Bioeconomy's Market Test: What it takes for bio-based materials to compete on the market

Bio-based and waste-derived materials are often marketed on the strength of their environmental credentials - percentage of bio-content, carbon reduction, circularity narrative. But for manufacturers, specifiers and buyers, origin is not the deciding factor: performance, cost-competitiveness, regulatory compliance and reliable availability are. Despite having a sound environmental case, a product with strong bio-based credentials that cannot compete on these terms will not scale.
But scaling also depends on something that is much less visible and talked about: a workforce that is equipped with the right skills and education needed to support the circular bioeconomy.
This workshop asks how secondary raw materials - recovered and valorised from waste streams into feedstock, including in the built environment - can move from environmental proof-of-concept to market-ready product. Drawing on real use cases from Horizon Europe projects and leading organisations working in biomass, the session will address research calculations with market requirements.

Key guiding questions: 
•    What actually proves a material is "ready" - which standards, certifications or tests does the European market require before it counts as market-ready?
•    Why do the numbers from research and pilot projects often not match real production costs, including the role of workforce skills and training gaps in that divergence?
•    How do these requirements, including performance, cost, compliance, availability, change depending on the application? 

*Program under definition