Objective
Europe’s bioeconomy is constrained by the limited and unsustainable supply of terrestrial natural products, creating dependency on fragile imports and placing pressure on global ecosystems. Plant cell culture offers a land-independent alternative for producing natural products, but its broader use is limited by slow development cycles, lack of standardised workflows, and high costs. COCO-AI addresses these challenges by establishing an AI-optimised plant cell culture platform as a sustainable, circular, and digitally enabled pathway for high-value secondary metabolites. The project’s innovation is the integration of an AI agent across the full bioproduction workflow, integrated with multi-omics, imaging and process data to predict optimised media and culture conditions, thereby accelerating development and reducing costs. Using cocoa as a socially and economically critical demonstrator, COCO-AI will scale production from lab up to 10,000L bioreactors, delivering six novel secondary metabolite formulations and two prototype chocolate bars. The project will also generate open-source AI tools, validated SOPs, and publicly accessible datasets, lowering entry barriers for SMEs and enabling uptake by diverse bio-based sectors. Complementary life-cycle, techno-economic, and Do-No-Significant-Harm assessments will establish environmental and economic benchmarks at TRL7, while regulatory and consumer studies will guide safe and sustainable market introduction. COCO-AI will create a transferable model for the sustainable production of natural products across multiple plant species. The outcomes will strengthen European strategic autonomy, support the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and Green Deal objectives, and demonstrate scalable solutions for competitive and sustainable bio-based industries.
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 environmental biotechnology bioremediation bioreactors
- 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.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.6.6 - Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy
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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-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions
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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-CL6-2025-01
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
80686 MUNCHEN
Germany
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.