Forging international research alliances on the bioeconomy
With a new round of tenders for the “Bioeconomy International” funding initiative, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) is once again supporting the establishment of international research networks.
More and more countries see the bioeconomy as an opportunity to master the challenges of the future, such as climate change, food security, and environmental and resource protection. However, a resource-efficient and competitive economy requires the bioeconomy to be viewed in a global context. Close cooperation and worldwide research collaborations are also necessary to exploit the potential of the bioeconomy. With its ‘Bioeconomy International’ funding measure, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) laid the foundation for far-reaching international research alliances in the field of bioeconomy in 2012. A new round of funding for ‘Bioeconomy International’ has now been launched.
Contribution to the National Bioeconomy Strategy
With this call for proposals, the BMFTR is once again specifically supporting research alliances between German actors and partners from non-EU countries. By funding joint research and development (R&D) projects involving foreign partners, the aim is also to strengthen the implementation of the National Bioeconomy Strategy in an international context.
Funding will therefore be provided for joint projects that refer to at least one of the following topics specified in the National Bioeconomy Strategy: biological knowledge as the key to the bioeconomy, converging technologies and interdisciplinary cooperation, and transfer into application.
Development of sustainable bioprocesses and bioeconomic products
In addition, the research work must relate to at least one of the following topics: the development of sustainable bioprocesses for industry or novel bioeconomic products.
The development of sustainable bioprocesses includes the breakdown of biogenic raw materials and their further processing and refinement, the use of residual and waste streams and CO2-based raw materials, as well as approaches to the cascading use of biogenic raw materials and biorefinery concepts. New bio-based products, in turn, should have improved properties or reduced environmental impact and offer high potential for additional value creation and industrial application.
Bioeconomy International
The new funding guideline ‘Bioeconomy International 2026’ is aimed at projects involving German actors with partners in non-EU countries.
Click here for the announcement of the call for proposals on the BMFTR webseite (only available in German).
Globally open module
In contrast to previous funding rounds, the current call for proposals does not consist of a bilateral module, but rather a globally open module. This means that research collaborations with all countries outside Europe are possible. Collaborations with Russian partners are excluded.
The BMFTR supports the work of German partners in international collaborations. The research must deliver added value for both partners. Projects that focus solely and exclusively on agricultural production systems in the partner country are not eligible for funding.
Universities, non-university research institutions, state and federal institutions with research tasks, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in Germany are eligible to apply. The duration of the projects to be funded is generally up to three years. Projects must therefore be designed in such a way that the project objectives can be achieved within a maximum of 36 months.
Submit project outlines by 18 November
The BMFTR has commissioned Project Management Jülich (PtJ) to administer the funding measure. The contact persons are Veronika Jablonowski and Christian Breuer.
The application process is a two-stage process. In the first stage, project outlines in English must be submitted electronically to the project management agency via the Bioökonomie International internet portal by 18 November 2025. In the second stage, the authors of positively evaluated project outlines will be invited to submit a formal funding application.
More information
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