A three-year EU-funded research project, called "BARBARA" (Biopolymers with advanced functionalities for building and automotive parts processed through additive manufacturing), has started on 1 May 2017. The coordinator is the Spanish technology centre Aitiip (Zaragoza; www.aitiip.com). With a budget of EUR 2.7m, the project brings together 11 participants from Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Belgium, and aims to develop new bio-based materials from food waste or agricultural by-products. It is funded by the EU under its "Horizon 2020" innovation programme.

The participants encompass food and farming waste suppliers, construction and automotive end-users, and experts in chemistry, industrial materials production, machine and design processes as well as efficiency and impact monitors. As stated in the project's objective, "The extracted polysaccharides will be compatibilised with polyesters and polyamides and reinforced with extracted, modified and functionalised additives to obtain engineering bioplastic formulations adapted to current Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) processes." FFF is also known as FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling). The target is to develop new bio-based polymers and validate them in functional prototypes, such as car door handles and dashboard fascia for the automotive sector or moulds for truss joints and structures used in the building sector.