Since the release of Ireland's 2018 National Policy Statement on the Bioeconomy (NPSB), Ireland has been building a high-value bioeconomy.
Things moved quickly last year with the release of Ireland's first National Bioeconomy Action Plan 2023-2025. However, even at these early stages, Ireland's bioeconomy policy is already known for its emphasis on the scale-up and marketing of bio-based products.
With three new funds focused on biobased scale-up in the last year alone, Ireland is expected to address one of the major barriers to the EU's bioeconomy, namely the inability to move products from the lab to the marketplace fast enough. Let's take a look at how Ireland is ensuring that innovative bio-based ideas make it to the industries that need them.
Three market-focused bioeconomy projects in one year
Biobased R&D has long been at an advanced stage in Europe. However, getting biobased products to market has been a stumbling block that even the EU's bioeconomy policy has not overcome.
In the EU, the middle of the bio-based R&D pipeline - the part where promising lab ideas are proven in commercial-scale production in demonstration plants - is facing a funding shortfall. This is a key area for the bio-based industry, as most high-value bioeconomy innovations still need to be tested at scale.
The situation is different in Ireland, which focuses on research and innovation alongside product marketing. Although Ireland will not release its first national bioeconomy strategy until the end of 2023, the country has already begun to work on bringing innovations to market by focusing on funding pilot and demonstration projects.
The latest funding call for the bioeconomy is the Shared Island Bioeconomy, launching in March 2024, with online applications closing on 7 June 2024. It provides €9 million in seed funding and focuses on new sustainable industries around agriculture and marine resources.
The project also has a political dimension, encouraging cooperation between stakeholders on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The Shared Island Bioeconomy Scheme is a follow up to the Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative Scheme launched in August 2023 for Irish SMEs, local and regional authorities and community and local action groups. Both pilot schemes support the country's Bioeconomy Action Plan 2023-2025.
In January 2024, Ireland demonstrated its commitment to showcasing biobased products through BioDirect. bio direct is a national project led by the Circular bio economy Cluster South West and funded by InterTradeIreland, which aims to foster business on both sides of the border in Ireland. networks on both sides of the Irish border.
BioDirect is carried out in collaboration with universities such as Ulster and Münster University of Technology. However, its driving aim is to connect bio-based producers with potential industrial customers in the packaging, construction, textile and agricultural sectors.
The project involves a challenge to help select the right biobased solution for the right industrial partner, aiming to build awareness among existing companies about the biobased solutions on offer.
Lisheen is an area of interest.
The Tipperary town of Lishee is developing into the center of Ireland's bioeconomy. The Irish Government will provide Euro4.6 million through the Enterprise Ireland Regional Economic Development Fund to establish a bioeconomy innovation and pilot facility in the country.
The Irish Bioeconomy Foundation has set up its headquarters in Lishee.
The new facility is designed to allow industry, entrepreneurs and researchers to promote high-value bio-based technologies in industries such as food ingredients, animal feed, pharmaceuticals and biodegradable plastics.
It is a strategic decision to concentrate on building centers of excellence at the earliest stages of a national bioeconomy policy. Currently, the lack of pilot facilities across the EU is one of the main reasons preventing the industry from scaling up in the region. Ireland seems to have learned from this and established testing facilities as early as the first years of the bioeconomy stimulus program.
However, Ireland is not ignoring bio-based product innovation as it rushes to bring products to commerce. The government is attracting the academic community on board by awarding Shannon University of Technology €1.25 million to develop two bioeconomy demonstration sites, one of which is in Lishee.
Regulation is pushing up demand for bioproducts in Ireland
The market-centered nature of the Irish Bioeconomy Project reflects the growing demand for commercial bio-solutions by Irish companies. This demand is being driven by the raft of climate legislation that Irish companies will soon have to comply with.
The country's Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Commitment Ireland, signed in 2021, commits Ireland to achieving net zero emissions by no later than 2050 and a legally binding pathway to reduce emissions by 51% by 2030.
Ireland's EU membership is also driving companies to look for low-carbon solutions in their manufacturing processes. One piece of EU climate legislation that Irish businesses are preparing for is the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which will be extended to companies in the construction, road transportation and other sectors in 2027. Under the law, companies in the applicable sectors must reduce their emissions through voluntary action.
There is also the EU Green Claims Directive. Under this directive, which aims to combat "greenwashing", companies must ensure that their products carry credible claims about their environmental impact, backed by evidence. These laws are expected to come into force from 2026, and non-compliance could result in penalties linked to a company's annual turnover.
Then there is Irish agriculture, which is a huge employer and economic actor, accounting for about 33 per cent of its national greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from meat and dairy products. Agri-food companies may need to shift to biobased inputs to reduce emissions from fossil-based inputs, such as fertilizers, in order to meet national and international air quality, water quality and biodiversity targets while maintaining productivity.
600 companies and counting
A growing number of indigenous bio companies are poised to meet the growing demand for low carbon solutions. The map below, produced by the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation, shows the density of companies involved in the island's bio-value chain. So far, its BioMap project has identified nearly 600 companies.
Tracking the number of companies associated with the bio supply chain is not just a marketing exercise for the Irish bioeconomy. It also plays an important practical role in expanding the biological value chain. One industry's waste stream can be a valuable raw material for others, but knowing who needs what and who can provide it at cost is a coordination problem that the Foundation's mapping efforts aim to address.
An important part of the work of the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation is to connect companies that can benefit from each other. As the Foundation adds more companies to the map, biocompanies in need of partnerships are more likely to find business partners more quickly.
Public funding for venture businesses
There are still many barriers to overcome to achieve an Irish bioeconomy that supports both decarbonization and rural employment.
Today, Irish bio-based businesses are noticing that there are still gaps in policy. Many Irish biobusinesses want more government subsidies and feed-in tariffs for high-risk bioeconomy startups, a criticism echoed by bioeconomy actors around the world. This is especially true in the early stages before commercial viability.
Public funding is necessary when bioproducts compete with older industries such as oil or concrete, which have established markets and economies of scale.
Regulation must match the goals of the bioeconomy
Businesses are also calling for the updating of regulations in various sectors to allow the use of bioresources in construction. For example, there are restrictions on the height of buildings constructed with bio-based resources. These health and safety regulations do not necessarily reflect the technological maturity of bio-based building materials.
The Bioeconomy Implementation Group, established to implement Ireland's 2018 Policy Statement, examined the regulatory barriers to growth in the bioeconomy.
One of the problems they identified related to raw materials for the bioeconomy. The organization pointed out weaknesses in waste legislation and saw the need to develop criteria for selecting agricultural and other biological waste streams that could be reused for biomanufacturing.
Bio-based producers need Governments to redefine "waste", which is often a valuable product in the bioeconomy. Relabeling this raw material as a potential raw material may make it easier for producers to sell their unwanted by-products to producers who can value them.
Reclassifying waste into raw materials is more than just an exercise in semantics - it could have a huge impact on the size of Ireland's recycling and bio-based feedstock base.
For example, Irish law currently classifies topsoil from housing developments as waste. Any producer wishing to value this product must apply to have it formally reclassified as a "by-product". This can take several months, which delays the sale of the land by the developer, as storage must be organized for the land while the paperwork is carried out.
Similarly, legal categorization poses an obstacle to bioproducers wishing to assess the value of oyster shells from large numbers of dead oyster beds. Oyster shells contain valuable compounds such as calcium carbonate, which can be used in design and construction, and chitin, which has biochemical applications in the packaging and cosmetic industries.
Currently, there is ambiguity in the law regarding whether discarded shells are animal by-products, which determines what industrial applications they can be used for.
Another problem is that current legislation often restricts the use of any material categorized as waste for health and safety reasons. This limits the raw materials that biomanufacturers can use.
Ireland has tackled the biggest problem facing Europe's bioeconomy - the lack of bio-pilot facilities for the wider market.
If producers are able to use these facilities to demonstrate their commercial viability, legislators must uphold their commitment through regulatory reforms that make it easier for them to scale up their operations. The future of Ireland's bioeconomy is about commercialization, not just innovation.
