Europe selects Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant as a demon­strat­or pilot line for indus­tri­al biotechnology

Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (Ghent, Bel­gi­um) was recently honored with the selec­tion as one of the four European demon­strat­or multi-KETs Pilot Lines. In 2009 Europe defined six Key Enabling Tech­no­lo­gies: Indus­tri­al Bio­tech­no­logy, Nan­o­tech­no­logy, Nano- and Micro­elec­tron­ics, Photon­ics and Advanced Mater­i­als. Europe invests in these tech­no­lo­gies to enable the shift to a low car­bon, know­ledge-based eco­nomy ensur­ing the com­pet­it­ive­ness of European indus­tries and the cre­ation of jobs. To sup­port this policy, the European Com­mis­sion launched the multi-KETs Pilot Lines pro­ject; multi-KETs Pilot Lines com­bine sev­er­al KETs under one roof. In the frame of this pro­ject, four prom­ising European pilot facil­it­ies will be scru­tin­ized, res­ult­ing in a tent­at­ive imple­ment­a­tion roadmap that can be used for the fur­ther devel­op­ment of a sys­tem­at­ic EU policy to sup­port pilot and oth­er KETs activ­it­ies. Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is one of the four selec­ted demon­strat­or pro­jects. Dur­ing the com­ing months, its entire eco-sys­tem will be mapped out: best prac­tices, hurdles encountered, tech­no­lo­gic­al and organ­iz­a­tion­al aspects, fin­an­cing mech­an­isms… Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant will 1^st organ­ize monthly guided tours for inter­ested parties: SME’s, large com­pan­ies, policy makers … and 2^nd host work­shops to give par­ti­cipants insight into its daily oper­a­tions. The first guided tour is sched­uled for March 25^th, 2014. More inform­a­tion on the guided tours and work­shops can be found at www​.bbeu​.org/​n​l​/​m​k​e​t​s​-​p​i​l​o​t​-​lines. This acknow­ledge­ment strengthens the pos­i­tion of Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant in its mis­sion to sup­port small, medi­um-sized and large com­pan­ies with their innov­a­tions. Prof. Wim Soetaert, founder and man­aging dir­ect­or of Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is very pleased with this inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion: ​‘Through the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, Flanders obtained a pole pos­i­tion in the field of indus­tri­al bio­tech­no­logy.’ Source: Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant