Project summary
INSPIRE is a four-year project (2023-2027), funded by the European Union’s Horizon program, that will contribute to the Green Deal targets and Horizon Europe’s Mission to restore the ocean and waters by 2030. Its main objective is to contribute to the drastic reduction of litter, macro and microplastics in European rivers through a holistic approach, bringing together 20 technologies and actions for:
- Detection of pollution characteristics (type and level) for litter, macro-, meso- and microplastics, floating, in the water column and at the riverbanks.
- Collection of litter, macro and microplastics at the riverbank and in the river. This minimizes the lifetime of litter in the river, reducing its breakdown into fragments and microlitter, and preventing discharge into seas and oceans.
- Prevention of litter, macro and microplastics from entering rivers by (i) collecting litter from waste streams before it enters the river and (ii) developing biodegradable alternatives to currently non-degradable, polluting products to stop pollution at its source.
Solutions will be implemented and tested in 6 river use cases, as well as agricultural and festival test sites, and scaled up to additional European rivers through an open call process. The INSPIRE consortium comprises 26 partners with complementary expertise, balanced between academia, industry, and communication specialists, working holistically towards plastic-free rivers.
The role of alchemia-nova
alchemia-nova will primarily focus on preventing plastic pollution. Our main objective is to develop innovative pathways for replacing single-use plastics with reusable, recyclable, biobased, and biodegradable materials. We will identify additional zero-waste supply chain applications for the solutions developed, such as producing PHAs from non-food, non-feed feedstock for various applications, and deploying chitosan nanocoating to extend the shelf life of fresh products. We will thereby support circular solutions for plastic waste prevention across all demo sites. Additionally, we will support stakeholder and community engagement and citizen science activities, and assist in organizing a series of innovation events.
Project Coordinator:
Partners:
Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V.
Univerza v Mariboru
Energ+ doo
Mold Srl
Fishflow Innovations BV
Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigacao Marinha e Ambiental
123Zero, Trgovina in Trajnostne Resitve, doo
Hochschulen Fresenius gemeinnützige Trägergesellschaft mbH
Wageningen University
Bio-Mi drustvo s ogranicenom odgovornoscu za proizvodnju, istrazivanje i razvoj
Minds Technologies Kai Epistimes Perivallontos I.K.E.
Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan
Deligiannakis Georgios-Deligiannakis Dimitrios OE
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Foundation EXIT
Universidad de Cadiz
Archa Srl
Infordata Sistemi Srl
Circe Biotechnologie GmbH
River Cleanup
Waste & Water
Asociatia Romana A Apei
Asian Institute of Technology
Noria BV
Project status
Starts 06/2023, duration 48 months
Call: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01
Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-04
Grant Agreement Number: 101112879
Overall costs: € 9,983,780.50
EU contribution: € 9,983,780.50
