The 3rd Annual Meeting of the EIC Engineered Living Materials (ELM) Portfolio was held 1-2 October 2025, at the University of Primorska, InnoRenew CoE in Izola. The event brought together all projects within the ELM Portfolio, along with their collaborating researchers and industry partners, as well as external experts from across Europe. The two-day event offered a rich program of scientific presentations, training, discussions, and networking opportunities, strengthening collaboration within the ELMs community.

The meeting started with opening remarks from Dr. Anna Sandak, REMEDY project coordinator, and Dr. Orsolya Symmons, European Innovation Council (EIC) Programme Manager in Health and Biotechnology.

Dr. Anna Sandak said: “I am honored to welcome you all here at InnoRenew CoE and to have the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas about our projects dealing with engineered living materials.”

The EIC ELMs Portfolio is connecting projects funded under the Engineered Living Materials Pathfinder Challenge by the EIC, which began in November 2022, and ELMs projects funded under the Pathfinder Open subsequent calls. Through this initiative, the EIC aims to strategically position Europe at the forefront of the emerging Engineered Living Materials field.

Over the two days, coordinators and researchers presented progress updates on 10 ELMs portfolio projects – SUMO, BioRobot-MiniHeart, PRISM-LT, Bio-HhOST, Bioaction, ISOS, NextSkins, LoopOfFun, Fungateria, and REMEDY. Supported by 31.75 million euros from the European Commission, they are working on advanced solutions for diverse applications. This session was chaired by Dr. Barbara Gerratana, project officer for the ELMs Portfolio at the EIC.

The working group sessions covered topics of environment & sustainability, technology, path to market, communication, and regulation, providing space for progress reporting and open brainstorming with participants Including the description and announcement of the Ethical, legal and social aspects (ELSA) School to take place in July 2026 in Glasgow. There was also an important opportunity for early-career researchers, PhD students and postdocs to share their work in the flash talks and poster session.

Participants also had the opportunity to be trained on effective communication, which was led by Rebeca Williams, a public speaking, storytelling, and presentation expert. ELMs projects applied the All ELMs Portfolio projects applied the lesson learned by recording testimonials that will enrich the ELM Portfolio’s communication and promotion activities, and will help to showcase the portfolio’s impact and reach a broader audience.

The annual meeting focused on two important challenges in the translation of ELMs, such as regulatory and commercialization aspects of emerging and “living” technologies. Prof. Kai Purnhagen (Chair of Food Law, University of Bayreuth, DE) and Prof. Justus Wesseler (Chair of Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy at Wageningen University, NL) described the regulatory challenges and gaps for ELMs containing or using GMOs and GEB. Chaired by the EIC programme manager in Health and Biotechnology, Dr. Orsolya Symmons, this section also highlighted an economic analysis forecasting the inhibitory impact and economical burden that the current EU biotechnology regulation has on emerging technologies and new products such as the ELMs.  How to handle business challenges and gain support from investors for such special products as ELMs was discussed by early pioneers of similar out of the box products and investor.

The meeting concluded with updates from the EC Technology Council for Advanced Materials, a training session on MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships, including testimonials from current fellows Dr. Karen Butina Ogorelec and Dr. Wojciech Pajerski, and an announcement of the 4th EIC ELMs Annual Meeting, which will be held 30^th September – 1^st October 2026 in Copenhagen, DK hosted by the Royal Danish Academy of EIC Fungateria Project.