The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

The ‘Food, Agriculture 

and Fisheries, 

Biotechnology’ Theme

W

ith a budget of EUR 1.9 billion, this is 

one of the themes under the Seventh 

Framework Programme’s specific 

Cooperation programme. Its main aim is to cre-

ate a European growth bio-economy based on 

a sustainable model and a good management 

of biological resources. Among other things, 

it involves converting the biomass into products 

with a high added value.  

© INRA/Gérar

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aillar

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n 2020, 10 % of the fuel consumed for 

transport in Europe should be of renew-

able origin. To achieve this goal, the EU 

has just acquired a new tool, the Novel 

high-performance enzymes and micro-organ-

isms for conversion of lignocellulosic biomass 

to bioethanol (NEMO) project, coordinated 

by Merja Penttilä, a researcher at the Valtion 

Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT), the Technical