Circular Biobased Europe Joint Undertaking: driving innovations towards sustainable agriculture and growth in rural areas.

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is a public-private partnership that supports research and innovation fostering the transition towards a competitive, sustainable, and low-carbon economy in Europe. CBE JU and its projects represent a significant business opportunity for the primary sector, and in particular for farmers. The deployment of circular bio-based innovations can help diversify farmer´s activities and generate new sources of income. Since 2022, about 130 million euros have been made available by CBE JU to develop bio-based solutions with the potential to support sustainable agricultural practices and boost rural economies, and currently 84 entities from the primary sector are participating in the projects. The manuscript aims at critically analysing the major findings associated with primary producers involvement in CBE JU programme and elaborate on the specific actions undertaken to ensure that the primary sector can benefit from being concretely participating to innovative bio-based value chains.