Funded projects

The funded projects fall within the five scientific areas that structure the Bioproductions (B-BEST) program. These are interdisciplinary projects aimed at uniting the relevant scientific communities. They are intended to complement each other, particularly through the program's coordination which aims to foster interactions between projects. They are also connected with projects conducted under other research programs.

These projects are of two types:

• Targeted projects, designed from the outset of the program;
• Projects arising from calls for projects and calls for expressions of interest, launched during the program.

The five scientific areas are as follows:

• Characterize the chemical and physical structure of biomass in relation to its properties;
• Understand and control biological systems;
• Define and develop new biomass transformation pathways;
• Cross-cutting methodologies and tools: operational environment, digital tools;
• Understand the transition processes related to the bioeconomy and their governance.

List of projects:

Axis 1 - Biomass characterization

• FillingGaps: studying the properties of biomass at all scales.
• Applestorm: imaging biomass multiscale architecture.
• MICRO-MASS: microscopic Imaging Coupled with Mass Analysis for Structural Studies.
• WallMat: biosourced materials inspired from the plant cell walls.
• Nano2BioReact: Establishing relationships between the nanoscale chemical properties of plant cell walls and their impact on biomass reactivity.

Axis 2 - Understanding and controlling biological systems

• Nanomachines: construction of macromolecular nanomachines composed of natural or synthetic biocatalysts (enzymes).
• Tbox4BioProd: a toolkit for optimized allocation of portable resources between different microbial species.
• Collimator: metabolic control in bioreactors operating with either pure species or microbial consortia to stabilize and optimize production.
• AlgAdvance: domestication of microalgae as a renewable resource for biofuels.
• BioFUMAC: a new pathway for bio-based acrylic acid through robust fungal production of fumaric acid and engineering of a novel decarboxylase.
• COPE: chassis Optimization by Proteome-allocation Engineering for diverse bio-production applications.
• Flavolases: hijacking the Flavobacterium type IX secretion machinery for efficient cellulolytic activity.
• PRODIGES: process-driven genetic engineering strategies.
• PuLCO: integrated approach on copper systems to improve recalcitrant polysaccharide utilization.
• CALIBRATE: Combining machine learning and high-throughput immobilisation to predict the stability of catalytic biocomposites for hybrid biorefineries.
• REPAROX: Identify and characterise the repair mechanism under oxidative conditions of an iron-sulphur biocatalyst and transpose this mechanism through ab initio design.
• STELLAR: Synthetic cell factories.

Axis 3 - New biomass transformation pathways

• OPTISFUEL: innovative strategies to improve the fermentation stage of biofuel production.
• FurFun: enhance the diversity and molecular complexity that can be created from bio-based furan derivatives.
• ElectroMIC: optimization of organic waste biorefinery and production of high-value-added molecules.
• BioMCat: combining biocatalysts and metal supported catalysts for valorizing lignin to aromatic aldehydes in an integrated process.
• MALIGNE: water-soluble enzymatic lignin for high value and sustainable applications.
• PREMIERE LIGNE: pyrolysis, molecular reconstruction and lignin characterization.
• ROSALIND: benchmarking of sono- and photocatalysis for lignin demethylation.
• SmartCoupling: coupling enzymatic and chemistry routes to develop sustainable tools of lignocellulosic biomass transformation into functionalized building blocks.
• WAEster: environmental biorefinery approach for the production of fatty acid esters and co-products from microalgae cultivated on waste fermentation effluents.
• EXTRAPEC: Enzymatic extraction of pectin-based detergents.
• GQD-BIOCAT: Upgrading of bio-based substrates in a single reactor via a hybrid process using graphene quantum dot photocatalysts and biocatalysis.
• HEMICELLULOSES: Sustainable integration of chemical and biochemical processes for the recovery of wood hemicellulose.

Axis 4 - Cross-cutting methodologies and tools

• MAMABIO: machine learning methodologies for accelerated and predictive atomic-scale simulation of bio-based molecule transformation.
• AMARETTO: develop a model to predict the reactivity of lignocellulosic biomass from various origins in enzymatic hydrolysis.
• Galaxy-BioProd: develop a centralized portal to provide software tools as well as computational and storage resources to create workflows benefiting other targeted projects in the program and the industrial biotechnology community.
• MuSiHC: multi-size hybrid cell models.
• BIOCaP-LCA: Integrated modelling of the bioeconomy for consequential and prospective life cycle assessment (LCA).
• SuPRTrYP: Methods for designing yeast consortia to convert non-conventional biomass co-products into tryptophan derivatives.

Axis 5 - Humanities and social sciences, bioeconomy

• HEARTS: humanities and ethics in advancing responsible technologies for sustainable bioengineering.
• BIOCOSPHERE: Biomass and critical co-dependence between the environmental, economic and social spheres.
• GOPARTBIOECO: To a collaborative governance of the bioeconomy research.
• PANGOLIN: Perceived relevance of biotechnologies for circular and non-circular bioeconomy products.

See the interactive map of laboratories and research units involved in PEPR below: