Biotech Special Edition

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Creating

JANUARY 2019

Steps to a

SUSTAINABLE

FUTURE

Plating up

the future

of food

a circular

economy

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elcome to this New Year edition of Innovators

Magazine, which is being distributed at the

annual conference of the Industrial Biotechnology

Innovation Centre (IBioIC) in Glasgow.

Finding solutions to the long list of global grand challenges is

the only pathway that leads to a sustainable future for humanity.

The fate of tomorrow’s generations, like never before, now de-

pends on the actions industry and government leaders

choose to take today.

Step forward biotechnology, which has a major role to play

in developing innovations that can deliver a majority of the UN

Sustainable Development Goals, or what has been labelled the

‘blueprint for a better future’. Exploring this argument further

inside this edition, we look at what fast-tracking the transition to

a sustainable bioeconomy would mean for eforts to tackle the

climate crisis, defne the future of food, and create a more

circular economy.

Pointing the way, Joanna Dupont-Inglis, Secretary General of the

European Association for Bioindustries, EuropaBio, writes about

how efective cross-sector collaboration can speed up the pro-

cess. While Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director of the Good Food

Institute, looks at the mainstreaming of the plant-based food rev-

olution. Dr Rocio Ortego, our expert analyst on global health and

climate issues, also discusses the work Doctors Without Borders is

doing to raise awareness of the links between

health and climate. And in our special feature

section on IBioIC, we highlight how the market

in Scotland is impacting biotech at a national

and international level.

IN THIS ISSUE

TEAM

Editor’s word

Iain

Robertson

Editor

4 Europe

6 Climate

8 Food

22 Circular Economy

14 IBioIC Feature

Industrial Biotechnology for a

Sustainable Future

In the spotlight:

10 Bouygues

12 INFORS HT

We accept no responsibility for any efects from errors or omissions.

All material is copyright and reproduction is not permitted without express permission. All rights reserved.

 innovatorsmag.com

 @innovatorsmag

 connect@innovatorsmag.com

 innovatorsmag

Engagement | Editorial Carlotta De Toni

Design | Creative Blair Carrick

Partnerships | Publishing Susan Robertson

Insight | Analysis Dr Rocio Ortego

Research | Editorial Ebba Engstrom

Strategy | Editorial Iain Robertson

Insight | Analysis Marc Buckley

GET IN TOUCH

Welcome

BIOTECH

SUSTAINABILITY +

Made in Germany

Innovators is a

onepoint5media publication

Fostering partnerships and

collaboration to realise the

potential of Bioeconomy in Europe

Make the

connection

ver the past couple of years,

the European bioeconomy has

become a key discussion point

for policy makers, scientists and industry

alike. The European Commission aims

to move towards a more low-emissions

and innovative economy “reconciling

demands for sustainable

agriculture and

fsheries, food

security, and the

sustainable use of

renewable biological

resources for industrial

purposes, while ensuring

biodiversity and environmental

protection”. Investing solely in the

development and commercialisation

of new sustainable technologies and

products is not enough to achieve such

an ambitious goal. One important point to

realise the potential of the bioeconomy

is strong mobilisation and collaboration

between actors in the bioeconomy and

the bio-based industries, throughout

all segments of the value chain. New

partnerships can result in new ideas

which in turn can help to more rapidly

deploy bio-based solutions, including at

regional and local level. Cooperation, new

initiatives, eforts and knowledge exchange

between actors such as entrepreneurs,

brands, local communities, policy makers,

scientists, producers and journalists are

thus key factors to raise awareness about

the potential and benefts of the

bioeconomy. Several alliances,

partnerships, clusters, and

projects have been put in

place over the last years

and will remain important

vehicles for change,

not least in view of the

implementation of the

recently updated European

Bioeconomy Strategy.

These important endeavours

have included the creation in 2015 of

the European Bioeconomy Alliance,

where EuropaBio is a founding member.

This group is composed of 12 members

representing sectors active in the

bioeconomy, namely agriculture, forestry,

biotechnology, sugar, starch, vegetable

oils, pulp and paper, bioplastics, renewable

ethanol, and research & innovation.

Bringing critical mass, connecting key

sectors and creating new value chains in

the bioeconomy are amongst the driving

forces behind the Bio-Based Industries

Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), launched in

2014. EuropaBio played a leading role

as founding partner in the initiation

and development of this €3.7 billion

public-private partnership between

the European Union and the Bio-Based

Industries Consortium. BBI JU has a

diverse project portfolio, covering value

chains based on agro-food by-products,

forest biomass, bio-waste and aquatic

biomass, and the activities are well-

balanced between research & innovation

actions, demonstration, fagship and

coordination and support actions. Due

to these BBI JU projects, sectors that may

have never collaborated before, are now

working together under one pan-European

structure. By building bridges between key

stakeholders from across a diverse range of

relevant industrial sectors, including large

companies and SMEs, academia, regional

and technological clusters, relevant

knowledge is combined to achieve

innovation objectives and leverage

investments. It will be important to keep

building upon these successes.

Another initiative that promotes a more

Joanna

Dupont-

Inglis

By Joanna Dupont-Inglis, Secretary General, EuropaBio

cohesive approach amongst stakeholders

throughout the bio-based communities

is EFIB, the European Forum for Industrial

Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy.

Initiated twelve years ago with a few dozen

participants, the annual forum now brings

together more than 500 delegates in

search for collaboration and engagement

with new interlocutors from the bio-based

community. Finally, a recent and important

milestone in the context of the European

Bioeconomy was the publication by the

European Commission in October 2018

of the updated European Bioeconomy

Strategy. The revision of the strategy clearly

paved the way to a more integrative plan of

action, aiming to create a sustainable and

circular bioeconomy in the EU. Initiated by

the 2012 European Bioeconomy Strategy,

the Bioeconomy Stakeholder Panel, a pan-

European group made up of NGOs, trade

unions, regional organisations, technology

platforms, academia and industry

representatives set out to align on guiding

principles, actions and recommendations

for the future development of a sustainable

bioeconomy. A milestone event in this

respect was the adoption of the European

Bioeconomy Stakeholders Manifesto in

November 2017.

I would conclude by emphasising the

importance of breaking through

traditional silos in our quest to reduce,

reuse, recycle and to produce smarter,

more sustainable, renewable products.

The bioeconomy has shown that it is no

longer a niche sector but encompasses a

vast landscape of disciplines and industries

and pools national and regional assets,

strengths, and skills. The ability to learn

from one another and implement locally

by connecting the dots between the

multi-actor bio-based networks will be

essential in accessing sustainable solutions

to deliver on this updated European

Bioeconomy Strategy. As can be seen,

many partnerships and achievements

have already been realised. However, a

lot of work is still to be done if we want

to reach the enormous potential that the

bioeconomy has to ofer, but there is also

great motivation to reach concrete results

and to work together in this endeavour.

EFIB 2018, Toulouse

Delivering the European Bioeconomy Stakeholders Manifesto to Commissioner Moedas.

hat is one of the key fndings in a

recent report from Médecins Sans

Frontières (MSF), which translates to

Doctors without Borders, an organisation

I am sure many of you are aware of. It is a

worldwide movement of more than 42,000

people that provides medical assistance to

people afected by confict, epidemics, and

disasters. At the recent COP24 in Poland, I

caught up with Dr Maria Guevara, Senior

Operational Positioning and Advocacy

Advisor at MSF, for this biotech and

sustainability edition of Innovators Magazine,

to fnd out about the links between health

and climate change and the work MSF is

doing to raise awareness about it.

“There remains a ‘global denial’ on just how

connected climate change is with health,

much less with humanitarian action, and

the work to raise awareness of the issues is

as much within the organisational fold as it

is in the larger community,” Dr Guevara said.

“Unfortunately, emergencies are increasingly

becoming more complex. Unless we actually

begin to see how interrelated emergency

situations, whether due to confict, natural

disasters, or epidemics, are with climate

change, we will fail to respond efectively to

the needs. As it is, the international response

capacity today is already ill-equipped.”

MSF, which works globally in the most

underserved areas, and in the worst climate

afected hotspots, is stepping up its eforts

to end the denial. At COP24 Dr Guevara

presented a briefng paper that integrated

the fndings of the 2018 report of the

Lancet Countdown (lancetcountdown.

org) on the connections between climate

change and health, with MSF’s on-the-

ground experience in treating some of the

world’s most vulnerable populations, with

a view to highlighting the dramatic health

consequences already unfolding.

“This report is our frst foray into climate

change discussions and is a glimpse of our

initial refections into making the linkages

between climate change and health as an

organisation,” she said. “We need to be better

prepared, improve our knowledge-base,

work more closely together and bring each

of our collective advantages to the table.

Seeing the reality on the ground of some of

the larger health and humanitarian impacts

places MSF at the heart of the issue, and we

‘The health impacts of climate change

demand an urgent response, with

unmitigated warming threatening to

undermine health systems and core

global health objectives’.

Climate

crisis

+ health

By Dr Rocio Ortego,

contributing expert analyst on global health and climate

have the data to contribute greatly to help

bridge the knowledge gap.”

Among the fndings, is a call for greater

cross sector collaboration and improved

planning to ‘build the specifc skills and

capacities of humanitarian organisations’ to

better tackle the many challenges that are

arising. You can fnd a link to the briefng at

lancetcountdown.org/the-report.

“Climate Change is real, the impacts of

global warming are real, and as emergencies

become increasingly more complex we are

falling further behind the eight ball. The

reality is that the international

community is not

equipped enough to

manage the growing

humanitarian crisis

globally,” added Dr Guevara. “It is important to

remember that the impact of climate change

is disproportionately afecting the ‘already

vulnerable’. While the resilience of the global

community is important, this will be a longer-

term goal. Today the immediate concern is to

go where the biggest needs are and where

the most vulnerable people need help

now. We need governments to act now,

and enact policies to treat people with

humanity and provide the resources needed

for climate change action that include health

and humanitarian responses.”

Dr. Maria S. Guevara & Dr Rocio Ortego

Acknowledgements:

The MSF brief was written by Bruno Jochum,

Carol Devine, Dr Philippe Calain, Dr Maria

Guevara, Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle, Linn

Biorklund Belliveau, Dr Syed Imran Ali, Léo

L. Tremblay, Dr Lachlan McIver, Ken Xue,

Geza Harczi, Dr Wendy Lai, Sarah Lamb,

Olivia Collet and Dr Simba Tirima, with

contributions by Dr Kiran Jobanputra, Dr

Micaela Serafni and Natasha Reyes, and

critical review provided by Dr James Orbinski.

Contributions and review on behalf of the

Lancet Countdown were provided by Dr

Courtney Howard and Dr Nick Watts.

Go to

msf.org

to learn more about the

issues and fnd out how you

can get involved.

Changing

What we eat

By Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director, The Good Food Institute

“If we can grow the meat without the animal,

why wouldn’t we?”

t’s a great question posed last August

by then-CEO of global meat giant Tyson

Foods, Tom Hayes.

Why not indeed, particularly when

producing animal-free meat could solve

some of the greatest global issues of our

time while paying serious dividends to the

bright minds who make it possible.

It’s a question that a growing number of

innovators have asked themselves as they

race to bring the most compelling solutions

– plant-based and clean meat – to market.

Since speaking to Innovators Magazine in

January of last year, the momentum of this

work to transform the global meat industry

has been startling. This trillion Euro market is

growing rapidly, but its inherent

inefciency makes it ripe for innovation.

It can’t happen soon enough, given the

damage industrial animal agriculture causes

to the environment, food security, public

health, and animals.

That is why The Good Food Institute

exists – to shift our supply from slaughter-

based meat to plant-based and clean meat

- which is real meat grown directly from

cells. The potential has been recognised by

governments, big food, and some of the

world’s largest meat producers, who, just

like Tyson Foods, have made substantial

investments in the space.

The success of established plant-based

meat companies like Beyond Meat and

Impossible Foods continues to boggle

my mind. Despite expanding production

facilities and adding new shifts, neither

company can keep up with the demand

for their products, which now feature at

popular restaurant chains like TGI Fridays

and White Castle.

Perhaps even more surprising have

been the advances in clean meat. Startups

working in this space are now closer than

ever to commercialising their products,

already achieving milestones that some

had predicted to be far in the future. For

example, California’s Finless Foods aims to

bring its bluefn tuna to market by the end

of 2019, and Dutch company Mosa Meats

has announced plans to sell clean meat

beef by 2021.

Funding continues to pour into these

companies, coming from global venture

capital frms to the world’s leading meat

companies like Tyson, Cargill, and PHW

Group – which is the largest chicken

company in Germany.

Canada’s largest meat producer Maple

Leaf Foods acquired plant-based meat

companies Field Roast and Lightlife. Also in

2018, Mosa Meats announced that it raised

$8.8 million in funding with the support of

Bell Food Group, one of Europe’s leading

meat processors.

These investments have been a pleasant

surprise, given that years ago, it was an

open question as to whether the meat

industry would work to stife innovation

in meat production. But instead, more and

more meat companies have embraced

plant-based and cell-based meat as

they work to diversify their oferings to

match consumers’ changing appetites.

And research shows that consumers are

hungry for slaughter-free meat, refecting

a growing concern around the health,

ethical, and environmental impacts of

conventional meat production.

Plant-based meat sales are soaring, with

The Good Food Institute’s most recent

survey with Nielsen showing that one in

every fve U.S. households are buying these

products. Sales are up by 23 percent in just

one year. If this growth rate continues like it

did for plant-based milks, the market could

soon be worth more than $10 billion.

There is also widespread interest in clean

meat, with most Americans saying they

would be willing to try it and would

consider replacing conventional meat with

these slaughter-free products. Fully 40%

say they would pay a premium for clean

meat. And that’s before any products are

available on the market!

There is striking evidence to support our

goal of transforming the meat industry to

better means of production. From scientifc

breakthroughs and investor excitement to

industry support and consumer demand, it

could not be clearer that plant-based and

clean meat will be the future.

These are the felds where innovators can

do an amazing amount of good in the

world, while doing very well for themselves

in the process.

gf.org

Bruce

Friedrich

MOSA MEATS

10

In December last year, the UK government published their

bioeconomy strategy; Growing the Bioeconomy: A national

bioeconomy strategy to 2030. Echoing many of the key messages

highlighted in the European Bioeconomy Strategy, the UK paper

emphasised the strength of our sector both in terms of societal

impact and fnancial value.

The strategy presents itself as the result of extensive consultation

between government, industry specialists and the research

community and defnes bioeconomy as “the economic potential of

harnessing the power of bioscience and biotechnology.”

As ambassadors of the UK bioeconomy, we are well aware of what

our industry is worth. From the production of more sustainable food,

to the development of environmentally friendly bio-fuels, the growth

of the bioeconomy benefts us all. But the UK Bioeconomy Strategy

also impacts the Clean Growth Strategy, the Life Sciences Strategy,

the Industrial Strategy and of course the overarching European

Bioeconomy Strategy. The importance of getting the UK bioeconomy

right, is enormous.

Then there’s the national economic impact of a thriving

biotechnology sector. The UK bioeconomy is currently responsible

for up to 5 million jobs in the UK, with an estimated worth of

£220billion GVA; yet the government has ambitions for further

growth, where the UK is a global leader in bio-based solutions. The

government predicts that the UK bioeconomy will double in size

in the next 10-15 years and with the global market for biorefneries

alone set to soar to £550billion by 2021, this prediction doesn’t

seem at all unlikely.

“The bioeconomy represents the economic

potential of harnessing the power of bioscience

and biotechnology”

Richard Harrington, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State,

Minister for Business and Industry said: “A strong and vibrant

bioeconomy harnesses the power of bioscience and biotechnology,

transforming the way we address challenges in food, chemicals,

materials, energy and fuel production, health and the environment.”

“The strategy sows the seeds to grow a world-class bioeconomy,

building on the UK’s strength to develop solutions that are

economically and environmentally sustainable.”

Four key challenges

Growing the Bioeconomy delineates the government’s approach

to transformation by outlining a wide range of opportunities ac-

cessible to the UK, enabling us to boost national productivity and

address key challenges such as food, chemicals, materials, energy

production, health and environment.

This is articulated through four high-level goals

1. To capitalise on the UK’s “world-class” research, development and

innovation base.

2. To maximise the potential of bioeconomy assets to increase

productivity from our existing renewable biological resources.

3. To support industry in order to delivery positive benefts for

the UK economy.

4. To create fair conditions in national and international markets to

allow innovative bio-based products and services to thrive.

Facilitating the strategy

These are the actions required to facilitate the growth of the UK

bioeconomy, but to be successful continued collaboration between

government, industry and research organisations is vital. Bouygues

Energies & Services is one of the key players and contributors to the

UK bioeconomy and they have a history of working in collaboration

with the leading UK research organisations. From experience of

working with a variety of highly innovative and pioneering clients,

they agree that although the technology and ideas exist, there’s a

requirement for improved high-level investment process, better

collaboration and knowledge exchange between the

diferent stakeholders.

By accepting the challenge of investment for businesses operating

in the biotechnology sector, hopefully the new bioeconomy

strategy will pave the way for improved opportunities - especially for

disruptive start-ups and spin-ofs - potentially through the creation

of lucrative Sector Deals like those that have been established for Life

Sciences and Construction.

Refecting upon this approach, Zeb Ahmed, Deputy Managing

Director, Bouygues Energies & Services stated: “With an

unprecedented demand for resources, Bouygues Energies &

Services fully endorse and support making the UK the global

bouygues-es.co.uk

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

DEFINING OUR ROLE

By Bouygues Energies & Services

IN THE UK’S

BIOECONOMY

STRATEGY

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