The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) published its annual report for 2025 on 30 June. This public-private partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium funds projects that help scale up the European bio-based industry. By the end of 2025, the program had supported a total of 220 projects, of which 88 were ongoing, 30 had just started, and 132 had been completed. These projects involved 1.700 beneficiaries from 45 countries.
Record interest and more newcomers
Interest in the 2025 grant round was high. The call received 240 eligible proposals, totaling a requested amount of more than 1,4 billion euros. This was well above the available budget, demonstrating that the demand for funding far exceeds the supply.
Small and medium-sized enterprises remained strongly represented. Small and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 38 percent of the participants and received a total of approximately 508 million euros, or 35 percent of the total program budget. Newcomers accounted for 45 percent of the applicants, a sign that the program is also resonating outside the existing circle of participants.
CBE JU made progress on its own performance indicators. The participation of waste processors met the programme objective, the involvement of brand owners approached that threshold, and participation from underrepresented countries and regions continued to increase. In 2025, the partnership also drew up a new action plan to support this broader participation, alongside a strategy for cooperation with other programmes and a three-year working group for farmers, forest managers, fishermen, and aquaculture producers.
Factories under construction and private investments
Several funded projects are taking a concrete step towards industrial production in 2025. In Latvia, VIOBOND completed the foundation for what is set to become the first commercially viable bio-based resin plant in Europe, with an expected annual capacity of approximately 45.000 tonnes. In Roussillon, France, CERISEA laid the foundation stone for a plant that will produce up to 3.000 tonnes of 5-HMF per year, a molecule used in resins, coatings, and bioplastics, among other applications.
The report also addresses the private investments unlocked with public funds. By the end of that program, projects by BBI JU, the predecessor of CBE JU, attracted €3,62 in private investment for every euro of EU funding. This is above the target value of €2,85. According to CBE JU, this indicates confidence from the industry in the circular biobased economy.
The full annual report is available on the CBE JU website.
Photo: Elena Noeva, Adobe Stock
