Boosting future careers, education and research activities in the European bio-based industry

2026-07-22

UrBIOfuture main goal is to bring Europe to the forefront of the bio-based sector by boosting careers, new educational programmes and research activities. This approach is intended to be developed in this project as a 3-step methodology: (1) An identification step, involving career mapping of programmes involving bio-based activities and pointing of skills mismatch between them and the bioindustry needs as main KPIs, alongside with a previous methodology and work terminology developed and aligned between the educational sector and the industry needs. (2) An interaction step, in which the constant contact and contributions of the education sector, academia and industry will be sought throughout the project. The KPIs involved will be (a) building a comprehensive stakeholder network and a working group involving representatives from each sector of the bio-based value chain. The project has already received the support of 72 organizations from bio-based industries (38 LOIs), educational institutions and networks (15 LOIs), and from innovation and research centres (19 LOIs); and (b) the organisation of two workshops in which this group will participate. The first will seek dialogue between the different profiles to validate the common terminology and methodology, and the second will consist of a co-creation exercise to set the basis for promoting careers in the bio-based sector. (3) The implementation of UrBIOfuture, through an appropriate Communication and Dissemination plan; the organization of promotional events, train-the-trainer and train-the-student workshops; and the development of an afterlife plan will ensure the broader impact of the results materialised in the project among the European bio-based sector. The results of UrBIOfuture will help building a bio-based industrial sector with the adequately skilled people, that are able to operate innovative value chains while establishing and sustaining a solid bio-based industry in Europe.

Spain, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland

2026-02-01