On 21 September 2026, researchers, industry partners, and agricultural stakeholders from across Europe gathered at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Nova University Lisbon for the final event of the Horizon Europe MIDAS project, titled Growing the bioeconomy: Sustainable value chains and bio-based products from marginal land. The event marked the culmination of four years of multi-disciplinary work and showcased how bio-based value chains and industrial crops can power Europe’s circular bioeconomy while offering opportunities for the revitalization of marginal agricultural land.
Project coordinator Efthymia ALEXOPOULOU – Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) , presented the project journey, reflecting on how MIDAS moved from foundational concepts to concrete achievements. SLIDES.
Setting the broader strategic context, European Commission representatives connected the event with the evolving policy frameworks. Tomasz Calikowski – EC DG RTD noted that significant policy developments occurred during the four-year lifetime of MIDAS, citing the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the Life Sciences Strategy, the Communication on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing, and the Biotech Act and reminding that the bioeconomy will continue to be supported under future Horizon Europe framework programming. May Hobeika – EC DG AGRI presented the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food towards 2040, outlining four priority areas: accelerating the commercialization of bio-based circular solutions, enabling value stream diversification for farmers, valorising agricultural residues, and strengthening primary producers within value chains. She highlighted key policy drivers to scale bio-based alternatives, including the 2026 EU Fertilizer Action Plan, the 2026 EU Livestock Strategy, and the 2026 EU Protein Plan.
Mapping marginal land and rising climate vulnerability toward 2050
Building on the results of previous Horizon 2020 project MAGIC, in MIDAS our partner Wageningen University & Research updated and expanded the knowledge and detailed the mapping of European marginal agricultural lands (EU 27 + UK and Serbia). Current estimates show that over 73 million hectares—representing 26% of current agricultural land and 32% of historic agricultural area across the EU27 and UK—are constrained by severe biophysical limitations, dominated by rooting restrictions, excessive wetness, and adverse climate conditions. Climate projections toward 2050 under high-emission scenarios reveal a pronounced regional divergence: while northern and alpine zones experience slight reductions in marginality due to extended growing seasons, Southern Europe faces an alarming expansion, with Mediterranean marginal lands projected to increase by 34,025 km² (a 6.6% rise) driven by increasing severe summer droughts and heatwaves, rising aridity, and soil degradation.
These marginal landscapes often coincide with remote, low-GDP regions experiencing rural depopulation and high reliance on primary sector employment. From a strategic planning perspective, these findings provide a compelling evidence base for European and regional policymakers: Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and regional bioeconomy plans should encompass measures to prevent land abandonment and build agricultural resilience, especially in Southern Europe. SLIDES
Tailored agronomy and crop breeding to increase resilience
To build agricultural resilience on marginal lands, MIDAS pursued a strategy combining tailored agronomy and advanced crop breeding. Multi-location field trials across Greece, Italy, Serbia, and Spain evaluated advanced breeding materials of industrial crops such as crambe, castor bean, hemp, and miscanthus under severe marginality constraints. These trials also demonstrated the use of a range of bio-based products developed within the project directly in the fields, including biochar amendments, protein-based biostimulants, bioherbicides, and biodegradable mulch films to improve crop establishment and growth.
A major mechanization breakthrough for water-scarce sandy Mediterranean soils was demonstrated by CREA with a prototype machine for the deployment of a Subsurface Water Retention System. This is a specialized tractor-drawn prototype that installs a U-shaped impermeable subterranean membrane one metre beneath the surface. By preventing deep percolation and capturing rainfalls directly within the root zone, this technology effectively buffers crops against severe summer aridity. SLIDES – SLIDES 2 – SLIDES 3 – SLIDES 4
In parallel, Wageningen University led genetic improvement efforts focused on industrial crops such as hemp and miscanthus, pairing field evaluations of high-performing miscanthus hybrids with cutting-edge biotechnological tools, to overcome technical bottlenecks and optimize biomass quality, for example by reducing lignin content in miscanthus.
Diversifying farming systems through strip cropping and agroforestry
In addition to crop optimization, MIDAS also tested and demonstrated intercropping systems (strip intercropping and agroforestry) performed under real farming conditions across 13 case study sites in 9 European countries: Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, under the lead of the Department of Agricultural Science and Technology of the University of Bologna.
These field trials covered diverse climatic zones from Continental to Mediterranean regions, testing 17 industrial crops under severe combinations of marginality constraints, such as drought, shallow soils, steep slopes, waterlogging, and low soil organic carbon content. The trials were maintained over four years, and proved that combining annual crops with perennials or tree crops can be an effective strategy to diversify production and increase farm resilience by reducing the overall risk of crop failure on the same land. In both agroforestry and strip cropping, annual crops can be grown alongside perennials allowing seamless operation of standard farm machinery, independent crop management, and harvesting. Among annual crops, safflower, sorghum, and industrial hemp showed the highest and most consistent adaptability across different marginality constraints such as drought, sloped terrain, and sandy soils, whereas crambe exhibited more variable and site-specific responses. Among perennials, miscanthus and poplar achieved the highest overall biomass potential once fully established. Although crop performance is highly site-dependent, underscoring the necessity of flexible crop selection tailored to local conditions, no significant negative effects were observed between the annual crops and the perennials. SLIDES
Intercropping enhances functional insect biodiversity
On the other hand, these multi-layered cropping systems yielded ecological benefits beyond biomass production, as revealed by a comprehensive biodiversity assessment led by Wageningen University and Research. Using multi-layer traps combined with eDNA analysis, researchers tracked insect communities across the strip cropping trials in Italy, Spain, and Serbia. Results consistently showed that strip intercropping promoted a wider diversity of insect roles within the ecosystem, bringing in pest predators, soil recyclers, and pollinators. When established with perennials, multi-crop strips supply the physical structure, shade, and year-round resources that keep these beneficial insects alive even during severe heatwaves and droughts. The assessment demonstrated that this ecological enrichment is driven by the structural mosaic and varied canopy architecture created when tall fiber crops, deep-rooted perennials, and flowering annuals are grown side-by-side, proving that spatial structural permanence is vital for agro-ecosystems. SLIDES
High-performance bio-based products and cascading valorization pathways
In addition to the agronomic activities, another pillar of MIDAS is the industrial valorization component of the biomass obtained. The aim of this part is to demonstrate that industrial crops grown on marginal lands can be fully converted into high-performance bio-based materials, through resource-efficient biorefinery processes that can valorize all the products and co-products with a circular value-chain approach. The project validated 14 distinct bio-based products (in most cases at TRL 7) from different types of feedstocks including oilseeds, specialty crops, and lignocellulosic biomass.
In the case of oilseeds for example, safflower seed oil was formulated into biolubricants and validated under extreme bench testing, while oil-derived pelargonic acid was demonstrated as a bio-herbicide and desiccant to facilitate pre-harvest management. Azelaic acid obtained from oilseeds was successfully used for the production and field validation of biodegradable-in-soil mulching film. A fine engineered biochar was also used as a renewable pigment in mulch-film production while maintaining processability and suitable film properties.
At the same time, the oilseed cake of safflower, cardoon and hemp were used to produce protein hydrolysates, which were subsequently validated as effective plant biostimulant (for safflower) and bio-adhesives (for cardoon and hemp) succesfully replacing synthetic phenol-based binders in the production of plywood panels, panelboards and medium density fiber boards, with substitution rates up to 70%. The biomass from hemp, siberian elm, guayule and other lignocellulosic crops grown in the field trials was also tested and demonstrated in the production of MDF and panelboards, with varying rates of wood substitution.
Guayule is another example of a feedstock that can be grown in semi-arid areas in the Mediterranean and that could be valorized through a biorefinery approach. Its main use is for the production of natural rubber and the project achieved a 100% replacement of imported Hevea rubber in automotive tyre compounds developed by Nokian Heavy Tyres. At the same time pilot-scale guayule latex production was demonstrated by Guatecs for hypoallergenic gloves and other healthcare and medical applications. While conducting several lab-scale iterations to improve guayule rubber extraction, a new potential value chain was identified by our partners at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha , based on the extraction and use of guayule essential oils. The full valorization of these three products, rubber, latex and essential oils alongside the use of the spent guayule bagasse after extraction, in a biorefinery approach, would significantly strengthen the business case for the establishment and cultivation of guayule plantations in semi-arid marginal land, providing a concrete alternative for farmers and opportunities for jobs and growth from the production of bio-based products in rural areas.
Finally, all the different types of lignocellulosic feedstock grown in MIDAS were effectively converted into biochar products compliant with EU Fertilizing Products Regulation and European Biochar Certificate standards. This means that the biochar could be used as a certified soil improver, and potentially for the generation of carbon credits. Micronised biochar was also tested and demonstrated as a seed coating material, and wood vinegar (an acidic liquid byproduct of biomass pyrolysis) was used as a species-specific biostimulant, pointing to further circular-economy applications still under evaluation. SLIDES
Bridging the farm-to-market gap for deployment at scale
While encouraging results from both agronomic field trials and bio-based processing tests constitute solid pillars for the creation of new bioeconomy value chains, technical feasibility alone cannot guarantee market uptake. To bridge this gap MIDAS partners under the lead of Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy – University of Hohenheim are integrating findings across land mapping, field trial data, bio-based product performance, and business models to design and evaluate viable regional value webs. To ensure these models are anchored in real farm-level conditions, the project also gathered empirical evidence through structured questionnaires across 13 case-study regions in nine European countries. This stock-taking systematically captured the visions, perceptions, and practical challenges of farmers, advisors, and regional stakeholders on the ground. This assessment identified recurring bottlenecks and barriers including a general reluctance to alter established crop rotations due to a lack of technical knowledge, the absence of dedicated support on some crops from Common Agricultural Policy, the need for a guaranteed market off-take, sometimes a lack of specialized harvesting machinery and the fact that despite ecosystem services were delivered across virtually all field sites, they currently remain unremunerated for primary producers.
Bringing these analytical findings into direct dialogue with the farming community, the event featured a dedicated panel titled Grounding the bioeconomy: Farmers and practitioners views on marginal land management. Moderated by Mateusz Ciasnocha, European Carbon Farmers , the session brought together agricultural advisors, researchers, and primary producers. While the discussion strongly validated the questionnaire findings regarding economic risk, missing off-take agreements, and CAP dependencies, panellists also emphasized that overcoming farmer reluctance relies on delivering hands-on, peer-to-peer training directly in the field and co-designing solutions with the local farmers. From an institutional perspective, the panel highlighted that future CAP frameworks and public-private partnerships should actively contribute to de-risk early adoption of these innovative solutions while establishing mechanisms to compensate farmers for soil health, carbon farming and ecosystem services.
Cross-project synergies
To close the conference’s interactive discussions, an international online panel brought together coordinators and researchers from sister Horizon Europe initiatives, including MarginUp! EU !, CARINA PROJECT, pHYBi Project, @SOILBIOMASS+, and ISLANDR Project, to share insights. Panellists highlighted soil functionality and risk-based land assessment as the core unifying frontiers connecting agricultural marginality with phytoremediation on degraded and contaminated soils. They also emphasized the critical need for cross-project data continuity, urging future Horizon initiatives to build directly upon the frameworks established by MIDAS and its peer projects. Furthermore, the discussion identified key technical gaps in cascading biorefinery science, calling for advanced research into green extraction protocols, bio-based resin formulations, and standardized lifecycle metrics to ensure that industrial crops and low- ILUC feedstocks achieve full environmental and technical performance.
