EU grant to fund expansion of National Bioeconomy Campus in Tipperary

The Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IBF) located at the National Bioeconomy Campus, in Lisheen in Co. Tipperary, is set to expand its operations thanks to a grant award from the European Union’s Just Transition Fund. The site, which was formerly home to the Vedanta Zinc Mine, has been transformed into a bioeconomy campus and the new funding will help facilitate scale up and demonstration of novel biotechnological approaches for biomanufacturing.

While the previous activity at the mine resulted in high energy usage, the transformed bioeconomy campus is all about circularity and sustainability. Located at the core of the campus the vision of the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation is to promote the conversion of Ireland’s natural land & sea resources to high value products for the development of a sustainable bioeconomy that is globally competitive. Tipperary County Council Local Authority Climate Action Plan, places the National Bioeconomy Campus in the centre of the Mid-Tipperary Decarbonisation Zone and is also part of the Just Transition region.

The BioScaleUp project which is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund Programme 2021-2027, will help realise the long term vision of IBF and Tipperary County Council to enable Ireland to transition to a greener future with lower GHG emissions in a Circular Bioeconomy through the piloting and scaling of biomanufacturing.  The funding will integrate precision fermentation and green chemistry to enable the conversion of biomass and food processing side streams to products of value ranging from fine chemicals, single cell protein, bioactive, biopolymers, and bioenergy.  

Transitioning from a former mining site, the Lisheen National Bioeconomy campus is acting as a platform for change through its multi-stakeholder collaborations including BiOrbic. the National Bioeconomy Research centre and TUS, UCD, TCD, UCC, UoG and industry partners and members. The JTF funding is building on initial investment and support from Enterprise Ireland and enabled by the infrastructure support of key partners of Tipperary County Council and Tirlán by providing critical momentum for Ireland to accelerate the development of novel process and products for emerging growing markets.  It forms part of a wider IBF and BiOrbic strategy for Ireland to be a world leader and a key pillar of the European Circular Bioeconomy ecosystem, which should now accelerate given the announcement last week that Ireland will host the 2026 Global Bioeconomy Summit (GBS 2026).

With this investment in the campus, the vision is that Lisheen will become a thriving centre of excellence for bioeconomy development at all scales, where scientific, educational, technical and business expertise are integrated at a location that provides a soft landing for investment and growth.

In the words of Prof. Kevin O’Connor of UCD and Chairperson of the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation when interviewed for the recently launched book – ‘What is the Circular Bioeconomy?’, he described the impact of the Bioeconomy as ‘The bioeconomy can transform society and help to mitigate and adapt to climate change as well as reverse biodiversity loss’.