Cofund on Biotechnologies

The second transnational call for research projects

The second transnational joint call for research projects “Biotechnology for a sustainable bioeconomy”within the framework of ERA CoBioTech aimed to contribute to the transformation of the global economy from a dependence on fossil raw materials to a sustainable bio-based economy.

ERA CoBioTech expected proposals for collaborative research, development and innovation from transnational consortia composed of universities, higher education institutions, public research institutes, industries, large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Research projects had to be multidisciplinary and needed to address one of the following topics:

Topic A – Microbial communities (natural or synthetic), co-cultures and cascades of microorganisms for new products, value-added products and supply services and sustainable industrial processes

Topic B – Pure cultures, cell free systems and enzymes for new products, value-added products and supply services and sustainable industrial processes

The submitted proposals had to be multidisciplinary and to include at least two of the following scientific approaches:

• Synthetic biology for the design and construction of new biological parts, devices, and systems, or re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes by use of e.g. (but not limited to) orthogonal bio-systems, regulatory circuits, minimal genome approaches and protocells.
• Systems biology for optimisation of biological processes, including investigation of regulatory mechanisms in intra- and intercellular processes for bio-production, modelling, development of new computational methods and other new methodologies.
• Use of bioinformatics tools (e.g. data standardisation, modelling, open repositories) for the identification and utilisation of metabolic pathways. Datasets can have different origins, e.g. appropriate datasets on genomics, phenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics etc.; mapping and exploitation of cellular processes and metabolic capacities for bio-production and for strain/variety improvement are also included.
• Biotechnological approaches (possibly in combination with chemical ones) to transform bio-based building blocks into molecules in a sustainable way.

ERA CoBioTech expected proposals for collaborative research, development and innovation from transnational consortia composed of universities, higher education institutions, public research institutes, industries, large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Where appropriate (according to national regulations), other partners such as non-for-profit organizations or civil society organizations were also encouraged. The participation of one or more industrial partner(s) in the consortium was also recommended, but not mandatory. National and regional eligibility rules, including the potential eligibility of the private sector, e.g. SMEs, had to be followed.