Objectives

Specific project targets

The project CONCEPT, summarized in the image below, is based on a clear IDEA:

New “smart” enzymes implemented by screening and design can help to improve real-life consumer products to become greener, more innovative and more functional products that have the least impact on the environment and higher acceptance by consumers. Along the way, a high-tech platform will be designed and established to best recover, design, optimise and formulate enzymes that must satisfy the key performance indicators of the detergent, textile, and cosmetic manufacturing sectors.

Scheme representing the FuturEnzyme concept in the context of innovations and goals.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The FuturEnzyme project will directly address the challenges of the Paris Climate Conference (COP21), the European Green Deal, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the EU Bioeconomy priorities. This support will allow a synergistic gathering of expert competences to reach the following ambitious yet realistic objectives:

  1. To develop the most advanced innovative solutions in a fast-track to market platform to discover, design, optimise and formulate enzymes that meet the key performance indicators of three market sectors (detergent, textile and cosmetic manufacturing), as well as producing valuable enzymes for use as catalysts in other market sectors. FuturEnzyme will lower the environmental impact (energy, CO2, water, toxicity) of production processes.
  2. To develop four real-life and solution-oriented products [1) enzymes; 2) detergents; 3) textiles; 4) cosmetics] that meet the requirements of manufacturers, society and citizens.
  3. To establish business opportunities in four sectors [1) enzymes; 2) detergents; 3) textiles; 4) cosmetics] aimed at sustainable and inclusive economic growth in order to enhance the competitiveness, innovation capacity, and sustainability of the EU industries and to open low-carbon market opportunities.
  4. To ensure the market uptake of the enzymes, technologies, processes, and products developed while promoting society’s understanding and acceptance of greener consumer products and the acquisition of skills and knowledge to produce these products in line with economic competitiveness and greater sustainability.
Image representing the expansive nature of FuturEnzyme. Based on natural DNA resources (depicted as the root of the tree) and applying to them new smart and advanced technologies, disruptive enzymes with enhanced performances and reduced load to the environment will be discovered, designed, optimised, supplied, and formulated, leading to innovative and greener detergents, bio-processed textiles, and bio-processed cosmetic ingredients. FuturEnzyme will also bring to fruition the enormous potential of enzymes via a novel, high-tech platform to yield other greener, more valuable, and sustainable products depicted as multiple branches of the tree.
How important are enzymes in the European Green Deal?
Why target consumer products?
What sectors demand greener, more valuable and sustainable products?