Civitta to lead EU project turning farm waste into rural businesses

Civitta is leading the communication and impact strategy for PRIMARY, a Horizon Europe project reimagining agricultural waste management to generate new jobs and business opportunities in rural areas.

Civitta is leading communication strategy for PRIMARY, a Horizon Europe project converting Europe’s underutilized agricultural waste into rural economic opportunities. PRIMARY’s 12-partner consortium will develop processes to turn agricultural byproducts, currently burned or discarded, into valuable products including food proteins from grass, biomaterials from greenhouse waste, and bioenergy from cotton and olive tree byproducts.

“Projects like PRIMARY represent exactly the kind of systemic change Europe needs by transforming vast amounts of agricultural waste into economic opportunities for rural communities,” says Associate Partner Liina Vaher. “For Civitta, leading the communication and exploitation strategy means we’re actively shaping how Europe transitions to a circular bioeconomy. This is the scale of challenge where our expertise in stakeholder engagement and impact measurement can drive real transformation.

As the communications lead, Civitta will create a comprehensive outreach and impact strategy across the 12-partner consortium, driving communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities throughout the four-year initiative. Civitta will also support the establishment of a stakeholder platform connecting over 2,000 participants across sister projects and the European Rural Bioeconomy Network (ERBN), while conducting socio-economic impact assessments to measure workforce, community, and economic outcomes.

“Our role extends beyond traditional communication,” explains Civitta’s Senior Consultant and communication leader for PRIMARY, Liis Livin. “We’re ensuring that farmers, policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs can actually understand and access these innovations. Effective communication is what turns promising research into real solutions that rural communities can implement.”

PRIMARY will pilot six distinct processes: grass biorefinery for food ingredients, fermentation technologies for protein production, foam forming for bio-based materials, biomass processing for biofuels, and biochar production for fertilizers. Each of these innovations is following the cascading principle to maximize value while supporting EU climate targets. These ambitious goals align with Civitta sustainability expertise and commitment to empowering organizations to accelerate their sustainability journey.

Led by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, PRIMARY unites 12 diverse partners including research institutions, agricultural cooperatives, and SMEs across Europe.

Follow the project’s activities via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/primary-project-eu

Disclaimer: PRIMARY is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101180167. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency.