PLANTOMYC is a transformative initiative aiming to reshape the landscape of the alternative protein sector. It aims to bridge the versatile benefits of plant-based proteins with the functional and organoleptic (taste, aroma, texture) advantages of mycelial protein biomass (MPB) and develop innovative minimally processed hybrid meat analogues that are both healthy, and tasty. The project promotes sustainability by upcycling underutilized circular substrates such as starch rich pea protein by-product, and brewers spent grains to produce MPB by submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF), respectively. Envisioning a near-zero waste process design, PLANTOMYC proposes converting the broth from SmF into a Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) enriched beverage and / or a flavorful bouillon. Adopting a multi-actor approach, the project addresses challenges related to consumer preferences, technological scaling, and regulatory requirements. Notably, the impact of PLANTOMYC’s product prototypes on nutritional, functional (gut health & metabolic syndrome), techno-functional, and sensory properties will be assessed thoroughly. Moreover, to advance PLANTOMYC’s TRL, we perform a comprehensive impact assessment for the adoption of these products, utilizing our consortium’s industrial end-users. PLANTOMYC will significantly increase the competitiveness of European alternative protein initiatives. It will accelerate the sector by offering an open-access knowledge platform, introducing new production concepts for hybrid meat analogues, increasing resource independence and efficiency, providing new market opportunities for industrial partners like Millow, BRØL, and Lantmännen, increasing the affordability of alternative proteins, and reducing the environmental footprint of protein production

In line with the Zero Pollution action plan, the “Farm to Fork” strategy and the new Fertilising Product Regulation, NOVAFERT will demonstrate the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility and safe use of a wide portfolio of at least 25 alternative fertilising products, containing recovered nutrients from all 6 different waste streams mentioned in the call, with the goal of facilitating the replacement of synthetic and mineral fertilisers. NOVAFERT gathers 9 multidisciplinary actors to demonstrate the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility and safe use of alternative fertilising products. The environmental aspect will be covered by developing guidelines and a consensual method for environmental assessment of alternative fertilising products. The economic aspect will be covered by co-creating novel, circular and green business models. As such, NOVAFERT will reduce environmental impacts and external nutrient dependence in agriculture in 6 representative countries from Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central Europe. NOVAFERT will map existing alternative fertilising products across Europe and develop an Atlas of the nutrient-oriented living labs, and also will support the development of sustainable local value chains. By regionally contextualizing and interlinking all main recovering technologies and products, and technically connecting all value chains and key relevant stakeholders in 7 regional working groups and 7-10 lighthouse demo’s, NOVAFERT will foster the sustainable use and management of alternative fertilizing products in Europe. Moreover, NOVAFERT will develop a portfolio of support policies and legislative instruments suitable for local deployment in the EU regions through 7 specific action plans and 4 policy briefs. Thereby NOVAFERT will bring together the necessary information for efficient and safe utilizing of alternative fertilising products to help decision-making on valorisation employed in nutrient recovery.

Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic growth and societal progress, yet women remain underrepresented in the field, accounting for less than a third of entrepreneurs in EU. This under-representation not only highlights inequality but also limits EU's potential to tackle pressing challenges, such as the digital, green, resilience transition, and recovery from the pandemic. Deep tech sectors are even less balanced, and investment for women-led companies remains less than 2% of the total To address this gender gap, Women TechEU will bridge collaboration between the European Commission and pan-European deep tech women-led startups to create a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. Built on the exisisting foundations of the EIC Women TechEU initiative, our consortium will scale this iniatiative with a clear perspective towards long-term sustainability We will invest 12M€ in equity-free grants to 160 women-led deep tech companies and additional support services in a programme enhancing current EIC BAS to which we will link The consortium is comprised by partners covering all the expertise and geographies needed to reach over 15000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all over Europe. Led by EIT Manufacturing, it is strengthened with the participation of other KICs from EIT like Health, Food and Climate, leveraging the power of their network and landmark events. We also count with the expertise from Sploro in cascade funding programmes. Across Limits will guide the communication and dissemination activities as well as link in the service delivery with Awaken Hub, who will coordinate an effort to evaluate over 1500 experts in 4 different open calls. The consortium is complemented by major networks of investors and women entrepreneurs like EBAN, AFAEMME, or FI Values and purpose driven we will search for sustainability and major impact of the initiative during the project and beyond even proposing a PPP structure to further exploit the project results.

NATI00NS will assist the EU Mission 'A Soil Deal for Europe’ during most of its first "induction and pilot" phase (2021 – 2025), acting as a messenger and conveying awareness-raising messages to national and regional stakeholders, providing access to capacity building materials and information, spurring the discussions on the best Living-Lab (LL) setups to address regional soil needs, and fostering early matchmaking for cross-regional LL clusters. Eventually, the smooth execution of the project will be reflected in the number of high-quality applications received in the first open calls and the funding of the first two waves of LL projects, which can lead the way for the systemic change boosted by the Soil Mission. The takeaways will be also useful for upcoming activities in the Soil Mission's second "expansion and innovation" phase (2025 – 2030) when the rest of the waves of LLs will be selected. NATI00NS' consortium has been carefully selected and formed with the intention of gathering and covering all the necessary expertise needed to ensure the successful execution of the work plan and achievement of the project's objectives. This will, in turn, allow the partners to contribute to the Soil Mission’s expected impact on society, following the achievement of its objectives and goal. On the one hand, the project is counting on top experts on soil science and the co-participatory place-based innovation approaches to be put in place in the Living Labs. On the other hand, NATI00NS is granting adequate national outreach in all EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries through its 14 partners, its Key network group representatives and all their networks (i.e., BIOEAST, European Network of Living Labs, Soil Health National Hubs, ERIAFF, etc.).

The BioBIVE Consortium is a multidisciplinary 16 members group of universities, research centres and SMEs from 6 different European countries aimed to achieve, as main objective: “the development of bio-based platforms to allow the controlled release of bio-active agents able to control the plant pathogens of horticultural crops helping to decrease the use of chemical pesticides”. The general objective is based on three different bio-based release platforms (bio-plastic mulch, biochar and sprayable mulch) and three bio-active agents (basic substances, microorganisms and marine phenolic compounds),which will be the starting point to achieve the final best formulation. The functionality of these bio-based delivery systems that use substances from natural sources against crop pathogens instead of chemical pesticides must be evaluated in laboratory, greenhouse and environmental conditions, using diverse cropping systems (e.g., carrots, strawberries, tomatoes) and techniques, which are part of the BioBIVE Partners expertise.