CAPTION: German innovation agency wants to find new processes for extracting raw materials. (picture alliance/dpa/Hendrik Schmidt)
The Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (Sprin-d) wants to promote the development of biomanufacturing processes for extracting raw materials from waste and residual materials and processing them further. To this end, the federal agency has announced a competition in which up to eight developer teams are to receive a total of 40 million euros. Up to now, production has largely been based on newly mined raw materials. This has had a considerable impact on the environment and society.
The switch to a circular economy in which local waste and residual material streams are reused could enable more sustainable and resilient production, the agency said. The idea is to create a completely closed circular process that is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and resilient to fluctuations on the market.
The teams will be selected by a panel of Sprin-d experts. The agency plans to support and advise the teams during the three-year competition period and connect them with other experts. The competition is scheduled to begin on November 1, 2023. The deadline for applications is September 17.
The Sprin-d team has been tasked by the German Federal Ministry of Education and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology to search for new technologies that could fundamentally change life – in a similar way to how the Internet has in recent decades. This kind of development is called a leap innovation. The agency's budget has grown steadily in recent years: While only around 47 million euros were earmarked for the agency in the 2021 federal budget, by 2023 the figure is already more than 171 million euros.
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