About
The European ingredients partnership
The I4BE vision
Ingredients for a circular economy was one of the Agri-Food Thematic Smart Specialisation Partnerships (TSSP) endorsed by the DG Regio of the European Commission.
This S3 partnership has evolved into Ingredients for the Bioeconomy (I4BE). This change of identity reflects the growing strategic importance of the bioeconomy within the European Union, as well as the expanded ambition of the partnership. Today, the bioeconomy stands as a key pillar of Europe’s transition towards a more sustainable, resilient and competitive economic model, by harnessing biological resources to drive innovation, industrial transformation and strategic autonomy. In this context, ingredients derived from biomass—particularly from the agri-food sector—play a central role across multiple bio-based value chains.
With this renewed identity, Ingredients for the Bioeconomy broadens its scope to address all critical dimensions of innovation within the bioeconomy, from research and development to industrial scale-up, sustainability and market uptake. This evolution is supported by a structured strategic process, notably the adoption of a joint strategic roadmap that defines shared priorities and actions for the years ahead. Through I4BE, the partnership reaffirms its commitment to fostering interregional cooperation and aligning regional smart specialisation strategies with European policies, contributing concretely to the strengthening of bioeconomy value chains across Europe.
The I4BE challenges
Many market, regulatory & technological disruptions which are taking place within and around the agri-food ecosystems are at the centre of the I4BE Partnership and require more intensive responses in order not only to build better resilience of these industrial systems but also to boost & support emerging value chains which are showing potential for innovation, growth and prosperity.
It concerns the raw material crisis, supply chain and markets disturbances, cost of logistics, energy crisis, valorization of non-conventional crops, recovery of organic by-products and food industry side streams, losses in biodiversity, the competition for biomass availability, new techno-functional ingredients, the protein shift and its plant-based & alternative sourcing, healthy food’s ingredients and diets, the increased impact of biotechnology on food science and technologies, the emergence of non-food applications using bio-based components & material, just to name a few.
The I4BE mission
I4BE supports the development of innovative ingredients for cross-sectoral applications, while fostering circularity”, by:
- Valorising & upcycling agri-food waste & co-product into food & non-food building blocks
- Generating novelties and boosting new innovative ingredients value chains
- Contributing to zero waste food value chains & sustainable food systems
- Supporting SMEs & industries by activating a dedicated innovation ecosystem and accelerating sustainable growth of circular-ingredients SMEs
The I4BE services
“Learn-Connect-Demonstrate-Commercialize (LCDC)”, this is the moto of I4BE and this is translated into several concrete activities serving the I4BE community, clusters, technology organisations, public authorities and enterprises of course, start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs and even large companies:
- Increasing visibility & recognition
- Enhancing the relevance of circularity for food industry
- Supporting innovation in food ingredient’s value chains
- Enabling inter-regional collaborations
- Providing operational pilot schemes to regional authorities
- Stimulating & operating joint EU-projects
- Bringing funding & investments opportunities
- Peer-learning, match-making and study tours
- Sharing good practices, expertise, use- & business-cases
- Business & collaboration opportunities
