EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Consumer, Environmental and Health Technologies
Chemicals
Call for the Expression of Interest
Selection of six Model Demonstrator Regions to receive Advisory
Support from the “European Sustainable Chemicals Support
Service”
1. Objectives
This call is addressed to regional organisations interested in developing ambitious strategies
to support sustainable chemicals production in Europe. The aim is to attract new investments
in industrial projects in the chemicals sector, thereby also contributing to the industry policy
objective of raising the GDP share of manufacturing in Europe. The call also intends to lead
to further development of policies, such as those related to circular and low carbon economy,
or industrial symbiosis.
Through this call “six model demonstrator regions” will be selected to receive advisory
support services from the “European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service”. This service
will be established by the European Commission through a service contract. These regions
shall show the way towards sustainable chemical production in Europe, by taking advantage
of domestically available feedstock such as biomass, waste or CO2. Experiences from this
initiative will be shared with other interested European regions, so as to provide practical
guidance on how to strengthen cross-sectorial cooperation between chemicals industries and
other industries and sectors - notably agriculture, forestry, energy intensive industries, waste
management and recycling.
2. Background
Regions play a key role in the chemicals industry, by providing a favourable business
environment and the necessary political acceptance of chemical production. The majority of
the 300 European chemical production sites are located only in 30 regions. Promoting
chemical production through the use of domestically available resources, such as biomass,
waste or CO2, offers new opportunities in particular for rural regions, as well as regions in
industrial decline. However, in order to seize such opportunities long-term access to
renewable or secondary raw materials needs to be ensured by establishing new forms of
industrial cooperation between sectors that have previously not worked closely together.
Promoting sustainable chemicals production in Europe requires building long-term relations
between agriculture, forestry, recycling and energy intensive industries on one side, and
chemical companies on the other.
While many regions have included the bio-economy as one of their main priorities related to
decarbonisation, not much emphasis has yet been placed on its practical implementation. At
regional level, priority is mostly given to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency,
without taking much advantage of possible synergies between renewable energies and
chemicals production. This would also help shape new industries in many European regions.
Financial support for investments in bio-refineries, plastic recycled plants and water
management facilities are expected from the European Fund for Strategic Investment, as
established by the Commission’s Communication “An investment Plan for Europe” adopted
the 26th of November 2014. The established "Bio-based industries" (BBI) Joint Undertaking
will also offer strong financial support for the development of new industrial production based
on alternative feedstock, in total 3.8 billion euro for the next seven years. Most importantly, it
will also support so-called “flagship projects” that are close to industrial scale. Regions
should have an interest in taking full advantage of these funding possibilities to stimulate
industrial investments and to facilitate structural change in their regions. However, this
requires that the regions are ready for such large scale investments and prepared to support
them with their own investments in infrastructure, transport and logistics.
To further promote the industrial renaissance in Europe, DG Internal Market, Industry,
Entrepreneurship and SMEs is looking for regional partners that are committed to boosting
their regional economies by unlocking the potential of the circular economy in general and
bio-economy and industrial symbiosis in particular. More showcases of this type are needed
so as to motivate others to do likewise and to attract more investment for sustainable
chemicals in Europe.
3. Type of support provided to model demonstrator regions
The Commission, through an open call will select and establish the “European Sustainable
Chemicals Support Service" to provide technical assistance to interested regions for the
development of ambitious strategies related to industrial symbiosis in general and bioeconomy in particular. This will ultimately lead to large-scale investments in industrial
projects.
Based on prior assessments of the "circular economy and/or bio-economy readiness" and
peer-review meetings with regional stakeholders, the expert team will advise regional
authorities (or mandated agencies or clusters) on their strategy, in particular with a view to
mobilising private and public investments in main facilities, such as bio-refineries, water
treatment plants to recover plant nutrients, plastic and rubber recycling installations and the
reuse of CO2 from energy intensive industries for the production of chemicals.
The selected model demonstrator regions will receive the following advisory support services
from the “European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service”:

An assessment of the regional assets for the industrial symbiosis/bio-economy that
follows a systemic approach by looking at all relevant aspects, including the regional
availability of bio-mass or secondary raw materials; the technical infrastructure for
bio-refineries (land, licenses, transport, energy etc.); the entrepreneurial spirit in the
region; the conditions for financing access, etc. Strengths and weaknesses of the
circular economy/industrial symbiosis/ bio-economy readiness of the region will be
analysed and benchmarked against other regions.

Specific advice to regional authorities (or mandated agencies or clusters) on their
strategy, in particular with the view to strengthening investments in industrial projects,
such as bio-refineries, water treatment plants to recover plant nutrients, and plastic and
rubber recycling. This includes an assessment of the potential to scale-up existing
initiatives and projects in the region towards sustainable chemicals industrial
production. Advice will be provided on how to establish new forms of cross-sectorial
cooperation, such as between agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy intensive
industries and recycling with chemical companies and on how to attract large scale
private investments from chemicals companies in the region.
The selected model demonstrator regions will receive the customised advisory support
services free of charge from the “European Sustainable Chemicals Support Service”. The
costs will be covered by a service contract with the European Commission. The
recommendations provided will include advice on how to attract investments and better apply
European Structural and Investment Funds to harness the potential of regions. This includes
fostering the development of new industrial value chains and emerging industries in the field
of sustainable chemicals. The result will be the establishment of a regional Master Investment
Plan that identifies the concrete investment to be developed, following a systemic approach.
No direct financial support will, however, be provided to the selected regions for the
implementation of the recommendations and actions. At the same time, policy makers and
practitioners from the model demonstrator regions will be asked to evaluate the support
services they receive in order to provide feed-back and a progress report to the experts as
regards suitability and feasibility.
4. Selection of model demonstrator regions
The Commission services will select six regions that are, more than others, committed to
launching and implementing strategies with a strong industrial focus.

Three regions will be selected representing regions with the ambition to develop
sustainable chemicals production based on biomass as a feed stock, by creating or
reinforcing new links and cross-sectorial cooperation of chemicals industries with
other sectors, notably agriculture and forestry.

Three regions will be selected representing regions with the ambition to develop
sustainable chemicals production based on recycled plastics or sewage sludge or CO2
as chemical feedstock, by creating or reinforcing links and cross sectorial cooperation
of chemicals industries and plastic recyclers or municipalities responsible for residual
water treatment.

Preference will be given to regions interested in facilitating the use of abandoned
industrial sites from other energy-intensive industries, by making such sites available
for sustainable chemicals production (bio-refineries, plastics recycling, and organic
fertiliser production) and/or new forms of industrial symbiosis between chemicals
production, energy companies, recyclers and/or water treatment facilities.
The applicant region should outline their vision for a strategy that goes beyond narrowly
defined sectorial boundaries and aims to attract large-scale investments in chemicals
production in the region, by making use of domestically available feedstock. This calls for a
targeted approach to creating entrepreneurial opportunities for companies from different
sectors, through new forms of industrial cooperation, which go beyond bottom-up measures to
stimulate innovation or to support individual companies in general.
The applicant region should demonstrate its commitment to building new industrial structures
on the use of biomass, waste or CO2 for chemicals production. The model demonstrator
regions are expected to work in close partnership with their local or regional industries;
cluster organisations; and other SME intermediaries; service providers; research and
knowledge institutes; and other relevant stakeholders in order to define and implement a
consistent strategy in support of sustainable chemicals production. Openness to peer review,
finding partners or investors from other regions and countries, and a strong interest in mutual
policy learning during this process is considered a prerequisite.
Priority will be given to those regions with highest ambition and best ideas to capitalise on
cross-sectorial collaboration and innovation for their future strategies – irrespective of their
current development level. Applicants must be ready to remove existing barriers for the
broader take-up of novel solutions in their region and reallocate funds in support of them.
Strong support from relevant stakeholders is a pre-condition for turning such a strategy into a
reality and achieve real impact.
5. The application
Interested regions are requested to submit a short application with a concept note (3- 5 pages)
that should outline and describe the following three aspects:

The ambition in terms of creating new industrial jobs in sustainable chemicals, by
capitalising on domestically available biomass, waste or CO2 and creating new forms
of industrial cooperation between chemicals companies and local companies from
other sectors;

The expected added value of the support services by the “European Sustainable
Chemicals Support Service”, including the need for advice, input, ideas, missing links
and research questions to be answered to implement the overall strategy;

The regional commitment to act as “model demonstrator region”, by learning from
others and sharing experiences with the European Commission and other interested
regions in Europe.
The applicant must be a regional organisation that is either responsible for or involved in the
funding and/or implementation of a policy or programme of a region, through which a
strategy could be supported. This refers to regional public authorities themselves, as well as to
cluster organisation, SME intermediaries and other organisations mandated by national and/or
regional public authorities to implement programmes or initiatives, such as innovation or
regional development agencies.
The term “region” shall, in principle, refer to NUTS level 2 territorial units according to the
current NUTS classification system. However, in duly substantiated and documented cases a
differently defined region may be eligible. For instance, where the territory is a cross-border
area or defined by a common historical or cultural identity rather than a political or
administrative unit. The eligibility of such regions will be decided on a case-by-case basis and
only take account of the arguments in, and any supporting documentation provided with, the
concept note.
As regards geographical eligibility, applications from legal entities established in any EU
Member State or non-EU-member countries participating in the EU Programme for the
Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (COSME)
are eligible. Each applicant’s concept note will be assessed in terms of clarity and quality of
the description (25%), relevance (25%) and the expected impact (50%). Please note that only
the concept note will be evaluated. No application form template is provided, but applicants
must address the three aspects outlined above in their 5-page concept note. No other annexes
should be sent except the above mentioned supporting documents for eligibility checks, if
needed.
Applications should be sent by email to the functional mailbox of the Chemicals Industry unit.
6. Timetable
The deadline for submission of the concept note is the 30 November 2015. The intention is
to inform applicants of the outcome of the selection of model demonstrator regions no later
than 31 December 2015. Successful applicants should expect to have a first meeting with the
“Sustainable Chemicals Support Service” in the first half of 2016, and to receive advisory
support services during 2016 and 2017.