On 25-26 June, CHAMPION hosted its virtual kick-off meeting. Thirty-four people from the 14 partner organisations plus the BBI JU project officer attended the meeting, held via Zoom due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. The project will run for 3.5 years and has a total budget of €5.7 million, of which €4.8 million is funded by the BBI JU, under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.
The meeting celebrated the start of the project, which aims to develop and demonstrate that new bio-based polymers can be produced and successfully used in high-performance applications including coatings, textiles, home care and structural adhesives. Each end-user sector is represented in the project, to provide the best opportunity to achieve industrially-relevant outcomes for the project.
Despite some limitations due to the virtual format, it also provided a number of advantages over a face-to-face meeting, including enabling more people to join the meeting than is normally possible due to cost and a significantly reduced time requirement. This is particularly helpful for attendees with part-time roles or commitments outside work that can make travelling a challenge.
The attendees were excited to start the project and are looking forward to meeting the challenging goals. Updates from the project will be communicated through a number of routes including the project website and social media (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).
This project has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 887398.