Research and development at European level
– driver for an innovative and dynamic industry

The biopolymer and bioplastics industry is a key driver of innovation in the bid to transform Europe‘s economy into a more sustainable, circular, and resource-efficient bioeconomy. Public and private schemes are funding the research and development efforts that are necessary to enhance our knowledge of tomorrow‘s sustainable solutions, improve our ability to produce more efficiently and consume more sustainably, and enable us to effect tangible change.

Cooperation as the key to success

In Europe, between 2007 and 2020, more than 130 projects of public or joint public and private research projects have been performed in the area of bioplastics in different EU programs, such as Horizon 2020 (H2020), BioBased Industries Joint-Undertaking (BBI-JU) or EU-LIFE.

Industrial participation in these projects amounting to almost 134 million Euro underlines this success and the unique bundling of public and private research in the field of the biobased economy in Europe.

The investigated topics cover the complete life cycle of biobased and biodegradable plastics, such as material and application development, recycling, circularity, and supplementary research on sustainability and communication.

The succeeding research frameworks Horizon Europe (including European Innov