BrewSelBar (Brewer’s Spent Grains Bio-stimulant enriched with Selenium for Barley Stress Tolerance and Functional Beverages) is a Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges project that aims to transform one of the brewing industry’s largest by-products into a high-value, sustainable agricultural solution.
The project focuses on the valorisation of Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG) into an innovative selenium-enriched, plant-based biostimulant designed to enhance barley stress tolerance, improve crop performance under abiotic stress conditions, and support the production of selenium-enriched functional beverages, including beer and non-alcoholic products. By integrating circular economy principles, BrewSelBar directly addresses environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and food security challenges while reducing industrial waste.
BrewSelBar pursues the following core objectives:
Develop and optimize extraction processes for converting Brewer’s Spent Grain into a plant-based biostimulant.
Enrich the biostimulant with selenium to enhance barley tolerance to abiotic stress.
Validate the effectiveness of the biostimulant through laboratory and field trials.
Support the production of selenium-enriched barley for functional beverages.
Foster international, intersectoral knowledge exchange through structured staff secondments.
Strengthen collaboration between academia, industry, and innovation actors within a circular bioeconomy framework.
The project is coordinated by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of European and international partners:
Beneficiaries
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain – Coordinator
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU), Denmark
Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), Germany
Semillas Batlle S.A. (BATLLE), Spain
REDINN S.r.l. (REDINN), Italy
Associated Partners
Universidad Nacional del Mar del Plata (UNMDP), Argentina
Milton S.A. (ANTARES), Argentina
This consortium combines expertise in plant biology, selenium biofortification, analytical chemistry, agriculture, brewing, and innovation management, ensuring strong scientific, industrial, and market-oriented impact.
Within BrewSelBar, REDINN contributes as an innovation and knowledge-transfer partner, supporting:
Intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic actors.
Innovation management and exploitation-oriented activities.
Knowledge exchange through international staff secondments.
Strengthening the link between research results and real-world application in agri-food and bioeconomy sectors.
REDINN’s involvement reinforces the project’s focus on translating research outcomes into sustainable, market-relevant solutions.
Programme: Horizon Europe – MSCA Staff Exchanges
Grant Agreement No.: 101236623
Total EU Budget: €475,950
Project Duration: 48 months
Start Date: 1 January 2026
End Date: 31 December 2029
By converting brewing waste into a functional agricultural input, BrewSelBar supports EU strategies such as the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork, while advancing sustainable production systems, circular bioeconomy models, and resilient agri-food value chains. The project demonstrates how scientific excellence, industrial collaboration, and international mobility can jointly deliver tangible environmental, economic, and societal benefits.
Project reference: Horizon Europe – MSCA Staff ExchangesVisit Us, Give us a call, write us an email or fill out the form below.
