Proposals under this topic should:

• Establish a symbiotic and flexible woody biomass processing system involving the cooperation of several actors to maximise the cascading use of feedstock and the use of residues for high value added circular products. Contribute to match interests, priorities and technological status of different participating companies and other actors as well as gaining support from public and private investors to a large-scale systemic change. One example would be clustering several enterprises/technology providers around a main woody-biomass operator to valorise its side and residual streams.
• Identify regional opportunities to share primary materials, recycled materials, and side-streams between different industries in the wood-based sectors in a secure and economically feasible way.
• Identify and support process technologies and logistical solutions that can be integrated in a symbiotic way to create a circular economy. Develop processes to share heat, process water and chemicals between different businesses, at production site level.
• Develop cost-efficient processes to allow for efficient recycling of secondary woody biomass-products.
• Develop innovative and efficient methods to extract and produce valuable molecules and components from biomass (addressing material decomposition processes which are energy-consuming) and individuate new market sectors for such materials (e.g., pigments, new materials for additive manufacturing, bioadhesives and bio-based functional additives, food and feed ingredients etc.).
• Develop new production methods enabled by innovative, including emerging breakthrough, technologies.
• Develop material-and energy-efficient processing and recirculation of (chemicals) flows, towards the fully circular model, within the single industrial plant and within the extended production site.
• Innovate the outputs from the value chain while applying the principles of eco-design of bio-based products.
• Demonstrate the substantial improvement of environmental performance, including reduction of GHG and other harmful emissions, across the value chain against specified fossil and/or bio-based benchmarks.
• Incorporate and integrate innovative processes and solutions along the value chain into a large-scale system, including woody biomass-based products for high value applications.
• Develop and demonstrate a sound business model, based on experienced bottlenecks/gains, ensuring long-term investments and new jobs opportunities, encouraging the inclusion of all actors in the regional value chain.
• Apply certification schemes of woody biomass, including certification of environmental sustainability, and expand its use along the different types of woody biomass.
• Consider integrating activities contributing to climate change adaptation.
• Demonstrate the replication potential of this flagship concept in the EU and the associated countries.