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Whether in toys, cosmetics, cleaning products or fertilizers: Microplastics are contained in numerous products. These micrometer-sized particles are now not only present in bodies of water, but also in the soil, where they are harmful to plants and animals and thus to ecosystems. As part of the “Circularity with recycled and biogenic raw materials” funding initiative, the Volkswagen Foundation is once again supporting innovations for an environmentally friendly and circular economy.

The economy is still based on fossil fuels which leads to problems such as climate change, energy crisis and resource scarcity. Ways are therefore needed to break this dependency. The Joachim Herz Foundation would like to support precisely such solutions with the innovate! Fund. According to the call for proposals, it supports transfer-oriented research projects with high-risk approaches that make biogenic resources usable for a fossil-free future. Three interdisciplinary research teams are being sought.

In nature, CO₂ is mainly fixed via the Calvin cycle, which is part of photosynthesis. Marburg microbiologist and Leibniz Prize winner Tobias Erb has been working for some time on making natural fixation pathways more efficient with the help of synthetic biology.

With the European Green Deal, the European Union (EU) has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. To achieve this goal, the EU member states are focussing on a sustainable bioeconomy that functions in circular systems. Corresponding measures to implement the green transformation were already set out in the European Bioeconomy Strategy in 2019. With the aim of making the EU a leader in circular bioeconomy, the European Bioeconomy Clusters Alliance (EBCA) was founded in Brussels on 10 February.

Climate change, resource scarcity and food security are the major challenges of the future. The bioeconomy offers solutions to these challenges. However, for the transition to a bio-based and circular economy to succeed, innovations are required in all areas. Whether bio-based plastics, fibres, cell-based foods or new biocatalysts: the range of bioeconomic inventions is as broad as the challenge of capturing their associated growth. With the help of artificial intelligence, researchers at Justus Liebig University Giessen have now succeeded in doing just that.

Microorganisms play a key role in the bioeconomy – from sustainable energy production to the development of new materials. It is therefore essential to understand and further optimise their metabolism. Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University and the Leibniz Institutes in Jena have discovered the extent to which the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii can adapt its metabolism – simply through new cultivation conditions, without the need to intervene in the genetic material.