350 experts from 29 countries took part in this year’s five-day virtual EFIB conference and discussed how biotech innovation impacts the transition towards a green economy.
The 13th annual European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy (EFIB) gathered industry, academia, and policy representatives in a fully virtual setting from 5-9 October to discuss how industrial biotechnology and bio-based innovation can play a key role in the transition to a more sustainable, green and circular economy. In total, 350 participants took part from 29 countries. They not only followed the packed conference agenda but also used the opportunity for individual meetings of which over 300 took place throughout the week.
The 5-day EFIB2020 conference focused on advancing the green economy with biotechnology innovation. Each day covered another application area and discussed potentials and challenges for innovators to push forward new ideas from lab to market. Overall, the virtual EFIB week included 24 sessions with over 120 speakers, exploring six key focus topics including trends, innovation and policy perspectives on food, feed & nutrition, bioplastics, financing & investing, sustainable fashion & materials, bio-based industrial processes and much more. Agnes Borg, Industrial Biotechnology Director, EuropaBio, commented: “Also in a digital format, EFIB continues to be a key forum in the bioeconomy landscape, showcasing innovative products and processes and bringing together professionals from business, policy and academia to discuss and raise awareness of advancements and innovations in industrial biotechnology.”
Europe's pioneering role in advancing innovation
Several speakers presented novel projects and initiatives showcasing Europe’s pioneering role in advancing biotech innovation for different industry sectors. Industry representatives from Novozymes, DSM, Novamont, Cargill, Givaudan or Lenzing underlined the growing role of bio-based and sustainable solutions whereas experts from the Global Green Growth Institute, Forum for the Future, The Good Food Institute or the investors network FAIRR initiative presented new facts and figures from recent reports highlighting consumers shifts, biotech potentials, changing investor attitudes and the need for more policy engagement to help support the green transformation.
The vast majority of speakers in the EFIB agenda included start-ups and SMEs from Europe presenting new ways for cultured meat and alternative protein production, novel materials and packaging solutions, new bioreactor concepts and bioprocesses as well as sustainable fashion approaches. Due to the digital format not only European innovators could take part but also speakers from other parts of the world such as the US, Mexico, Columbia, and China, among others.
In addition, policy representatives from the European Commission and regulatory experts from bodies such as EFSA provided comprehensive insights into policy frameworks and regulatory requirements for different industry sectors, for instance, regarding the bioeconomy and circular economy policy and funding strategies, or bioplastics and novel food regulations. Other organisations represented in the packed EFIB agenda included the newly established European Alliance for Plant-based Food, The Good Food Institute, The Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials, the ProVeg Incubator, EIT Food, the World Packaging Organisation and the US-based Material Innovation Institute.
Digital Start-up Forum with 31 companies
The conference also included a digital Start-Up Forum, with 31 founder teams taking part. During three start-ups focused sessions they shed light on their activities in front of the respective investor jury. Experts from Capricorn Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, the BioInnovation Institute, DSM’s Planet B.io initiative, Bit x Bites and Planet First Partners joined those discussions and shared their investors’ perspective. Voted by the EFIB audience as the winning start-up and praised for combining traditional food technology and innovative biotechnology was UK-based Better Nature founded in 2019. CEO and Co-founder Christopher Kong convinced the EFIB attendees with its business strategy to produce plant-based protein based on tempeh fermentation. “Since launching in January 2020, we are now listed in over 200 independent retailers and are currently in discussions with the UK’s largest multiples”, says Kong and points out that with this approach his company is “in a unique position to leverage the biotransformative process to produce meat alternatives that consumers are looking for without using a long list full of unrecognizable ingredients”.
Within the Digital Innovation Campus scientific approaches in industrial biotechnology and the bioeconomy could be explored through 12 poster presentations. The best poster presentation was awarded to Sylvain Carcelle of French company Bioréa. He described the ten-years process of establishing a scaling-up process for the microalgae chlorella. Accordingly, the company managed to design and patent an innovative airlift fermentation technology with efficient batch, fed-batch and continuous processes. “This technology is especially well adapted to heterotrophic microalgae and the productivity is very high. This scale-up challenge reached the goal of the setting up a new factory allowing cultivation of microalgae strains with high concentration”, Carcelle explained in his pitch presentation.
Next EFIB will take place in Vienna from 6-7 October 2021
Regional biotech clusters and regions such as French Toulouse White Biotechnology, German Hessen Trade and Invest as well as Austrian Lisa Vienna underlined the strength of Central European biotech expertise. In the outlook session, the audience not only gained insights on bio-based building trends and sustainable architecture, but also learned why it’s worth joining next year’s EFIB in Vienna which will take place from 6th to 7th October 2021.