© MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • VOL. 6 NO. 5 • OCTOBER 2010 INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY 239

F E A T U R E C O M M E N T A R Y

Steve Fletcher and Aline Bastin

uropean Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn recently announced one of the largest known investments in Europe to date to support research and innovation: 6.4 billion to be allocated to new projects by the end of 2011. On making the

announcement, she posited that “investment in research and inno-vation is the only smart and lasting way out of crisis and towards sustainable and socially equitable growth.”

In this context, “innovation” refers to the generation of successful new business, perhaps involving new products and/or processes, to generate new or increased revenue. In order to focus spending on innovation, Europe has identified six so-called Lead Markets: identi-fied markets in which Europe has opportunities to develop business with positive growth prospects, given its industry and technology base.1 One of these markets is in biobased products, which may be defined as industrial and consumer products based on renewable, biological raw materials such as plants and trees. Biobased products, in practice, encompass novel, non-food products and materials such as bioplastics, biolubricants, surfactants, enzymes, and pharmaceuti-cals produced through biocatalysis.

There are many societal and business drivers for the chemical and biotech industries to develop products using biomass feedstocks rather than the traditional petroleum-based starting materials. The obvious drivers are climate change (achieving greenhouse gas emis-sion targets), energy security, reduced consumption of fossil fuels, and the potential to create jobs in a growing market. Equally impor-tant, however, are the drivers of increasing oil prices and growth in demand for “green” product alternatives, which are encouraging businesses to move into this area.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly important here.2 These companies represent 99% of all businesses in Europe and may thus be regarded as an integral backbone of innova-tion (about one tenth of the European research budget will be spent with them). In the field of biotechnology, it is within SMEs that inno-vation most generally happens, with these companies frequently being

acquired by larger enterprises or themselves becoming key links in the supply chains of larger entities. It is the support of commercial innovations that the European Commission is focusing on with its recent funding.

BIOCHEM is one example of a project targeted at innovation by SMEs in Europe. Co-financed by the European Commission, BIOCHEM was launched in February 2010 and will continue through January 2013. It has seventeen partner organizations that are either national innovation agencies or developers of business support tools, from seven European countries. BIOCHEM is not a technology devel-opment project but aims instead to provide tools and assistance to support companies in their endeavors to commercialize innovations in biobased products.

SMEs in particular may require such support, given that innova-tion in this field can often be hampered by a number of interrelated factors, such as:

• Lack of awareness of industrial biotechnology and its benefits, particularly amongst small chemical companies

• Uncertainty about market demand• Lack of confidence to enter a new business involving new sup-

ply chains• Need for significant technology investments• Limited access to specialist demonstration facilities• Uncertainty about public perception of biotechnologyThe BIOCHEM project aims to address these barriers by develop-

ing a toolbox intended to be used freely by SMEs, that will include guidance material, assessment tools, and support tools relating to the following topics:

• Innovation capability• Sustainable product design• Life cycle assessment• Partnering and “open innovation”• Development of business models and business plans• Markets and supply chains

BIOCHEM — Supporting industrial biotechnology innovation for European SMEs

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240 INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY OCTOBER 2010

• Intellectual property rights• Regulation and standards• Funding (public and private) to support innovationHaving established this toolbox, which will be freely available on

the Europe INNOVA web portal,3 the project partners will use the toolbox to assist at least 250 SMEs over the time scale of the project. Each SME will receive a bespoke (customized) development plan and, where appropriate, further assistance in addressing the more signifi-cant barriers to their innovation plans.

As the project develops, tools and other information are to be made available on the Europe INNOVA web portal. The partnering platform is already in place and is intended to serve as a central networking platform for the biobased community, allowing SMEs to identify cooperation and business partners in industry, university, and research organizations. A market assessment report has also been compiled; other tools are yet in development. The complete toolbox will be available by April 2011. A phase of trialling with real companies will ensure to provide them with recommendations and follow-up support.

The BIOCHEM project will report on progress, including a project-completion report, over the coming three years.

Steven Fletcher, PhD, is director of Chemistry Innovation Ltd., a national Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) established in 2006 to support productand process innovation in the UK (Cheshire, UK). Tel: +44 1928 511096.Email: steve.fletcher@ciktn.co.uk. Web: https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/chemistryinnovationktn.

Aline Bastine is research and innovation communications assistant at CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council (Brussels, Belgium). Tel: +32 2 676 73 08. Email: aba@cefic.be. Web: www.cefic.org.

REFERENCES

1. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/lead-market-initiative

2. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/sme-definition/index_en.htm

3. http://www.europe-innova.eu/biochem