
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC-ACC - HORIZON EIC Accelerator
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-02
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
EC4A 3TW London
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.