Alternative biomanufacturing routes for natural and synthetic rubber

Proposals under this topic are expected to support the EU Initiative on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, and its action plan, the EU Zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the EU Industrial strategy, the EU Biodiversity strategy 2030, the Regulation on Deforestation-free Products.

Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:

• Wider availability of sustainable sources of natural and/or bio-based synthetic rubber supporting European industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy across various sectors of the (bio)economy.
• Competitive and robust production routes for natural and/or synthetic rubber, with high environmental performance, resource efficiency and sustainability.
• Biomanufactured alternatives to conventional natural and/or to fossil-based synthetic rubber meeting market requirements for targeted final applications

Rubber-based products have a wide array of applications such as automotive, construction, industrial, healthcare products and consumer goods. The market is roughly equally divided between natural rubber and fossil-based synthetic rubber. Natural rubber (NR), included originally in 2017 on the list of ’critical European raw materials’, as one of the few ‘biotic’ critical raw materials, is found in more than 40,000 products and in many applications. Increasing NR demand is linked with sustainability issues, including sustainable land use, deforestation and forest degradation, labour rights, and control of potentially devastating fungal diseases. For its NR supply, Europe fully relies on imports. Natural rubber is amongst the commodities covered by the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products. Moreover fossil-based elastomeric polymers (synthetic rubber) are also widely imported from outside EU for applications into a variety of sectors including automotive, construction, etc…

Considering the future market developments and related sustainability issues, and the issue of EU strategic autonomy for critical raw materials, European rubber manufacturers are urgently looking for resource diversification, taking care about the sourcing impacts on deforestation and forest degradation, to comply with the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products. The focus is on broadening the range of sustainable natural rubber sources and alternatives to fossil based synthetic rubber for the European bio-based industry.

Proposals under this topic should:

• Identify and characterise the suitable sources of rubber-bearing genetic backgrounds (e.g., plants, yeast, microbial hosts, etc…) which are suitable for optimisation for natural and/or synthetic rubber biomanufacturing. When targeting plant-based sources, proposals should focus on implementing low-ILUC solutions.
• Develop bio-based solutions aiming at high yield of isoprenoid and/or other elastomers, e.g. by deploying the modern tools of biotechnology or other biomanufacturing approaches.
• Advance EU/AC-based production, extraction and/or processing methods, to enable high productivity and quality of high molecular weight natural rubber and/or other bio-based elastomers. Test the suitability of the developed biomanufactured alternatives into end-products.

In addition to the specific requirements applicable for the type of action, as described in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2025^[1], proposals under this topic should:

• Address environmental aspects, aiming at lowering the overall environmental impact of the natural and /or synthetic rubber production in the EU/AC (and potentially, in the long term, globally) and at achieving its high sustainability (e.g. resource efficiency), as well as prevention of microplastics release, as appropriate.
• Ensure complementarities with past and ongoing R&I projects addressing similar challenges, including projects funded under Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe and BBI / CBE JU^[2].
• Contribute to the global discussion^[3] on the sustainability of natural rubber and the alternatives developed in the project, e.g. within the ‘Dissemination and Exploitation plan’ , as appropriate.

[1] https://www.cbe.europa.eu/reference-documents

[2] For example, project MIDAS, NORDIC BIO-RUBBER. The list is not exhaustive.

[3] For example, in the International Bioeconomy Forum, Global Bioeconomy Summit, or other appropriate thematic platforms with global partners, especially from the Global South.