Milan, 6 July 2018 – The ALPLINKBIOECO project – ‘Linking Bioeconomy Value Chains in the Alpine Space’, in which Confindustria Lombardia is a partner, has been awarded €2 million in funding under the Interreg Alpine Space 2014-20 programme.

The 3-year project aims to develop an interregional circular bioeconomy strategy, forming the basis for a coherent policy throughout the Alpine Space and enabling the assessment, selection, and creation of new cross-sectoral value chains. The common strategy identified will be compiled into a paper to be made public at the end of the project. The programme's objectives, which will impact industries in the Alpine Space, will primarily concern four sectors:

- wood;

- agriculture;

- chemistry;

- food/pharmaceutical packaging;

The ALPLINKBIOECO partners include clusters, universities, business associations, institutions, and organisations from six member countries. In addition to Confindustria Lombardia, these are: Plastics Innovation Competence Center (CH, lead partner), Business Upper Austria (AU), Poly4Eml (SI), Centro Studi Alpino Pieve Tesino (IT), Lombardy Green Chemistry Cluster (IT), Hub Innovazione Trentino (IT), Plastipolis (FR), France clusters (FR), Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (SI), Chemie Cluster Bayern (DE), BIOPRO BW (DE), Technologiezentrum Horb (DE), ClusterAgentur BW (DE).

For Confindustria Lombardia, the award of this project is part of a process of enhancing and contributing to the EUSALP Alpine Macroregion, a path initiated in 2014 in coordination with Lombardy's territorial associations, with the aim of strengthening and integrating production chains within a supra-regional context.

The project is, in fact, one of the priority initiatives of Action Group 2 “Competitiveness and Strategic Value Chains” of the European Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP), of which Confindustria Lombardia is an observer.

The Alpine Space 2014-2020 Programme is a transnational “European Territorial Cooperation” programme and, together with 15 other programmes, contributes to improving cooperation between European regions. In this programme, national, regional, and local actors collaborate transnationally on various projects with a common vision: to support sustainable regional development in the Alpine region. By contributing to the EU 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, it provides stakeholders with a framework to develop, test, implement, and coordinate new ideas.

The programme covers an area of nearly 450,000 square kilometres and a population of approximately 70 million people, representing one of the most diverse regions in Europe.

The Member States and Regions participating in the Programme are:

• Austria;
• France: Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Franche-Comté Alsace;
• Germany: districts of Upper Bavaria and Swabia (Bavaria), Tübingen and Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg);
• Italy: Lombardy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria;
• Slovenia;

Attachments

• cs_ALPLINKBIOECO1_lug2018_def.pdf