On February 5 and 6, 2025, AXIA Innovation participated at the BIO-SUSHY Month 24 Annual Meeting, hosted by partner ITENE in Valencia. BIO-SUSHY is a Horizon Europe project aiming to replace PFAS from coatings. The novel coating will be validated in three case studies: textile, food trays, and glass cosmetic packaging.

In the BIO-SUSHY project, AXIA plays a crucial role as it leads one of the six work packages (WP): WP5: Maximizing Project Impact. Here, we lead all the communication, dissemination, exploitation, and standardization activities. Our partner UNE (Spanish Association for Standardization) leads the latter.

During the two-day meeting, the consortium reviewed technical milestones and solidified strategies to ensure the project’s innovations effectively reached markets and policymakers.

Key Highlights

Day 1 – Collaborative Innovation & Networking

• Case Studies in Action: AXIA highlighted the importance of communication, dissemination, and exploitation, presenting the main Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and SWOT and PESTLE analyses of each project value chain (food tray, glass cosmetics, and textiles). The External Advisory Board attended the first-day meeting and provided strategic feedback to ensure smoother progress of the project entering the second half phase.

Day 2 – Strategic Roadmaps for Market Readiness

During the second day, the meeting was focused on each WP, and AXIA gave a presentation on:

• Exploitation & Business Planning: AXIA presented the updated Innovation and Business Plan, reviewing Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and refining IP management strategies to protect and commercialize BIO-SUSHY’s coatings and associated services and tools.
• Communication & Dissemination: Metrics from the project’s Strategic C&D Plan were shared.
• Clustering Initiatives: AXIA outlined completed and upcoming activities with EU projects like SSbD4Chem, emphasizing knowledge-sharing to accelerate regulatory adoption.
• Standardization Progress: UNE provided updates on the CEN Workshop Agreement, a fast-track pathway to standardizing PFAS-free coatings, with AXIA coordinating stakeholder consultations.
• ITENE Facility Tour: AXIA captured insights from ITENE’s laboratories for use in case studies and future dissemination materials.

Quote from Dr. Michele Ponzelli, AXIA’s WP5 Leader:
“Our role is to ensure BIO-SUSHY’s innovations don’t just stay in labs—they impact coating, manufacturing, and R&D industries. From clustering to commercialization, we’re building bridges between science and society.”

Next Steps: AXIA’s Roadmap for 2025

Update the Exploitation Action Plan to guide partners in their exploitation pathways and securing their IP, as well as achieving (and surpassing) all the KPIs tracking the project’s communication and dissemination activities from the use of digital tools (e.g., blog articles, social media, videos) to peer-reviewed manuscripts, and key conference presentations.

Stay updated on BIO-SUSHY’s journey toward safer, sustainable materials by visiting www.bio-sushy.eu and following AXIA Innovation’s channels.

Funded by the European Union under the Grant Agreement Number 101091464. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.