ERA-NET Industrial Biotechnology joint call open

NWO announces that the fifth ERA-IB joint call has been launched in cooperation with ERA-NET EuroTransBio and within the framework of the ERA-NET Industrial Biotechnology. Deadline of submissions is March 31, 2014. Joint projects must have a minimum of three and a maximum of eight participants from a minimum of three different ERA-IB-2 and/or EuroTransBio partner countries. NWO makes € 800,000 available for Dutch researchgroups and funding for a Dutch project is up to € 250,000. Proposals can be submitted for the following subjects:

Processes:
• Conversion of industrial by-products and biomass into value-added products;
• Novel systems for new, more sustainable processes (bio-catalysts such as enzymes, micro-organism and cell-free biosynthesis systems);
• New compounds from existing, but not well studied biological systems, by understanding their metabolic pathways;
• Modelling and optimisation of biological unit operations / modelling for the improvement of cellular bio-processes;
• Process development, intensification and/or integration in existing industrial processes (e.g. downstream and scale-up, process design, scalability).
Products/markets:
• Development of new functional materials / properties from renewable resources;
• Development of platform chemicals including bio-monomers, oligomers and polymers;
• Biomaterials, pharmaceuticals, functional food/feed ingredients.
Function-based bio-products: from function to process:
• Function-based bio-products and bio-process design.

ERA-IB’s objective is to foster economic and academic IB players in sharing risks, costs and skills related to innovation in order to develop new knowledge, new products, technologies or supply services that could reach the market more efficiently. It is aimed at establishing cross-border partnerships between industrial and academic IB research, improving and accelerating technology transfer, and strengthening European efforts to achieve sustainable industrial development. An important step to achieve these goals is by implementing this first joint call for proposals for trans-national R&D projects.