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Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-JU-CBE-2026-IA-01

Biotech routes for valorisation of residual biomass

Open now · HORIZON JU Innovation Actions · HORIZON-JU-CBE-2026-IA-01

Next cut-off
22 Sept '26
in 16 days
Per grant
€85M
the call's own average
Grants expected
2
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
70%
the rest is your own money

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€85M
The track runs to the largest grant in Horizon Europe (€171M). The median across the 482 calls we publish is €5.3M, this one is above it.

What this call funds

Expected Outcome:

Successful proposals will contribute to the implementation of the EU initiative on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing and the EU Life Sciences Strategy as well as the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Chemical Industry Action Plan, the upcoming EU Biotechnology and Circular Economy Acts.

Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:

  • Increased added value of residual biomass for biorefinery applications.
  • Availability of a wider portfolio of sustainable bio-based products via industrial biotech.
  • Robust, scalable and efficient biotech process(es) applicable to residual biomass.

Scope:

Diversifying biomass feedstock resources for bio-based products is key to contribute to resilience and strategic autonomy of bio-based operations. Industrial biotechnologies have showcased that they can play a key role to address residual biomass into valuable bio-based products. However, scaling up from research to demo scale requires addressing systemic and technical challenges. This entails the integration of adequate pretreatment and conversion processes, tailored to the targeted residual biomass and its composition variability, in order to achieve high yield, titre and selectivity. At the same time, it requires that these processes are scalable and sustainable. Moreover, effective logistics are needed to mobilise the residual biomass, requiring cooperation with primary producers, waste management operators and other biomass providers.

Proposals under this topic should:

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.

What applying costs you

ItemEstimateNote
Drafting effort6–8 weekssingle submission
Partner search4–8 weeksruns in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Your own money€37M30% of project cost, over the project's life
Time to first payment6–9 monthscut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

These are Bemzu's estimates from the call's structure (the number of stages and whether a consortium is required) not figures published by the Commission. Only the co-financing share is read from the call itself.

Where these conditions come from

Two kinds of row. Most are the sentence we read the condition from, quoted out of the call itself. Some say plainly that they are not a quotation but the programme's own rule for this type of action, the EU portal publishes a table of contents where the conditions should be, so for a Research and Innovation Action the rate comes from the rulebook rather than from the fiche.

ConditionQuoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Consortium sizeNot quoted from this call — Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least three independent legal entities from three different Member States or Associated Countries, at least one established in a Member State.
Funding rateNot quoted from this call — Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are funded at 70% of eligible costs for profit-making organisations, and 100% for non-profit legal entities — the rate shown here is the one that applies to a company.
MaturityProposals under this topic should: • Demonstrate (at least TRL 6) efficient biotechnology based processes to convert residual biomass streams into bio-based chemicals, intermediates, polymers, materials, ingredients[1]and/or enzymes.

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