Narrative
MarginUp is a project that aims to enhance biodiversity and increase farming system resilience by cultivating biodiversity-friendly non-food crops on marginal lands for the production of bio-based products. The project is focused on introducing climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly non-food crops for sustainable industrial feedstock, with the objective of creating a sustainable and circular value chain that simultaneously provides socioeconomic and environmental benefits. MarginUp is identifying the most suitable feedstock options for different climates, farming systems, soil types, and bio-based value chains. The project also aims to demonstrate how marginal lands can be optimized for biomass production and biodiversity enhancement and support the development of new sectors in the rural circular bioeconomy. MarginUp is learning from seven case study sites around the world, including Argentina and South Africa, and implementing five full-scale use cases in Europe, such as in Spain, Greece, Hungary, Germany, and Sweden. To ensure the success of the project, MarginUp! is creating a replication hub and network to facilitate the dissemination and exploitation of project results. The hub will contain a wealth of information to support industries, farmers, and policymakers in enabling sustainable circular feedstock production on marginal lands, including handbooks, factsheets, videos, lessons learned, and further reports. MarginUp! is an important project that directly contributes to European policies such as the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the Bioeconomy and Biodiversity Strategies, and has the potential to create a sustainable and circular value chain that benefits both the environment and society.
Financial data
Total cost - € 7 829 617,50 EU Funding - € 6 996 685,25 Percentage of EU Contribution - 89%
Recommendations
Recommendations:
• Continue to identify suitable feedstock options for different climates, farming systems, soil types, and bio-based value chains.
• Further develop strategies to optimize biomass production and biodiversity enhancement on marginal lands
• Foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing among stakeholders, including policymakers, land managers, farmers, the bio-based industry, environmental authorities, academia, and civil society
• Support the development of new sectors in the rural circular bioeconomy to increase farming system resilience and provide socioeconomic and environmental benefits
• Increase awareness and dissemination of project results to encourage replication and uptake of practices to maximize project impact.
Information sources
https://margin-up.eu/about/Other info
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101082089 https://margin-up.eu/latest/
