The ZEST project holds its third general assembly in Riga

On 11 and 12 June 2025 , the European ZEST project consortium, comprising twelve entities, held its third general assembly in Riga (Latvia) , at a meeting organised by the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC) .

The event served to analyze technical progress, strengthen collaboration among partners, and explore synergies with other European initiatives, such as EPIC-SHIFT . During the sessions, the progress of the work packages was reviewed, next steps were defined—including new test fermenters, a bioreactor prototype, and digital models—and the new communication and dissemination roadmap was presented.

Participants also visited the LSIWC facilities to learn about its contributions to the project in the field of bioeconomy.

CTA is leading the communications and results dissemination work package, with a commitment to highlighting ZEST's progress until the project's completion in 2028.

The first technical results will be released in the coming months.

ZEST is a European research project co-funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE-JU) initiative , which will run until 31 May 2028. Its objective is to use the fungal fermentation process to reduce the generation of agro-industrial by-products, one of the main environmental challenges identified by the European Commission.