CTA has held on July 5 at its new headquarters in Malaga Tech Park the conference ‘Promotion of the Andalusian bioeconomy through European projects’, a meeting to bring together initiatives financed with European funds that work in the field of bioeconomy in Andalusia. With the support of the European projects SCALE-UP and BIOTRANSFORM, of which CTA is a partner, the event has brought together 18 initiatives focused on the use of biomass and the sustainable development of the Andalusian region.

The meeting, which has highlighted the importance of cooperation in innovation to promote the circular economy, has included both oral presentations and an exhibition and networking area. In addition, to facilitate the possibilities of collaboration between European projects, a ‘Catalogue of synergies’ has been designed, that is, a document that gathers technical information on the participating projects and their opportunities for cooperation.

Oral presentations

The event ‘Promotion of the Andalusian bioeconomy through European projects’ was inaugurated by Carmen Ronchel, Technical Manager of the Biotechnology Sector of CTA. After her intervention, the European ROBIN project, of which CTA is a partner, was presented by Mar Cátedra, technical adviser to the Andalusian Regional Government’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development. ROBIN aims to promote innovative governance models in Circular Bioeconomy to help regional Administrations accelerate the green transition.

The program continued with two thematic blocks, the first dedicated to European projects on circular bioeconomy. In this section, the speakers presented the initiatives Agro2Circular, BIOVEXO, CARINA, BeonNat and BIOTRANSFORM, the latter, with the participation of CTA. BIOTRANSFORM seeks to provide European policy makers with a policy development and evaluation framework to accelerate the transition to biotechnology-based circular systems.

The second block brought together European projects based on the olive grove subsector, such as SOIL O-LIVE, OLEAF4VALUE, UP4HEALTH and SCALE-UP. For its part, SCALE-UP pursues the creation of training for sustainable rural development in order to develop innovative business models based on bioeconomy. In addition, this project has established the Andalusian Bioeconomy Platform, led by CTA and made up of public and private entities interested in the exchange of knowledge and the implementation of innovation support services in this autonomous community.

A special section was dedicated to the INNOLIVAR project, presented by Jesús A. Gil, Professor of Agroforestry Engineering at the University of Córdoba (UCO). This Pre-commercial Public Purchase project aims to improve the Public Higher Education Service of the UCO through interaction with companies in the agri-food sector of olive oil and table olives.

Networking area

In addition to the oral presentations, to facilitate dialogue and mutual knowledge among the attendees, an exhibition space was set up during the day to display informative material. In it, those responsible for the European projects present were able to network and disseminate their work. In this area, in addition to those projects participating in the oral presentations, information was shared on the HIBA, SPACE4GREEN, LIFE COMP0LIVE, VANILLAFLOW, LIFE AGROMITIGA, LIFE INNOCEREAL and QUINOA4MED projects.

The ‘Catalogue of synergies’ with information on the European projects participating in the conference can be consulted at the following link: http://www.corporaciontecnologica.com/export/sites/cta/.galleries/documentos-eventos/Catalogo-de-Sinergias-evento-5-julio-Fomento-de-la-bieoconomia-mediante-proyectos-europeos-CTA.pdf