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BIO-TIC launches three major bio-Roadmaps to tackle innov­a­tion hurdles in indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy in Europe

14.05.2014
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(at)europabio.org. All BIO-TIC roadmaps can be down­loaded via the web portal www​.indus​tri​al​-bio​tech​no​logy​.eu.

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​.indus​tri​al​bi​otech​-europe​.eu. Source: BIO-TIC
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