While it may be fashionable for politicians to dismiss the
work of experts, technology companies rely on the expertise of their staff and collaborators,
and recognise the value they add. Experts in bioeconomy development and communications
NNFCC and Sustainability Consult have built companies through embracing the
ideals of European collaboration with staff recruited from across the European
Union.
NNFCC and
Sustainability Consult have participated in many successful European collaborative
European projects including the flagship project BIOSKOH, which is transforming
a brownfield industrial site into a 55kt cellulosic ethanol production
facility.
Here the companies draw in their knowledge of the
bioeconomy, and experience in European projects, to consider the implications
of Brexit on bioeconomy development.
Bioeconomy
The European bioeconomy, the parts
of the economy that use renewable biological resources - such as crops,
forests, fish, animals, and micro-organisms – to produce food, materials, and
energy, is worth EUR 2.2 trillion in turnover, and accounts for 9% of
the EU's workforce. While currently dominated by agri-food and traditional
forestry and with the food and drink industry representing the largest
manufacturing sector in the EU, the economic potential of the bioeconomy lies
in new emerging areas, such as biobased chemicals, biobased, biodegradable and
compostable plastics, and other biobased materials.
An innovative bioeconomy is a key pillar of industrial
strategy in both the UK and EU. It is regarded as an important source of new
jobs, is an opportunity to develop a more resilient energy system, and could
play a significant role in addressing climate change. The production of biobased
chemicals, plastics, and transport fuel, coupled with the generation of power
and heat using bioenergy, can play a significant role in the move towards a
circular and low-carbon economy.
As
Brexit draws nearer, what are the implications for both the UK’s and the EU’s
bioeconomy?
Innovation
The growth of bioeconomy is reliant on bringing disruptive
innovation to the market. Unfortunately, innovation is too often viewed through
the prism of invention and technology development. A vibrant innovation
landscape requires a healthy ecosystem which, like any ecosystem, has many
components. Innovation requires knowledge development: the learning activities
which drive not only technological development but also the understanding of
markets, social dynamics, and - critically for the bioeconomy - sustainability
considerations. Furthermore, this knowledge needs to be exchanged and diffused
among stakeholders to ensure uptake. The generation of knowledge requires
resources: materials, infrastructure, expertise, and finance, and these resources
need to be available and accessible. Beyond knowledge, if markets aren’t in
place they need be formed: this may mean making the case for legitimate
development - consider the challenges facing biofuels - and countering the
inevitable resistance to change. Critically, entrepreneurial activity is
required to turn inventions, new concepts, and processes, into commercial
products.
In an emerging market, the resources can be thinly spread,
and considerable effort can be required to bring together expert teams capable
of creating and distributing new knowledge, and to access the infrastructure in
which technology can be developed.
Most biobased chemicals and plastics remain at an early
stage of market development. The resources required for development are
distributed across Europe and therefore effective mechanisms for collaboration
and joint working are required.
How
might Brexit impact on UK research and development?
Collaboration
Developing new biobased products is challenging: the use
of renewable resources is an area unfamiliar to most chemical companies: new
business relationships must be forged, and value chains created. The raw
material supply and refining, chemical processing, and product formulation require
collaboration across several countries, stretching the ability of SMEs to
network, communicate, and work across national borders. The difficulties
encountered by SMEs in forming cross-border value chains, and accessing
professional business support outside of their immediate business sphere, is
being addressed through the Horizon 2020 SuperBIO project. In this project,
European funding allows SMEs to access biobased expertise in Germany, Belgium,
France, and the UK. In the same manner, the BIOSKOH project draws together the
experience of bioeconomy research and science, industry, business development
and communications experts across the EU, notably the UK, Belgium, Italy,
Slovakia, France, Sweden and Denmark.
For many companies, collaboration starts with research
programmes and projects funded through Europe’s co-operation in Research and
Innovation Framework Programmes (FP). UK science is a net recipient of EU
research funding and the importance of retaining access to the current Horizon
2020 funding, and the future FP9 programme, has been widely articulated.
The UK is recognised as having a world leading research
base: strong in industrial biotechnology, and excelling in synthetic biology.
However, collaboration is still necessary and adds value, leading UK companies
such as Scottish
industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology company Ingenza, and plastics
producer Biome Bioplastics, to grow their capabilities through European-funded projects EmPowerPutida, and ZELCOR
respectively.
In a positive move, UK and EU negotiators have been able
to agree in principle that UK entities’ right to participate in EU programmes,
including Horizon 2020, will be unaffected by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Furthermore,
the desire to participate in future programmes has been made clear and
hopefully represents an important goal for UK negotiators. Continued UK
participation in European science programmes should be considered a win-win
situation for both the UK and EU.
How
will Brexit impact on the ability to access on critical resources?
Recruitment
Like all innovation driven organisations, the ability of
biobased technology developers to recruit and retain talented scientists,
programme managers, and other staff, is critical to business success. The pool
of trained scientists in areas related to biobased chemical development -
fermentation, microbe engineering, bioinformatics, etc - is relatively small in
the UK, and companies routinely rely on recruiting from EU counties to fill
specialised and important roles. There are widespread concerns that Brexit is,
or will when implemented, make the UK a less attractive place for foreign
nationals to work, and make the process of recruiting staff from the European
Union an onerous task, and an additional burden on micro- and small
enterprises.
Facilities and expertise
Process scale-up, and accessing the necessary equipment
and facilities, is a key and potentially expensive step in the development of
new process technology. Restricted access to scale-up resources is a recognised
barrier to biobased innovation, particularly for biotechnology-based processes.
Although the UK has several world-leading open-access Pilot Plants represented
by the BioPilots UK alliance, the range of technologies, and therefore
associated equipment, is considerable and beyond the capacity of any single
pilot plant. The only way to ensure companies have access to the required scale-up
support is to enable access to the range of facilities available across the EU.
The European Union’s Interreg programme exists to stimulate co-operation across
Europe, supporting economic and social development. One strand of the Interreg
programme supports transnational co-operation: the project’s investment allows
regions to tackle common issues across a range of areas including innovation
and environment. Using Interreg IVB investment, NNFCC, as a partner in the Bio
Base NWE project, was able to facilitate the access of UK based SMEs to the Bio
Base Europe Pilot Plant in Gent, Belgium, with the support provided through the
project acting as catalyst to further collaboration. Going one step further,
Interreg investment in the BioBase4SME project is facilitating SME access to
biobased expertise in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK. The project
brings together the broad knowledge base required by companies to build an
understanding of markets, technology, and sustainability.
Conclusions
The market for biobased products remains at an early stage
of formation, and while the resources required for innovation are thinly spread
across Europe, there is an imperative to maintain UK access to the mechanisms
supporting collaboration, and to keep providing access to facilities and
expertise. Critically, Brexit should not become an impediment to UK companies
accessing and recruiting world-class expertise and talent. The UK Government
has made positive statements about co-operation, and hopefully negotiations
will produce a positive outcome allowing biobased companies in the UK to
benefit fully from the expertise and knowledge throughout Europe, and European
companies to benefit from the UK’s strengths.