Bio-based and biodegradable delivery systems for fertilising products to reduce microplastics pollution & promote soil health
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See in 5 min if you're eligible for Bio-based and biodegradable delivery systems for fertilising products to reduce microplastics pollution & promote soil health offering max €172.1M funding💰 Funding Details
Funding Description
What the Grant Funds
The Call "Bio-based and biodegradable delivery systems for fertilising products to reduce microplastics pollution & promote soil health" (Call ID HORIZON-JU-CBE-2025-RIA-02) supports Research & Innovation Actions (RIA) that:
* Design, scale-up and validate bio-based, fully biodegradable coating/delivery systems for fertilisers, with optional extension to seeds and pesticides.
* Demonstrate circular, resource-efficient, and low-carbon production processes using sustainable biomass feedstocks.
* Provide lab-to-small-field validation proving agronomic performance, soil‐ and water-safety, and freedom from persistent microplastics.
* Generate long-term biodegradation data under natural soil, freshwater, estuarine and marine conditions, following the EU delegated act 2024/1682 testing framework.
* Apply the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) methodology, deliver threshold proposals, and identify data gaps for future regulation.
* Create new regional value chains and business models linking farmers, bio-based industries and end-users.
Eligible Applicants
* Consortia of at least three independent legal entities from minimum three different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.
* Typical partners: bio-based material producers, fertiliser companies, polymer/chemical SMEs, farming cooperatives, soil/water scientists, LCA experts, SSbD specialists, digital ag-tech providers and regional clusters.
* Third-country partners may participate if they secure own funding or if their country has bilateral funding provisions.
Funding Parameters
* Type of action: HORIZON-JU-RIA (100 % of eligible direct costs + 25 % indirects).
* Indicative CBE JU budget envelope for the topic: up to €172.1 million (shared among 3–5 projects; typical EU contribution per project €8–€15 million).
* Project duration: 36–48 months recommended.
* Submission model: single-stage; electronic proposal (Parts A & B) via EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
* Opening date: 03 April 2025. Deadline: 18 September 2025, 17:00 Brussels time.
Mandatory Requirements & Restrictions
1. Multi-Actor Approach (MAA): end-users (farmers) must be formally involved in co-creation and testing.
2. SSbD task: include budget and expertise for hazard/exposure testing, LCA, socio-economic and circularity analyses.
3. Complementarity mapping: demonstrate knowledge of and planned synergies with Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe projects (e.g., ARAGORN, EDAPHOS, ISLANDR).
4. Gender & Open Science: integrate gender dimension where relevant; all peer-reviewed outputs must be open-access.
5. TRL at start/end: start TRL 3–4, reach TRL 5–6 by project end.
Financial Eligibility & Cost Items
Eligible costs include:
* Personnel, consumables, equipment depreciation, prototypes and pilot-scale lines.
* Subcontracting of specialised tests (e.g., ecotoxicology, marine biodegradation).
* Field trial logistics, farmer compensation, stakeholder engagement events.
* IP management, data management, dissemination, exploitation and communication (DEC).
* Travel, open-access fees, and lump-sums for ethics & security reviews if needed.
Costs must be actual, necessary, allocated to the action, recorded in beneficiaries’ accounts, and comply with the CBE JU specific cost eligibility articles.
📊 At a Glance
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🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for Grant HORIZON-JU-CBE-2025-RIA-02
1. Single Market Access (450+ million consumers)
• Pan-European roll-out of next-gen fertilisers – a single conformity assessment under the EU Fertilising Products Regulation (2019/1009) grants immediate marketability across 27 Member States, eliminating 27 national registrations.
• First-mover premium – replacing 8 000 t/y of non-biodegradable polymer coatings positions project partners to capture a forecast €1.3 bn EU controlled-release fertiliser market (2029 est.).
• Agri-input bundling – ability to extend bio-based coatings to seeds & pesticides enables integrated offers to large EU cooperatives (e.g. Denmark’s DLG, France’s InVivo), multiplying uptake speed.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
• Mandatory Multi-Actor Approach (MAA) drives consortia to blend:
– Northern EU polymer chemists (FI, SE, DE)
– Southern EU soil & water test sites (ES, IT, PT)
– Central/Eastern EU farming SMEs (PL, RO, BG)
• Access to CBE-JU’s Virtual Community of Practice, creating real-time matchmaking with 380+ organisations from previous BBI/CBE calls (ARAGORN, EDAPHOS, ISLANDR).
• Alignment with ERA-NET SUSFOOD, EJP SOIL and JPI OCEANS enables data sharing on microplastics fate, cutting duplication and speeding regulatory acceptance.
3. EU Policy Alignment & Strategic Fit
• European Green Deal – delivers Farm-to-Fork objectives: −50 % nutrient losses & pesticide use by 2030.
• Soil Mission – directly addresses “Reduce soil pollution & enhance restoration”.
• Zero-Pollution Action Plan & Plastics Strategy – tangible pathway to meet 2030 microplastic targets.
• Industrial Strategy / Net-Zero Industry Act – strengthens EU bio-based manufacturing sovereignty and supply security for critical nutrients.
4. Regulatory Harmonisation Advantages
• Engagement in ongoing delegated act on biodegradability criteria positions consortium to shape test standards, gaining early compliance.
• Use of the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework provides a Europe-wide ‘passport’ for environmental safety recognition, lowering later approval costs in each Member State.
• Horizon JU results feed directly into CEN/TC 455 (biodegradability of polymers), accelerating standardisation and market trust.
5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem
• Eligibility for pan-EU Digital Innovation Hubs & EIT Food test beds accelerates prototype validation.
• Leverage world-class facilities: Fraunhofer (DE) biodegradable polymers pilot; Wageningen (NL) soil microbiome labs; CIIMAR (PT) estuarine monitoring stations.
• Talent pipeline from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks ensures skilled workforce for scale-up.
6. Funding Synergies & Blended Finance
• Cohesion Policy – ERDF regional funds can co-finance demo plants in convergence regions (up to 60 % CAPEX).
• CAP Strategic Plans 2023–27 – on-farm trials can tap EIP-AGRI Operational Groups & eco-scheme payments for farmers adopting biodegradable inputs.
• LIFE Clean Environment grants for post-project market replication (TRL 7-9) and microplastics monitoring.
• InvestEU & EIB Green Loans – de-risk industrial scale biopolymer facilities via Innovation Fund blending.
7. Scale & Impact Potential
• EU self-sufficiency boost – substituting imported petro-based polymers with EU biomass (forest residues, algae) creates new value chains worth €500 m/y and 4 500 rural jobs.
• Water-soil-ocean nexus – compliance with Marine Strategy Framework Directive enables cross-sector impact (agriculture + aquaculture).
• Readily replicable across 173 m ha of EU agricultural land, enabling an estimated 42 000 t/y reduction in microplastics leakage.
8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Level
1. Scale economies: pooled demand lowers €/kg for novel polymers by 20-25 % versus fragmented national roll-outs.
2. Regulatory certainty: a single, science-driven assessment from the EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA) reduces go-to-market time by ~2 years.
3. Borderless data: harmonised soil microplastic baselines allow robust LCA and socio-economic impact metrics accepted EU-wide.
4. Political visibility: alignment with high-profile Missions secures long-term policy backing and easier uptake into Common Agricultural Policy measures.
Bottom Line: Leveraging the EU Single Market, harmonised regulation, world-leading research infrastructure and multiple complementary funding streams dramatically enhances the commercial viability, speed-to-impact and societal reach of bio-based biodegradable fertiliser delivery systems compared with any national-only initiative.
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