The agreement was signed on the EFIB, the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy, held in Brussels.
3BI is a strategic European partnership that builds on the complementary strengths of four regional innovation clusters: Biobased Delta (Netherlands), BioEconomy (Germany), BioVale (United Kingdom) and Industries & Agro Ressources (IAR, France). All four clusters use biorefining to convert biological resources into materials, chemicals, fuels, food and feed. They intend to work together in the research, development and deployment of novel high-tech approaches to the conversion of biomass and waste streams into value-added products and applications.
New markets
The bioeconomy creates new markets for innovative products across the globe. European companies need support if they are to access these important new markets successfully. The formation of the 3BI intercluster represents a common intention to explore business linkages between the clusters and their members. 3BI will help European companies to make the most of new markets and new opportunities from the bioeconomy. The 3BI partners focus on growth, innovation and smart specialisation of their regions. Their goal is to promote sustainable solutions for lower carbon footprint and to substitute fossil raw materials in industrial scale.
Durable business opportunities
‘The necessity for companies to use green raw materials and make their process technologies more sustainable, is a daily priority’, Willem Sederel, director of Biobased Delta says. ‘For several years Biobased Delta has been working on international collaboration with leading regions in the world. Therefore I am very pleased with the establishment of 3BI as a European intercluster for long lasting collaboration with the leading clusters in the UK, Germany and France. This will boost durable business opportunities for the next decades.’
Stronger leadership
“The bioeconomy not only helps to significantly reduce our society’s carbon foot-print, but provides a lot of opportunities for new markets and high-value products and links the European agriculture and forestry to processing industries like chemicals, automotive or plastics’, Prof. Dr. Matthias Zscheile, BioEconomy states. ‘To combine the power of four of the leading bioeconomy regions within 3BI will strengthen the leadership of the European Union in a future economy based on renewable resources.’
Revitalising rural areas
Dr. Joe Ross (BioVale) is also convinced the 3BI intercluster will ‘strengthen European collaboration and innovation and help European SMEs to create globally competitive products and services for the bioeconomy’. Thierry Stadler (IAR) finally emphasizes the importance of revitalising rural areas in order to boost Europe’s bio-economy. ‘IAR has been deeply involved from the beginning in the establishment of 3BI. We are glad to launch the intercluster today as we believe it will foster collaborations between European stakeholders and contribute to make Europe the world leading bioeconomy region.’
