Building a circular bioeconomy: PRIMARY, EMBEDED, and HarWASTing collaborate for rural innovation

On 8 October 2025, the three projects held their first collaborative meeting to align strategies, identify synergies, and establish a common framework for knowledge sharing and joint activities. This partnership represents a significant step forward in supporting Europe’s transition to a circular bioeconomy.

Each project brings specialized expertise to address different aspects of agricultural biomass valorization:

PRIMARY develops and demonstrates local, scalable solutions that enable farmers and cooperatives to upcycle underutilised agricultural biomass into high-value products. Working directly with primary producers, PRIMARY pilots six innovative processes to transform grass, greenhouse byproducts, cotton, and olive tree pruning into:

• Food and feed ingredients through biorefinery and fermentation processes
• Bio-based materials for packaging and construction applications
• Biofuels and bioenergy from pelletized biomass
• Biochar-based fertilizers and materials

Using the cascading principle, PRIMARY focuses on extracting the highest possible value from each feedstock while considering regional conditions and local value chains.

EMBEDED creates high-value biochar and sustainable particleboards from agrifood residues, along with biofertilizers and bioactive compounds for health and cosmetics applications. The project contributes to climate neutrality goals while building resilience in rural areas.

HarWASTing employs advanced processes to transform agroforestry waste into hydrochar for specialized high-performance materials, including fire-resistant panels and electromagnetic shielding applications.

Strengthening impact through collaboration

This partnership enables us to maximize our collective impact by:

• Sharing pilot experiences: Exchanging data, findings, and practical lessons learned from our demonstration activities across different feedstocks and technologies. This cross-learning helps accelerate solution development and avoid duplication.
• Exchange practical experiences: Discussing real-world challenges, solutions, and hands-on lessons learned from the developments.
• Ensure complementary development: Maintaining ongoing dialogue to identify opportunities for synergy, prevent redundancy, and build on each other’s findings as we progress through our pilot activities.

All three projects share a fundamental commitment: demonstrating that agricultural feedstock and agroforestry waste can become valuable resources through innovative business models and technologies.

Whether you are a farmer exploring new income opportunities, an SME interested in biomass processing technologies, a researcher in the bioeconomy field, or a policymaker working on circular economy strategies, we invite you to follow our progress and engage with our work.

Stay connected

Join the conversation and access our resources:
PRIMARY: LinkedIn
EMBEDED: LinkedIn | BlueSky
HarWASTing: LinkedIn | BlueSky

PRIMARY, EMBEDED, and HarWASTing are funded under Horizon Europe call HORIZON-CL6-2024-CIRCBIO-02, supporting the development of circular bioeconomy solutions for agriculture and forestry.