University College Cork (UCC) is collaborating in a new €5 million bioeconomy demonstration project (BioScaleUp) that will pilot and demonstrate the bioeconomy in action within the Just Transition Fund Territory in Ireland. 

The scheme is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund.

Funding of €5 million is being awarded to ‘The Lisheen Bioeconomy Scaleup Initiative (BioScaleUp)’. Led by Tipperary County Council, it will demonstrate six innovative technologies at the national pilot biorefinery facility at the National Bioeconomy Campus, Lisheen Thurles, Co. Tipperary. The initiative will see collaboration between universities including UCC, the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation, and dairy and forestry bioprocessing industries.

In ‘BioScaleUp’, UCC will implement a precision fermentation project that demonstrates production of high value aromatics in a commercial-bioprocess. The project, led by UCC/ERI's Prof John Morrissey, Prof Maria de Sousa Gallagher, Dr Mahesh Patil, Dr Francisco Santos DaSilva and Dr Gaurav Rajauria, will use yeast to produce ingredients for food or other commercial products. This resonates with the university's strategy of supporting the development of the innovative bioeconomy in close alignment with the traditional food and agricultural sectors.

Prof John Morrissey, Director of the SUSFERM Centre for Sustainable Fermentation and Bioprocessing Systems at UCC commented: “The critical importance of the BioScale-Up project is that it enables university research teams to work in partnership with industry and the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation to develop and demonstrate the processes that facilitate the transfer of university innovations to commercial processes for the Irish economy”.