EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-two-stage

1. Single Market Access (450+ million citizens)

- Freedom to place safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) bio-based alternatives on the EU market without 27 separate authorisation procedures.

- Immediate eligibility for green public procurement (GPP) budgets of EU institutions, Member State ministries and >70 000 regional/municipal buyers committed to zero-pollution targets.

- Opportunity to influence forthcoming EU-wide standards under CEN/CENELEC for substituting hazardous chemicals, securing first-mover advantage across all Member States.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

- Consortium requirement (≥ 3 Member/Associated States) enables pan-European test-beds covering diverse industrial biorefineries (Nordic forestry, Benelux chemicals, Mediterranean agri-waste, CE plastics).

- Access to EU networks: Circular Bio-based Europe JU, Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), EIT RawMaterials & Climate-KIC, fostering rapid replication of pilots.

- Shared research infrastructures (EMC, JRC reference labs, European Open Science Cloud) cut analytical costs for tracking PFAS, EDCs & other emerging pollutants.

3. Alignment with EU Policy Frameworks

- Direct delivery on the European Green Deal, Zero Pollution Action Plan, Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, Industrial Emissions Directive Revision and Circular Economy Action Plan—increasing proposal evaluators’ policy relevance score.

- Contributes to REACH authorisation & restriction roadmap and upcoming ESPR product passports, creating regulatory pull for project outputs.

- Synergy with Bioeconomy Strategy and the new Biotech & Biomanufacturing Initiative supports EU strategic autonomy in sustainable materials.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation & First-Mover Benefits

- EU-level risk assessment data generated can feed directly into ECHA Substance of Very High Concern dossiers, accelerating market approval for SSbD replacements.

- Uniform EU rules simplify certification (CE marking, ecolabels), reducing fragmentation costs estimated at 8-15 % of SME turnover in the chemicals sector.

5. Integration into the EU Innovation Ecosystem

- Eligibility for Seal of Excellence opens alternative financing from national RRF, ERDF or Innovation Fund lines if the proposal scores high but is not funded.

- Partnership with Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation & Emissions (INCITE) offers scale-up services, demo sites and fast-track to ETS Innovation Fund.

- Access to EU-backed Living Labs & Citizen Science hubs improves social acceptance and gender-responsive design, a weighted evaluation criterion.

6. Funding Synergies & Leveraging Potential

- Blending possibilities with:

• LIFE Clean Environment (TRL 6-8 pilots on depollution)

• Interreg Europe/Cross-Border programmes (policy uptake, regional pilots)

• EIB InnovFin or InvestEU (scale-up loans)

• Digital Europe (AI sensors for pollutant tracking)

- Strategic use of Cascade Funding (INNOSUP, CBE open calls) to onboard SMEs mid-project without amending the GA.

7. EU-Scale Deployment & Impact Amplification

- Harmonised data and best-practice repository can become a de facto European reference database for hazardous-substance emissions from bio-based products.

- Results feed into EU taxonomy and sustainable finance disclosure (SFDR), influencing billions in green investment and boosting market uptake.

- Potential to reduce chemical pollution metrics across multiple Member States, directly impacting the EU’s 2030 pollution reduction targets and counting toward national reporting under the Industrial Emissions Directive.

8. Strategic International Positioning

- By complying with the strictest global chemical safety rules (EU), project partners gain a competitive export edge to markets adopting EU-style regulations (e.g., UK REACH, Korean K-REACH, California Safer Products).

- Strengthens Europe’s voice in OECD and UNEP negotiations on persistent pollutants by supplying open, peer-reviewed data.

9. Actionable Tips for Applicants

- Build a consortium mixing industrial bio-based leaders, toxicologists, social scientists and regional authorities from at least 3 geographical regions (North, South, East) to maximise impact scores.

- Allocate WP for policy interface with ECHA, JRC and national REACH competent authorities.

- Reserve budget for standardisation (CEN/CLC TC/ISO liaison) and for compiling data into the EU Safety Gate/RAPEX and ECHA SCIP database.

- Plan exploitation via Joint Industrial Commitments (JICs) under the Circular Bio-based Europe JU to fast-track commercial agreements post-project.

---

Participating at EU level transforms a single R&D endeavour into a pan-European market deployment platform, multiplying environmental impact, de-risking regulatory compliance and unlocking additional public & private finance streams unreachable at purely national scale.