PRIMARY officially launches: transforming European agricultural feedstock into valuable resources

€5 Million investment in rural innovation

PRIMARY has secured €5 million in funding under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, bringing together our consortium of 12 partners across Finland, Greece, and Estonia for an ambitious four-year initiative. Led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, we represent a significant investment in Europe’s sustainable agricultural future.

We’re addressing a critical challenge: much of Europe’s valuable agricultural biomass—including grass, greenhouse waste, cotton residues, and olive tree prunings—is currently burned, composted, or simply wasted. This represents both an environmental concern and a missed economic opportunity for rural communities.

Our innovative technologies for regional impact

We will develop and pilot six cutting-edge processes tailored to regional conditions:

• Our Finnish innovations focus on maximising grass and greenhouse waste potential through biorefinery processes that extract food and feed ingredients, fermentation technologies for protein-rich products, and foam forming technology for sustainable packaging and construction materials.
• Our Greek demonstrations centre on cotton and olive tree by-products, developing pelletising processes for solid biofuels, gasification methods for clean electricity generation, and biochar production for fertiliser applications.

“Primary producers are at the core of building sustainable food systems in the EU. Farmers have the gold in their hands in a form of agricultural biomass that can be converted into valuable business and boost EU’s bioeconomy,” explains Emilia Nordlund, our Project Coordinator and Research Manager at VTT.

To maximise this impact, PRIMARY includes an open innovation call that will extend our technologies beyond the initial pilot regions, demonstrating the replicability and scalability of our solutions across the EU.

Our impact beyond agriculture

Our ambitions extend far beyond technological innovation. PRIMARY’s solutions are expected to improve the EU’s protein self-sufficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance soil health whilst creating tens of thousands of jobs and generating billions in economic value across rural Europe. Our initiatives demonstrate how circular bioeconomy begins at the farm level, creating local innovation with European impact.

Building Europe’s bioeconomy leadership

PRIMARY exemplifies Horizon Europe’s commitment to addressing societal challenges through collaborative research and innovation. By transforming agricultural feedstock into valuable resources, we contribute directly to the European Green Deal’s objectives whilst strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy in the bioeconomy sector. Our Stakeholder Platform will ensure wide dissemination of results, facilitating knowledge transfer and supporting policy development at national and EU levels.

Stay connected with PRIMARY’s progress by following us on LinkedIn and subscribing to our newsletter. Together, we’re turning agricultural feedstock into tomorrow’s opportunities!