BioMatNet CD-ROM - Issue 7

CD-ROM  N/A  ISBN 9781872691091      £10.00

CLICK here for information on the combined pack of KBBE report plus 2 CD-ROMs.

• BioMatNet - Reports of European Research and Technology Development (RTD) Projects and Related National Activities.
• EPOBIO - Details of the EC/US Collaborative Biotechnology Activity: Realising the Economic Potential of Sustainable Resources - Bioproducts from Non-food Crops.
• Database of Websites of organisations with interests in non-food activities.
• Reports from EPOBIO activities and workshops
• Other information sources (requires an internet link)

The Non-Food Agro-Industrial Research CD-ROM 7 is a unique resource of information on non-food RTD in Europe. The main component is the complete database of EU suported research and related activities covering renewable bioproducts and biofuels. This has been compiled for more than a decade through a series of projects (NF-AIRID, NF-2000, BioMatNet and now EPOBIO) funded by the European Commission under the AIR, FAIR, FP5 and FP6 programmes.

The CD-ROM contains information on the use of agricultural and forest products as raw materials for the chemical, fibre, building and bioenergy industries. In particular, it covers activities supported by the European Commission (EC) through the Directorate-Generals for Research, Energy and Transport and Agriculture.

The industrial use of plants can make a significant contribution to measures adopted by the EC to find new uses for farm land; sustain rural economy; create jobs; and build SMEs (small and medium enterprises) based on new technology using renewable resources. In addition, this approach has both local and global environmental benefits.

To ensure that the Member States of the European Union are able to develop the technology required, the EC has funded a series of research programmes over the last decade: initiated by ECLAIR, which had a strong biotechnical content. AIR (1991-94) concentrated on increasing the land area farmed for industrial purposes: growth, husbandry, harvesting, storage, supply, processing and end-use of new and traditional crops and trees as well as use of agro-industrial residues. The FAIR programme (1995-1999) has taken this further, covering complete production chains from field to factory, with increased support of scale-up and demonstration projects. Under the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) - Key Action 1.5.2, continued this complete chain approach.

FP6 departed from this established patttern of funding as non-food activities did not feature significantly within the agriculture, food and biotechnology sector. However, a large number of relevant projects were funded within the areas of materials, nanotechnology, renewable energy, environment. In addition a series of support activities, such as studies and common interest networks, covering biomass energy were funded under the Energy Framework Programme and later through the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

Aspects of EC, national and international activities relating to non-food agro-industrial use are presented on the CD. In addition it contains information covering activities in the United States. This information has been added since the current funding through EPOBIO (Specific Support Action SSPE-CT-2005-022681) involves collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture.

Much of the information from the EPOBIO project website is also included on the CD-ROM in the second section. This provides the background to this collaborative project initiated through EPOBIO that encompasses and builds on the foresight and the foundation established during 2004/2005 by the US/EC Taskforce in Biotechnology Research - 'Plant-based bioproducts: creating value from renewable resources'. Those discussions established criteria to select Flagship Themes that represent important areas for new international R&D activities aimed at delivering the new generation of bio-based products. Through the prioritisation of the scientific areas and technologies relevant to the design of future areas of collaboration, the US/EC Taskforce endorsed the relevance and development of the first three Flagship themes € plant cell walls, plant oils and biopolymers, each of which have been developed in the context of its environmental impact, economics and regulatory frameworks, attitudes and expectations of policy makers and the public, and a communication strategy.

Previous issues of this CD-ROM have also contained detailed descriptions of organisations and commercial activities covering non-food. However, rapid changes within the industrial sector, including take-overs within the agro-chemical world and reactions to restrictions placed on the use of GM plants within the EU meant that descriptions and contacts rapidly became out of date. For this reason commercial activities are now brought together, along with other bodies such as trade associations and other common interest groups, within a fully searchable databse of websites. Since the benefits of 'on-line' searching are not available when the CD-ROM is used as a stand-alone information source, on the CD-ROM this databse has been completely restructured with both codes words as search items and the ability to carry out an embedded word search.

The fourth section of the CD-ROM contains the full text of all the reports that have been produced to date from the activities of the EPOBIO Flagships, while the Fifth section contains a series of links (requiring an internet connection) to a number of websites providing up-to-date news stories on a daily basis.

Where available all sections of the BioMatNet database are supported by further information in the form of reports, brochures, leaflets, conference presentations and other similar material. Previously, all this information contained in over 100 down-loadable files had to be sought by searching through the individual ITEMs. While this is relatively easy when the material is accessed through the Internet , it is more difficult within the CD-ROM format. hence, all these files have been listed in a table of publications, divided on the basis of the main topic and then sub-divided into general reports and reports arising from EU-funded projects.

Contents

Use the Non-Food Agro-Industrial Research Information CD-ROM to find: Results of past and current (end of 2007) projects
Partners for future research projects
Commercial partners
Commercial impact of research
Crop, Technology, Biomaterial and Product information
More than 1600 items covering European research including:

• An introduction to the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
140+ ITEMs covering Background information on and abstracts from the Sixth Framework
Programme (FP6) as well as around 25 ITEMs from projects funded under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.
Background information about the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) and details of more than 275 projects.
More than 300 items covering research under the FAIR Programme (FP4) including results from relevant projects
More than 100 items on research from other FP4 programmes including: JOULE, THERMIE, ALTENER, BIOTECH2, INNOVATION, VALUE
Final project results (170 items) from AIR projects (FP3) as well as a copy of the summary and final 2003 report which investigated the Commercial Impact of the AIR Programme
Final project results from the ECLAIR Programme (FP2) as well as the complete content of a 1999 report which investigated the Commercial Success of the ECLAIR Programme, establishing the extent to which these projects have led to commercial products, 5 years after the end of the programme
Around 100 down-loadable reports, brochures, etc.