Market-driven development and introduction of innovations: system innovation in the valorisation of by-products (GENESYS-PHD2)

This project responds to the societal aspiration to use available resources more efficiently, avoiding losses and closing production cycles as much as possible. Many residual fractions in animal and plant production could result in end products with a higher value than are now available. This project brings together four PhD studies on the same theme: “valorisation of by-products”. The approach is innovate, where both a technical and a methodological objective are pursued: the goal is to achieve greatly improved valorisation of vegetable and animal by-products in three case studies. The development of technical and scientific innovations are embedded in an innovation system, which includes supporting innovations in the production process, the market environment, the policy context, the production chain and the resulting cooperation. Acceptance of the developed system innovations is further safeguarded by involving end users starting at the beginning of the process. The project presents tools that can be used to develop a generic roadmap on how to realize this type of system innovation.

In three specific cases, potentially valuable forms of valorisation are evaluated and optimized. One case (PhD 2) focuses on plant secondary flows. Another (PhD 3) on discards from fishing. A third (PhD 4) is about valorisation through composting. For each case, we are planning two innovation-research cycles: an exploratory cycle with a duration of one year, followed by an extended cycle with a duration of 2.5 years. In the exploratory phase, the  flows of by-products with the highest potential valorisation by scientific-technological and socio-economic criteria selected. In the second innovation research cycle, these secondary flows are analyzed in more detail and valorization routes are prepared for market launch. The project design includes multi-stakeholder and participatory processes to create strong interaction with the stakeholders in the value chain. The case studies support the development of a generic roadmap (PhD 1) that can be used by scientists during the development of technical innovations in order to ensure a successful launch.

Besides the 4 PhDs we expect the added value of the Genesys project to be the actual realization of the detailed scientific-technological innovation developed in the cases. This optimizes the contemporary production and processing landscape in which often only a limited part of the qualitative starting product is valorised. For specific cases we plan steps towards IP on new developments in consultation with stakeholders. We expect the newly developed generic script (methodological objective) to lead not only to accepted scientific-technological innovations in the three cases studied, but also to contribute to the success of other system innovations. The Genesysproject will also result in novel partnerships with research groups. Genesys is the first Concentrated Action within the ILVO2020 research strategy.