Looking for partners to develop Bioeconomy Places in Ukraine

An invitation to cooperate

The Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (UABIO) is looking for a Ukrainian territory — a city, a community or a cluster of territorial communities — ready to become a pilot “Bioeconomy Place” in an international research and innovation project being prepared for submission under Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-CIRCBIO-06 “Towards a Europe of Bioeconomy Places”.

The selected territory will become a full-fledged pilot site of a European project on equal terms with sites in EU Member States: it will undergo a complete analytical cycle, a local multi-stakeholder platform will be established, and a Plan for the territory’s transformation into a “Bioeconomy Place” will be developed, backed by signed commitments from the participants.

What a “Bioeconomy Place” is

A “Bioeconomy Place” is a geographically defined territory (a city, a community, a cluster of communities) that is systematically restructuring its economy on a biological basis. 

The key features of such a territory are:

• local value chains based on bioresources — agricultural and forest residues, manure, the organic fraction of municipal waste, food waste, sewage sludge;
• circularity: closing material and nutrient loops, cascading use of biomass, minimisation of losses;
• industrial symbiosis: the by-product streams of one production process become feedstock for another;
• active involvement of micro-enterprises, SMEs and start-ups in the bio-based sectors;
• a leading role for the local self-government bodies as coordinator and owner of the strategy;
• measurability: environmental, social and economic indicators that make territories comparable with one another.

The project will develop a formal definition and a system of benchmarks under which a territory will be able to obtain the “Bioeconomy Place” label, as well as a digital self-assessment tool for territories outside the consortium.

Why we are looking specifically for a Ukrainian territory

The call rules contain an explicit requirement: at least one of the three pilot sites must be located wholly or partly in Ukraine. This is not “added value” but a condition for the proposal’s compliance with the topic. Accordingly, a Ukrainian pilot territory is not a secondary case study but a necessary element of the consortium, without which the proposal cannot be competitive.

In addition, a Ukrainian territory offers the European project something that stable EU territories cannot: the opportunity to test the resilience of the “Bioeconomy Place” concept itself under extreme constraints — destroyed infrastructure, disrupted logistics chains, staff shortages and wartime risks.

What participation involves for the territory

At the pilot site, at least the following scope of work will be carried out:

• Baseline analysis across four mandatory dimensions: infrastructure (physical and digital conditions for bioeconomy clusters); value chains (mapping of biomass sources and processing capacities with a focus on SMEs and start-ups); the needs and awareness of consumers and civil society; skills readiness.
• Establishment of a local multi-stakeholder platform: the local self-government body, business, higher and vocational education institutions, research organisations, farmers and forest users, trade unions, civil society organisations.
• Development of a Transformation Plan with commitments: a vision for the territory towards 2030/2040, scenario modelling, a portfolio of specific projects with preliminary CAPEX/OPEX estimates, signed memoranda, and integration of the plan into the local planning documents in force (community development strategy, SECAP, waste management plan).
• Training programmes and capacity building: modules for operators and technical staff, engineers and local government officials; pilot training sessions on site; workshops on preparing bankable projects and accessing finance.
• Validation of the benchmarking system: repeat measurement of the indicators at the end of the project and comparison with other EU pilot sites.
• Policy recommendations: at local, national and European level, including on the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with the acquis in the fields of bioeconomy and circularity.

What the territory gains

• The status of a pilot site of a Horizon Europe project and visibility at EU level.
• A full professional assessment of the territory’s bioresource, infrastructure, human-capital and investment potential, carried out under a single European methodology and comparable with data from EU territories.
• A ready Transformation Plan with a portfolio of investment projects suitable for submission to donors and financial institutions (InvestEU, EIB, EBRD, the Ukraine Facility, the Decarbonisation Fund, LIFE, cohesion policy funds).
• Training for community specialists and local businesses; access to the project’s open educational resources.
• Direct partnership links with European pilot territories, exchange programmes and peer learning.
• Participation in shaping the European “Bioeconomy Place” labelling system — that is, influence over the rules by which other territories will subsequently be assessed.
• Support from the UABIO team in accompanying local bioenergy and circular economy initiatives throughout the project.

Important: what the project does not provide

To avoid inflated expectations, we set out the limits clearly:

• This is a research and innovation action (RIA), not an investment or construction programme. The project does not finance the construction of biogas plants, boiler houses or processing lines, or the purchase of equipment.
• The community may participate either as an associated member of the platform or as a beneficiary with its own budget and commitments under the work packages.
• The proposal has not yet been submitted. Selecting a territory means forming UABIO’s position for negotiations with the consortium coordinator; the final decision rests with the consortium, and funding depends on the outcome of the evaluation by the European Commission.

Whom we are looking for: a brief profile

The ideal candidate is a territory that simultaneously has:

• tangible and documented bioresource potential (agricultural biomass, forest biomass, manure, organic and food waste, sewage sludge);
• an existing industrial or processing base and an active SME sector in the bio-based or related industries;
• the political will of the leadership of the local self-government body, confirmed in writing, and a designated responsible officer with a realistic time allocation;
• a combination of urban and rural components (a central city and the adjacent rural area, or a cluster of communities), which makes it possible to study urban–rural synergies;
• an acceptable security situation allowing planned work on site over 3–4 years;
• strategic documents in force into which the Transformation Plan can be integrated;
• higher or vocational education institutions in or near the territory;
• willingness to work in a multi-stakeholder format and to provide data.

How to apply

To take part in the selection, please send to dragnev@uabio.org  with the subject line “Bioeconomy Place UA — [name of the territory]”:

• A completed territory profile form (Annex to this document).
• A Letter of Intent signed by the head of the local self-government body or an authorised official, naming the responsible contact person.
• Available analytical and strategic materials (community development strategy, SECAP, waste management plan, biomass potential assessments, energy audits, community profile) — where available.

The form should not exceed 8–10 pages. Materials submitted after the deadline will be considered only if vacancies remain on the shortlist.

Indicative selection timetable

Stage	Content	Indicative timing
Receipt of forms	Submission of territory profile forms and letters of intent	by 30 October 2026
Formal screening	Verification of threshold criteria, requests for clarification	December 2026
Evaluation and interviews	Scoring, online interviews with the territories’ teams, and, where possible, site visits	January – February 2027
Shortlist	Announcement of 2–3 finalist territories	February 2027
Agreement with the consortium	Presentation of the candidates to the coordinator and partners, final selection	March – June 2027
Formalisation	Letters of support, confirmation of the role and contribution, agreement on the work package budget	by July 2027
Proposal submission	Submission of the proposal on the Funding & Tenders Portal	22 September 2027

Contacts

Contact person: Semen Drahniev, Senior Consultant, Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (UABIO). Consultations for prospective candidates are provided on an individual basis until the application deadline.

Topic page on the EC portal: https://lnk.ua/QUOBAv6FF.

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ANNEX

Profile Form of the Applicant Territory

You can view the form here on the website, or download it via the link below.

Recommended length — up to 8–10 pages. Where data are unavailable, please state “no data available” rather than leaving the item blank: an omitted item is scored as 0 points, whereas an explicitly stated absence of data allows the realism of the submission to be assessed and will be taken into account when planning data collection.

A. General information

• Full name of the territory (community, district, region; for a cluster — the list of communities).
• Type: city / settlement or rural community / district / region / cluster of communities.
• Area, population (including the share of internally displaced persons), number of settlements.
• Ratio of the urban and rural components.
• Contact person: full name, position, telephone, e-mail, command of English.

B. Bioresource base

• Structure of the land stock; areas under the main crops; indicative volumes of crop residues.
• Livestock numbers by species; existing farm complexes, volumes of manure and poultry litter.
• Forest cover, harvesting volumes, presence of wood-processing enterprises and volumes of their residues.
• Volumes of municipal waste; existence of separate collection, share of the organic fraction.
• Wastewater treatment plants: capacity, volume of sludge and the sludge handling method.
• Food industry: list of enterprises and the nature of their by-product streams.
• Existing biomass potential assessments (with a reference to the source and year).

C. Industrial base and business

• List of enterprises in the bio-based sectors and related industries, with their capacities.
• Existing biomass-based renewable energy facilities (boiler houses, biogas plants, pellet production).
• Number of SMEs, cooperatives and farms; existence of clusters or business associations.
• Industrial sites, brownfield plots, vacant production floorspace.

D. Infrastructure

• Electricity grids: available grid connection capacity, constraints.
• District heating networks: length, condition, existing and potential heat consumers.
• Gas distribution networks: availability, technical feasibility of biomethane injection.
• Water supply and wastewater collection; handling of organic waste.
• Transport: roads, railway access tracks, logistics hubs.
• Digital infrastructure: broadband access, availability of GIS systems and cadastres.

E. Governance and strategic documents

• Strategic documents in force, with their period of validity (development strategy, SECAP, waste management plan, spatial development plan).
• Structural unit responsible for energy, environment and development; number of specialists.
• Experience in project implementation (donor, budget, role, year).
• Decision-making procedure for amending strategic documents.

F. Stakeholders and the social dimension

• List of potential members of the local platform, indicating the type of organisation and any preliminarily confirmed willingness to participate.
• Education institutions located in or near the territory; training profiles.
• Experience with public consultations and participatory processes.
• Vulnerable groups: internally displaced persons, veterans, households in energy poverty — indicative figures and existing support programmes.

G. Security and risks

• Actual security situation and the operating regime of institutions.
• Damage to critical infrastructure relevant to bioeconomy scenarios.
• Constraints on access to data.
• Staffing risks and the mitigation measures envisaged.
• Ability to host external experts and to hold events on site.

H. Motivation and contribution

• Why the territory seeks to become a “Bioeconomy Place”: the expected outcome in the applicant’s own words (up to 1 page).
• Project ideas that the territory would like to bring to investment-ready stage.
• Resources the territory is ready to contribute (staff working time, premises, transport, access to facilities, co-financing of activities).
• Expectations regarding the role: associated member of the platform, or project beneficiary with its own budget.

Download the territory profile form