Objective
Hemp is a sustainable high yielding crop well adapted to most European conditions, with advantageous environmental and agronomical characteristics. Traditionally cultivated for the fibres, seeds and psychoactive substances, it is now considered an ideal crop to produce innovative biomaterials. Once a key industrial crop for fibre, hemp production declined in the last century and was displaced by cotton and synthetic fibres. This explains why hemp has not been subject to the intensive breeding that has driven great improvements in major food crops in the last 50 years. However, cotton has one of the worst environmental footprints of any crop and there is renewed interest in hemp because it requires less water and agrochemicals and provides fibre and oil of superior quality. In the frame of multi-hemp, we will use cutting-edge genomic approaches to achieve rapid targeted improvements in hemp productivity and raw material quality for end-user requirements, whilst also advancing scientific understanding of gene-to-trait relationships in this crop. This work will be combined with innovations in agronomy, harvesting and processing methods to generate sustainable products from improved varieties. The project will include demonstration activities such as field trial and process scale up. The economic and environmental implications of each innovation will be assessed so as to maximise economic return and increase sustainability. This project brings together leading research groups with a vibrant group of industrial participants working from the level of molecular genetics through to end product demonstration. Our ambition is to develop an integrated hemp-based biorefinery in which improved feedstock is subject to efficient and modular processing steps to provide fibre, oil, construction materials, fine chemicals and biofuels using all components of the harvested biomass, and generating new opportunities within the developing knowledge based bioeconomy.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biologymolecular genetics
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagricultureindustrial crops
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
Call for proposal
FP7-KBBE-2012-6-singlestage
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Coordinator
20123 Milano
Italy
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Participants (23)
Participation ended
1210 LJUBLJANA
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6708 PB Wageningen
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YO10 5DD York North Yorkshire
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28199 Bremen
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14469 Potsdam
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00184 Roma
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02150 Espoo
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3000 Leuven
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7200 LE MANS
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9679 EG Scheemda
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4650 VILANI
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56031 Bientina
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41026 Pavullo Nel Frignano
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28219 BREMEN
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1218 KOMENDA
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06195 Villafranco Del Guadiana (Badajoz)
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50354 Hurth
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787 01 SUMPERK
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9665 JE OUDE PEKELA
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77640 JOUARRE
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17194 Klocksin
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410205 CHANGSHA
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6708 PB Wageningen
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