GRAPHIC PACKAGING INTERNATIONAL EUROPE

Their core work

Graphic Packaging International Europe is the European arm of a major global industrial packaging manufacturer, specializing in paper-based and multi-material packaging for food and consumer goods. In the H2020 context, they contribute applied industrial expertise to research projects focused on bio-based and biodegradable packaging materials — testing, validating, and scaling sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. Their role in EU projects is to bridge laboratory-stage materials science with real-world manufacturing requirements: barrier properties, food contact safety, processability, and end-of-life recyclability. They bring the industrial perspective that determines whether a bio-based innovation can actually reach the market.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects started in 2021, so the evolution is between the two projects rather than across a multi-year trajectory. The first project (PRESERVE) concentrated on structural packaging innovation — multilayer formats, flexible and rigid substrates, microfiber reinforcement, and ebeam coatings as performance enablers. The second project (BioSupPack) shifted toward chemistry-level material design: PHA/PHB biopolymers, plasma surface activation, fatty acid grafting, and enzymatic end-of-life processing using agricultural biomass. The direction is clear: from macro-level packaging engineering toward molecular-level bio-material engineering and circular chemistry.

They are moving deeper into circular bioeconomy chemistry — specifically PHA-based materials, bio-catalytic recycling, and agri-waste feedstocks — suggesting future collaborations will likely sit at the intersection of biochemistry, packaging engineering, and waste valorization.

How they like to work

Graphic Packaging International Europe participates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as project coordinator — consistent with how large industrial companies engage in EU research: as validation and scale-up partners rather than research drivers. Their participation in two relatively large consortia (40 unique partners across 13 countries) suggests they are comfortable operating within complex multi-stakeholder projects. Their value to a consortium is industrial credibility and real-world manufacturing context, not project management capacity.

They have collaborated with 40 unique partners across 13 countries through just two projects, indicating broad consortium exposure relative to their project count. The geographic spread across 13 countries reflects the pan-European composition typical of large RIA and IA projects.

What sets them apart

As the European subsidiary of one of the world's largest packaging manufacturers, Graphic Packaging brings something most academic or SME partners cannot: the ability to evaluate bio-based innovations against the hard constraints of industrial-scale production, food contact regulations, and retail supply chains. Their presence in a consortium signals that the research has been vetted by an end-user with genuine purchasing power and market reach. For a project developing sustainable packaging materials, having them as a partner dramatically improves the credibility of the commercialization pathway.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BioSupPack
  The largest of their two projects (EUR 472,672, running to 2026), it targets a full demonstrative production and enzymatic recycling process for PHA-based packaging — one of the most technically ambitious circular packaging initiatives in H2020.
• PRESERVE
  Addresses the full lifecycle of bio-based packaging — from microfiber-reinforced multilayer structures to upcycled secondary uses — covering both performance and end-of-life in a single project scope.