Proposals under this topic should:

• When targeting non-woody fibre crops and their residues:
  • Demonstrate large scale cultivation of fibre crops, aiming at high land use efficiency, low-ILUC-risk and high yield (or increase in crop yield with respect to a specific benchmark), providing environmental gains and enhanced ecosystem services at local scale, to:
    1. validate sustainable agronomic practices and cultivation schemes or growing systems through sustainable practices (including where applicable cultivation on marginal and/or contaminated soils) in view of further integration of the crops in scope into current practices; implement measures to ensure avoidance of potential negative effects of large-scale cultivation systems (e.g., impact of monocultures/risk of habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species etc);
    2. prove high yield/productivity maximising land use efficiency, taking into account where applicable any trade-offs between lower yield with additional social and environmental benefits (including long-term effects), and break-even costs.

The feedstock in scope can include established fibre crops as well as promising ones (already proven at least at TRL 6). Proposals may also include activities at lower final TRL, e.g., small field trials, on crop breeding approaches adapted to local pedo-climatic conditions, including via gene editing, in view of further upscaling beyond the project duration.

• When targeting wood-based fibres and their residues:
  • Demonstrate sustainable, transparent and traceable wood raw material supply chain, providing environmental gains and enhanced ecosystem services at local scale, and covering high yield (or increase in fibre yield with respect to a specific benchmark), aiming at high land use efficiency.
  • Sustainable, traceable and transparent wood raw material supply chain including avoidance of deforestation aiming at improving biodiversity and carbon sinks.

Proposals may also include activities (at lower final TRL) on wood species breeding approaches adapted to local pedo-climatic conditions, including by specific techniques such as precision breeding and somatic embryogenesis.

• Demonstrate innovative biorefinery processes to convert fibre feedstock into SSbD bio-based materials and products. The scope includes garment applications, technical textiles, composites, nonwovens, fibre-based packaging among others. The demonstration should include aspects related to optimisation of fibre extraction yield, mechanical physical-chemical properties, fibre fineness, resource efficiency. Chemical, biotech and physical-chemical approaches may be considered.
• The scope also covers cascading valorisation of co-products, residual biomass and side streams from all steps in the value chain, to benefit the overall business case.
• Assess the replication potential of the demonstrated value chain(s) across EU/EEA/AC taking into consideration different environmental and cultivation/growth conditions.
• Perform an assessment of environmental impacts including aspects related to land use, required inputs, CO2 footprint from cultivation, harvesting and processing of targeted crops/feedstock, biodiversity impacts.
• Include a task to integrate assessment based on the safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) framework, developed by the European Commission, for assessing the safety and sustainability of demonstrated biochemicals and biomaterials. Under this context, projects are expected to contribute with and develop recommendations that can advance further the application of the SSbD framework.
• Develop guidelines or recommendations for farmers, forest owners and biorefinery operators and policy makers (in particular, local and regional authorities), to ensure mutual benefits.
• Address any regulatory bottlenecks or related issues relevant to the targeted end market(s), ensuring compatibility in the perspective of potential future scale-up.
• Maximise the socio-economic impact at territorial level, by identifying strategies for engaging local communities and providing support, for example (but not exclusively) in case of areas facing environmental pressures such as drought, biodiversity decline, etc. or socio-economic difficulties such as depopulation, disadvantaged communities and others.