BRUSSELS, April 30, 2014 – BIO-TIC project - The Industrial Biotech Research and Innovation Platforms Centre - towards Technological Innovation and solid foundations for a growing industrial biotech sector in Europe - has just published three major roadmaps on how to tackle the innovation hurdles that hamper the full exploitation of industrial biotechnology (IB) in Europe on its Partnering Platform web portal (www.industrial-biotechnology.eu).

Claire Gray, BIO-TIC project co-ordinator, EuropaBio, says: “These roadmaps bring a good overview of the challenges that industrial biotechnology is facing today in Europe but, most importantly, they also propose several solutions towards making Europe the world’s leading region for industrial biotech by 2030”. She then continues: “Despite its many societal, environmental and economic advantages, hurdles to the uptake of industrial biotech in Europe persist”.

BIO-TIC was launched in September 2012 with the aim to identify, examine and comprehend innovation hurdles in industrial biotechnology across Europe and formulate action plans to overcome them. After carrying out extensive literatures studies, more than 60 interviews with experts and collecting information through eight regional workshops, three roadmaps focusing on the market potential, Research & Development (R&D) priorities and non-technological hurdles of industrial biotechnology innovation have been developed and made publicly available. In particular:

• The market roadmap gives an overview of the current markets for a selection of five industrial biotechnology business cases for Europe and market projections extending to 2030. In order to identify potential product segments and overcome market barriers, “it is important that the voice of the bio-based industry is heard," says Anna Saarentaus from Pöyry and leader of the market roadmap.

• The technological roadmap aims to gain insight into the R&D-related hurdles that are impeding the full realization of Europe’s industrial biotechnology market potential in 2030. In addition, the roadmap seeks to set priorities in terms of R&D and other actions to overcome the R&D hurdles. “Bioconversion and feedstock supply are the areas where most efforts in terms of R&D should be taken,” argues Elsbeth Roelofs from TNO and leader of the technological roadmap. 

• The non-technological roadmap aims to identify regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit industrial biotechnology innovation towards identified market opportunities in the market roadmap. Dirk Carrez, leader of the non-technological roadmap, Clever Consult, says: “Innovation will only be stimulated if a correct regulatory and policy framework is in place. This is why the identification of regulatory and non-technological hurdles that may inhibit innovation in the area of Industrial Biotechnology, and possible solutions for key market entry barriers are an important part of the BIO-TIC project”.

Despite the draft status of the roadmaps “we believe it is crucial to make them available to the industrial biotechnology community in order to test the suggested recommendations, as well as to collect new innovative ideas for enabling Europe to capture the full potential of this transformative technology and make it a competitive and prosperous place,” concludes Gray.

Pádraig Naughton, Cefic, says: “These roadmaps identify the main barriers currently limiting the growth of industrial biotechnology in the process industry and give initial pointers to solutions. We encourage readers to express their views and give feedback, to make the final integrated roadmap as comprehensive as possible”.

The final BIO-TIC roadmap and recommendations will be published in 2015. These will show the correlation amongst potential market developments, R&D needs, regulatory and non-technological aspects and their impact on industrial biotechnology innovation.

The BIO-TIC roadmapping process could not be realised without stakeholders’ engagement. Therefore, BIO-TIC project consortium invites stakeholders to send their comments and contributions by end of August 2014 to bio-tic@europabio.org

All BIO-TIC roadmaps can be downloaded via the web portal www.industrial-biotechnology.eu

For more information, contact: Claire Gray, BIO-TIC Project Co-ordinator, on desk phone +32 2 739 11 78 or via e-mail at bio-tic@europabio.org

Communications contact: Maria Andrielou, Cefic Research & Innovation, on desk phone +32 2 676 73 68 or via e-mail at man@cefic.be

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Note to editors:

About BIO-TIC

The BIO-TIC project was launched in September 2012 with the vision to establish an overview of the barriers to biotech innovation and find solutions to accelerate the uptake of industrial biotechnology in Europe. BIO-TIC is a three-year project funded by the FP7 Programme of the European Commission. It is coordinated by EuropaBio and operated by 11 partners: EuropaBio, CEFIC, PNO Consultants, TNO, Dechema, Nova Institut, Clever Consult, Knowledge Transfer Network, IAR Pole, Pöyry & Ciaotech. For more information, visit the project web portal at www.industrialbiotech-europe.eu.

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