Improving policies in support of shared pilot facilities to increase their impact on the Key Enabling Technology Industrial Biotech and the European Bio-economy
SmartPilots' objective is to improve regional  policies in support of Shared Pilot Facilities to increase their impact on the Key Enabling technology (KET) Industrial Biotech and the bio-economy.  The bio-economy adresses societal challenges such as climate change, sustainable economic growth and energy independence.  The bio-economy enables the sustainable production of chemicals, pharmaceutical products, materials, food, feed and energy from renewable raw materials. Shared pilot facilities are open access test sites that bring bio-economy innovations from the laboratory into industrial practice. They are open to   all companies and research institutes,  and can thus be seen as shared investments in innovation equipment. They have proven to be successful in helping innovators, especially SMEs, to bridge the so-called Valley of Death, i.e. the innovation phase between between laboratory and successful  market introduction, that comes with a high technological and financial risk. Typically, initial funding from governments is available to build a Shared Pilot Facility, but  it is a challenge to safeguard their long-term existence, especially since bio-economy is relatively new and dedicated policies are currently lacking in many regions.     In SmartPilots, regional policies will be improved to provide support in a cost-effective and impact oriented manner. This will be done by optimizing direct support for shared pilot facilities, by optimizing indirect support i.e. direct support for users of shared pilot facilities, and by facilitating interregional cooperation regarding Shared Pilot Facilities. The Shared Pilot Facilities and regions involved are Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant and the department of Economy, Science and Innovation from Flanders (Belgium), Centre for Process Innovation from Tees Valley (UK), VTT from Helsinki Uusimaa (Finland), Bioprocess Pilot Facility and Provincie Zuid Holland (the Netherlands) and Innovhub SSI from Lombardy (Italy).