Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator Preparatory Phase

Project Information

PREP-IBISBA

Grant agreement ID: 871118

DOI

10.3030/871118

Project closed

EC signature date 16 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures

Total cost

€ 3 995 065,00

EU contribution

€ 3 995 065,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PREP-IBISBA (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator Preparatory Phase)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Biotechnology is as a key enabling technology of the circular bioeconomy transition. Accordingly, the development of biotechnology to support biomanufacturing and the production of environmental services, such as waste upgrading, is the focus of intense activity across the globe.
Historically, Europe has led the field of biotechnology, but fragmentation of the biotechnology landscape is currently undermining Europe’s leadership. Therefore, bold measures are needed to address the issue to support this sector and help Europe to remain competitive.
Since 2018, IBISBA is part of ESFRI’s strategic roadmap for research infrastructure. Accordingly, IBISBA is a distributed research infrastructure project whose overarching goal is to support Europe’s biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors, enabling these to drive the global circular bioeconomy transition. As a distributed research infrastructure project, in 2018 IBISBA gained early-stage European Union funding to perform a design study (Horizon 2020 IBISBA 1.0 grant n°XXX). Building on IBISBA 1.0 the purpose of PREP-IBISBA was to perform the preparatory work required to establish IBISBA as an operational European research infrastructure, providing it with legal status, political support and the financial means to perform its mission.
Specifically, the aims of PREP-IBISBA were to:
1. create a communication and dissemination plan that will ensure IBISBA’s visibility among its stakeholder community. Deployment of the plan aimed to convey IBISBA’s purpose, disseminate results and support an increasing understanding of the importance of biotechnology for Europe’s circular bioeconomy;
2. establish IBISBA’s business model and financial plan.
3. identify the nature of its future legal entity and generate a workable governance structure its operation;
4. build a scientific and technology roadmap, identifying priority developments that will be required over the next 5 to 10 years;
5. identify and describe the vital business processes that will underpin IBISBA’s operation;
6. spur wide stakeholder involvement and secure necessary political support;
7. define e-infrastructure needs to support IBISBA’s business operations and management of research assets.
To ensure the efficient rollout of the PREP-IBISBA work program, a management activity formed an integral part of the project.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As a preparatory phase project, PREP-IBISBA delivered a series of key results that contribute to the successful achievement of IBISBA’s preparation as a distributed research infrastructure.
Among the most noteworthy results figure those achieved in the field of communication. Building on assets developed in the H2020 IBISBA 1.0 project, PREP-IBISBA consolidated IBISBA’s public image, registering the IBISBA logo, developing a brand policy, improving the website and producing and disseminating a variety of documents to different stakeholder groups.
Beyond communication, key progress was made towards defining the purpose of IBISBA, with a great deal of work being performed on the IBISBA’s vision and mission, and its business model. The end of the PREP-IBISBA project was marked by the production and dissemination of a document entitled Business model & Business plan – Case for support. The fruit of several PREP-IBISBA deliverables, this document clearly presents IBISBA’s vision and mission and details a workable business model proposal and the foundations of a realistic financial plan for IBISBA-ERIC operations. Additionally, the final stage of PREP-IBISBA project was marked by the production and dissemination of an advanced draft of the statutes for IBISBA’s future legal entity, which will be an ERIC.
Major progress in PREP-IBISBA is illustrated by the establishment of a Steering Committee composed of member country representatives. This governance body has become a vital element of IBISBA’s strategy, currently providing buy-in from seven European countries. Additionally, to consolidate and extend IBISBA’s partnership, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was established. It is now signed by 21 European entities. Finally, PREP-IBISBA activities at national level provided the necessary impetus to spur the creation of IBISBA’s first national nodes.
Finally, to prepare the operational phase, PREP-IBISBA produced a detailed analysis of some of IBISBA’s vital business processes, defined e-infrastructure needs and produced a set of KPIs to measure IBISBA’s future progress. Importantly, to ensure that IBISBA remains relevant for its stakeholder community, PREP-IBISBA also created the foundations for a permanent scientific and technology roadmapping activity, producing its first roadmap within the framework of PREP-IBISBA.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Overall, PREP-IBISBA outputs provide a solid basis to envisage the future creation of IBISBA-ERIC. This is crucial since Europe currently lacks a research infrastructure in the field of biotechnology and biomanufacturing. Moreover, considering the fragmentation of R&D in the field, PREP-IBISBA results clearly indicate that there is stakeholder eagerness to address this weakness and build new forms of pan-European collaboration, including public-public and public-private partnerships.
A major output from PREP-IBISBA is a clear action plan to create and operate a legal entity. The action plan identifies all key steps required to move the IBISBA project towards landmark status. This includes the vital penultimate steps that involve significant negotiations with, and amongst, member country representatives and dialogue with the European Commission. The timeline for the action plan is established over the period 2024-2027, with the central outcome being the creation of IBISBA-ERIC, expected in 2026.
In the next phase, work will concentrate on using PREP-IBISBA outputs to finalize the legal statutes and all the requisite annexes. Moreover, using its well-established and active Steering Committee, IBISBA stakeholders will designate the future statutory seat for the legal entity. This will clarify the way in which the headquarters of IBISBA-ERIC will operate and provide the basis to identify those countries that will host other IBISBA-ERIC functions.
During the period 2024-2027, foundational work in PREP-IBISBA will be used to expand and diversify stakeholder relationships. This will involve the use of the MoU to expand the number of organizations that support IBISBA and to recruit new observer and member countries. Moreover, stakeholder outreach will involve building international partnerships and deepening understanding of how IBISBA can best work with industry.
Finally, groundwork performed in PREP-IBISBA will serve to construct and implement vital e-infrastructure, necessary for IBISBA-ERIC operation, and to establish permanent activities (e.g. science and technology roadmapping) aimed at ensuring that IBISBA-ERIC activities are sufficiently ambitious and well-aligned with stakeholder expectations.
Once operational, IBISBA-ERIC will constitute a key element of Europe’s Green Deal and its ambition to establish a sustainable economy and renewed competitiveness based on cleaner, advanced industrial processes. Combining results of PREP-IBISBA will define a RI capable of supporting advanced research in biotechnology and initiatives targeting the establishment of data-driven biomanufacturing, using smart IPR policy, FAIR data management and open science practices as core elements to achieve this.

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