AGRANA RESEARCH & INNOVATION CENTER GMBH

Their core work

AGRANA Research & Innovation Center is the R&D arm of AGRANA Group, one of Austria's major agro-industrial companies focused on sugar, starch, and fruit processing. Their H2020 involvement centers on improving sustainability in food production — from developing bio-based fertilizers and probiotic coatings to recovering waste heat from industrial drying processes. They bring applied industrial knowledge to research consortia, bridging the gap between laboratory innovations and large-scale food and bio-processing operations.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ARIC's earliest H2020 involvement (2016) was in industrial energy efficiency — waste heat recovery, high-temperature heat pumps, and advanced drying processes through DryFiciency. From 2018 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward sustainable agriculture: bio-based fertilizers, struvite recovery, probiotic crop treatments, and fertiliser policy. This trajectory suggests a strategic pivot from process engineering toward circular bioeconomy and sustainable agri-food systems.

ARIC is moving from energy-efficiency engineering toward circular agriculture and bio-based inputs, positioning itself at the intersection of food production sustainability and EU fertiliser regulation.

How they like to work

ARIC operates exclusively as a contributor — never as coordinator — joining medium-to-large consortia as either a participant or third party. With 49 unique partners across 15 countries from just 3 projects, they plug into broad European networks without taking the administrative lead. This profile suggests they are valued for specific industrial testing capabilities and applied know-how rather than project management.

Despite only 3 projects, ARIC has connected with 49 distinct partners across 15 countries, reflecting the large consortium sizes typical of Innovation Actions. Their network spans much of the EU, with no obvious geographic concentration beyond their Austrian base.

What sets them apart

ARIC is rare in combining large-scale agro-industrial processing experience (sugar, starch, fruit) with active research in circular nutrient recovery and bio-based fertilizers. Unlike university labs, they can validate innovations at industrial scale within real production environments. For consortium builders, they offer a credible industry endpoint for demonstrating and testing agri-food innovations.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SUSFERT
  Combines probiotics, struvite nutrient recovery, and lignin coatings into a single sustainable fertilizer concept — an unusually integrated approach to circular agriculture.
• LEX4BIO
  Directly targets EU policy frameworks for bio-based fertilisers, giving ARIC influence on the regulatory landscape that will shape their own sector.