The 10th International Conference on Bio-based Materials will take place on May 10-11 in Cologne, Germany. One of the biggest events in Europe: 250 participants and 25 exhibition booths are expected!

The bioeconomy is developing well. Most investments are going to the core of the bioeconomy: bio-based building blocks and platform chemicals. The capacities show a double-digit annual growth. Based on this, new building blocks, new bio-based polymers, coatings, surfactants and other materials will follow: www.bio-based-conference.com

Meet the leading companies of the bio-based industry in Cologne: Avantium Chemicals BV (NL), Borregaard AS (NO), Cargill (BE), Cathay Industrial Biotech Ltd. (CN), Cooper Tire (USA), Corbion (NL), Covestro Deutschland (DE), Dow Chemical (CH), DSM InnoSyn (NL), DuPont Industrial Biosciences (USA), Evonik Technology & Infrastructure (DE), Genomatica (USA), GFBiochemicals (NL), Green Biologics (UK), Neste SA (CH), Südzucker (DE), Ynsect (FR) and many more.

Leading scientists from: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (AT), CEFIC / Research & Innovation department (BE), Flemisch Institute for Technological Research (VITO) (BE), Fraunhofer UMSICHT (DE), Hochschule Bremen - University of Applied Sciences (DE), Kompetenzzentrum Holz (AT), University of Liege (BE), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (FI) and Wageningen UR (NL).

For the tenth year in a row, the Innovation Award "Bio-based Material of the Year" will be awarded to the young, innovative bio-based material industry, finding suitable applications and markets for bio-based products. The competition focuses on new developments in these areas, which have had (or will have) a market launch in 2016 or 2017. The winners will be elected at the International Conference on Bio-based Materials. This year, six bio-based materials and products have been nominated for the Award by the advisory board – out of more than 18 submitted products. The nominated companies are from Belgium, Finland, Germany and the United States.