CTA (Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía) has joined today as a founding member of the European Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance (EU Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance), a new European network that unites efforts to boost the growth of a circular and sustainable bioeconomy across Europe.

CTA’s General Director, Elías Atienza, and consultant María García attended the launch event in Brussels, where a three -year Memorandum of Undertanding (MoU) was signed among all the founding entities, comprising 14 different clusters from 11 European countries: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Slovakia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. More European clusters with an interest in bioeconomy are expected to join the alliance throughout 2025.

CTA and the Food+i cluster are the only two Spanish entities that have joined the alliance as founding members.

The launch event gathered key European Commission representatives, industry leaders, and circular bioeconomy stakeholders. Among the experts present were Astrid Ladefoged, Head of the Green Transitions Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG R&I), and Dirk Carrez, Director of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). The event featured discussions on the role of the circular bioeconomy in the European Green Deal, the Clean Industrial Agreement, and the importance of bioeconomy clusters in fostering innovation.

Circular Bioeconomy as a Key Strategy for Europe

Circular bioeconomy is an essential tool within European strategies and policies to combat climate change and enhance Europe’s competitiveness. To enable the transition to a circular and regenerative bioeconomy, bio-based products must be used as key tools to “do more with less,” overcoming resource overexploitation, pollution issues, and closing the carbon cycle.

To achieve this, the members of the new alliance will explore and coordinate joint activities and initiatives.

Based on the key elements of national and regional bioeconomy strategies, the European Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance members have decided to explore collaborative partnerships to accelerate the industrialization and commercialization of bio-based innovations, enhance innovation, competitiveness, and resilience in Europe through circular bioeconomy.

This initiative aligns with the ongoing revision of the European Bioeconomy Strategy and aims to strengthen the role of European clusters as facilitators and key stakeholders, both regionally and nationally, in achieving the set objectives.

CTA: A Key Player in the European Bioeconomy

CTA, a private foundation promoting regional R&D&I, will celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2025 and has been actively working for over a decade to promote the bioeconomy through European projects, dissemination events, and business opportunity development.

Additionally, CTA is directly involved in major European bioeconomy platforms and entities, including BIC (Bio-based Industries Consortium), CCRI (Circular Cities and Regions Initiative), and now the Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance, aiming to represent Andalusia’s interests and actively contribute to the development of the European bioeconomy.

CTA has organized Circular Bioeconomy events to mobilize projects, stimulate networking, and identify collaboration opportunities among businesses. Furthermore, it offers its own incentive programs to support R&D&I proposals in this field and has advised public administrations on the development of bioeconomy and circular economy strategies.

Moreover, CTA has actively participated in over ten European projects alongside leading European partners to promote the Circular Bioeconomy, including: SuperBIO, EXCornsEED, ICT-Biochain, Biotransform, VERDEinMED, CircleMED, SOLLAGUA, BBionets, BIO4AFRICA, ROBIN, and ZEST.

Founding Members of the EU Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance:

• Bioeconomy Cluster (Slovakia)
• Bioeconomy For Change (France)
• CLIB – Cluster Industrielle Biotechnologie (Germany)
• CluBE-Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia (Greece)
• CTA (Technological Corporation of Andalusia)  (Spain)
• Flanders’ FOOD (Belgium)
• Food & Bio Cluster Denmark (Denmark)
• FOOD+i – Cluster Alimentario del Valle del Ebro (Spain)
• Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (Ireland)
• Greek Bioeconomy Council (GBC) (Greece)
• P-BIO – Associação Portuguesa de Bioindústria (Portugal)
• SPRING – Italian Circular Bioeconomy Cluster (Italy)
• Wagralim, the Agri-Food Innovation Cluster of Wallonia (Belgium)
• World Bioeconomy Association (Finland)