HUERTH, GERMANY (Oct. 12, 12 p.m. ET) — Partners in a European Union-funded research project aimed at conducting pre-standardization research into bio-based products held their first meeting at the end of last month.

Led by the Netherlands Standardization Institute, the project’s results feed into the European Standardization Committee’s processes on the same subject.

The goal is to provide the European and global market with horizontal standards on biomass content and biodegradability that have been assessed on a first set of different products, such as solvents, plastics and lubricants.

The project, called the Knowledge Based Bio-based Products’ Pre-Standardization (KBBPPS), “will allow the European stakeholders to progress with well-defined, globally aligned and sound test methods, correlated to actual field behavior and applicability in the lab”, according to the Nova Institute, the Huerth, Germany-based facility which is part of the research consortium.

Its goal, according to Nova Institute managing director Michael Carus, “is that results can be directly implemented into European standards”.

The timescale of KBBPPS is three years, although immediate results for the standardization process are expected in the next 12 months.

Those cooperating with the project include Beta-Analytic in the UK and Michigan State University.