Eco-innovation is not always about new materials. Three projects in the far east and west of the European Union have shown that eco-innovation can also be about finding new approaches to old materials. In these cases, the material is straw.

Smart specialisation is an approach to regional development in which regional authorities focus their resources on a few priority sectors in which the region can offer something new, and which have the potential for significant growth, and even global leadership. A recent guide, Connecting Smart and Sustainable Growth through Smart Specialisation , from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy, gives practical advice on how smart specialisation can be applied to boost the green economy, in particular eco-innovation.

The BioFatRecovery project addresses a sticky problem: treatment of wastewater that contains fat, for example from dairy or meat processing. Project partner Ambisys has developed the Inverted Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (IASB) reactor, which makes it possible to efficiently remove fat from wastewater and convert it into useful bioenergy in the form of biogas. The treatment process is ideal for small-scale facilities and is a good example of a project that targets SMEs. Through BioFatRecovery, an IASB reactor is being installed and tested at a fish processing plant in Póvoa de Varzim, northern Portugal.