Unveiling MainstreamBIO: One year of progress and achievements

August 31, 2023

Unveiling MainstreamBIO: One year of progress and achievements

MainstreamBIO is an EU-funded project under the Horizon Europe programme, dedicated to upscale small-scale bio-based solutions across seven European rural regions (NL, PL, DK, SE, BG, ES, IE). Through the utilization of innovative digital tools and the establishment of regional Multi-actor Innovation Platforms (MIPs), MainstreamBIO strives to facilitate collaboration among key actors in the biobased value chain towards developing sustainable business models aligned with regional potentials and policy initiatives.

The initial phase of MainstreamBIO, spanning from September to February 2023, has been successfully completed and played a vital role in establishing the MIPs and providing valuable insights into the local contexts of the seven targeted regions. Overall, these months collectively contributed to laying the foundation for the MainstreamBIO project, enabling a comprehensive understanding of regional contexts, stakeholder dynamics, and available biomass resources.

Leveraging the knowledge gained during this phase, MainstreamBIO entered its second phase, running from March to August 2023. Throughout this period, project partners have deployed a variety of activities for the development of a comprehensive portfolio of services and tools tailored to address the specific rural challenges and opportunities of the MIPs. In that regard, a co-creation workshop was successfully organised by each MIP, aiming to engage various rural actors in the co-creation of the project’s services and the definition of the digital toolkit’s specifications. In addition to the “hands-on” approach, the project focused on creating educational material accessible through the MainstreamBIO toolkit and other available resources to enhance awareness and knowledge about the bioeconomic sector of each region.

One significant milestone for MainstreamBIO in the past few months has been the participation in the Rural Bioeconomy Alliance (RBA). This alliance, comprising various EU-funded projects, is dedicated to accelerating and supporting circular rural bioeconomy initiatives in the European era. By collaborating with other members, MainstreamBIO actively contributes to advancing the bioeconomy and fostering sustainability in rural communities.

At the moment MainstreamBIO is focused on delivering innovation support services, within the targeted regions, to accelerate the scale-up of rural bioeconomies. In that context, the project has initiated an Open Call for interest, which aims to identify cases that will receive the project’s support services. The open call was recently launched for the Dutch MIP, and the rest of the MIPs will follow within the next few months. Additionally, a capacity-building workshop will be organised in each MIP aiming to provide expert training and audio-visual tutorials to local actors, helping them better understand the project’s innovation support services and maximise the utilization of the digital toolkit.