Team GENAB from Italy has been crowned the winners of the 2022 edition of BIC’s European Biobased Student Innovation Challenge (BISC-E). During the final round, which was held virtually on 13 October 2022, Bisrat Bekele and Peter Sseguya presented their innovation to an online gathering of BIC members. Team GENAB produced a bio-based rubber product from black yeast, making the alternative rubber sustainable, economically-viable and environmentally prudent.

Closely following behind, in second and third place respectively were Valorised Carbon (Belgium) with their technique for producing activated carbon from fruit waste, and PRYNT3D Mycelium (the Netherlands) who are making customized orthotic insoles through 3D printing with mycelium. 

On the Expert jury were:

  • Kees de Gooijer, BISC-E Chairman (the Netherlands) - Chairman TKI Agri&Food and TKI BBE, Wageningen
  • Markus Dettenhofer (Czechia) - Consultant with BioEast Hub, Czechia 
  • Lene Lange (Denmark) - Director, BioEconomy, Research & Advisory 
  • Georg Lentzen - CLIB (Cluster Industrial Biotechnology), Düsseldorf / b.value AG, Dortmund 
  • Astrida Miceikienė - (Lithuania), Chancellor of Agriculture Academy at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas