Boosting biorefinery competitiveness through biotech
HORIZON-JU-CBE-2026 · HORIZON-JU-IA · TRL 6–8 · Needs partners
What this call funds
This call funds large-scale demonstration projects that use biotechnology to build biorefineries producing sustainable bio-based chemicals, polymers, ingredients or enzymes at near-commercial scale. Projects must prove the production process works reliably at scale (TRL 8) and show the resulting product can be turned into a marketable end-product. The goal is to help Europe move biotech innovations out of the lab and into real industrial value chains, boosting sustainability and reducing dependence on fossil resources.
biotechnology · bioeconomy · sustainable materials · circular economy · advanced manufacturing
Who wins this
This call best suits a consortium of industrial partners, technology providers and research organisations working together across the value chain to demonstrate a full-scale biotech-based biorefinery process ready for market deployment.
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The call in detail
- Indicative grant size
- €20M
- Funding model
- Budget-based — reimbursement of actual eligible costs
- Submission
- Single-stage submission (full proposal at once)
- Type of action
- HORIZON JU Innovation Actions
- Partners
- Required. The call asks for a consortium — a group applying together, typically 3+ organisations from 3+ countries.
- Also required
- Proposals must follow the multi-actor approach involving feedstock providers, policymakers and end users, address EU regulatory compliance and risk assessment, and apply the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework; food and feed ingredients as main application are out of scope.
- Eligible countries (45)
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, IL, TR, UA, RS, MK, ME, AL, BA, XK, GE, AM, MD, TN, NZ
Read the full conditions from the official call ›
General conditions 1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligibility Conditions described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in section 2.2.3 Calls for proposals in the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2026
Who has won calls like this
Organisations that most often win this call family · 12 past winners