Sustainable, competitive process industry and respect for nature are not contradictions! Started on Jan. 1st, 2015, the four year EU-funded innovation project PRODIAS aimed to improve and optimize methods and technologies for PROcessing Diluted Aqueous Systems originating from white biotechnology processes. Under the leadership of BASF, nine partners from industry and academia collaborated in developing resource and energy-efficient separation and purification technologies, focusing on renewable-based products. And it was a success: Four demonstrator units and several R&D standards were developed and are now ready to be used in lab- and commercial scales. Renewable-based products are often produced as part of complex dilute aqueous systems. Their separation and purification include the removal of vast amounts of water. This removal often causes complex and energy-intensive downstream processes, thus hampering the cost-competitiveness of these products. Furthermore, many processing methods currently used were originally developed for chemical production. They are often insufficiently adapted to biotechnological processes. PRODIAS aimed to address these challenges by developing and implementing cost-effective separation and purification technologies especially tailored for renewable resources in white biotechnology production processes. To achieve the set goals, the European Union funded PRODIAS with euro 10 million under the umbrella of its funding programme "Horizon 2020". After four years of trustful and successful cooperation, the PRODIAS partners Alfa Laval (Sweden), BASF SE (Germany), Cargill R&D Centre Europe (Belgium), enviplan ((Germany), GEA Niro PT (Netherlands), Imperial College London(UK), University of Kaiserslautern (Germany), UPM (Finland), and XENDO (Netherlands) now can be proud of their achievements: Demonstrators (TRL 7-9) to be used commercially: - Low energy, high performance disc-stack centrifuges for biomass separation - Freeze concentration for thermo-sensitive dissolved compounds, e.g., enzymes - Novel SMB-EBA combination as hybrid process including advanced control software - High performance (titer) fermentation of small organic precursor molecules R&D standards to be used in bioprocess development: - Flocculation inside disc-stack centrifuges - Free (special) organic acid crystallization - Combining extraction/IEX and bi-polar electrodialysis to purify chemical value-chain molecules produced by fermentation - NEAT: novel analytical method using NMR to determine system properties relevant for downstream processing of complex mixtures. But what made PRODIAS a success? Amongst other factors, the project set-up was the basis for the achieved results. Most work packages were structured in such a way that a minimum of two partners needed to cooperate to fulfil the tasks. This structure demanded and allowed for intense discussions and thereby promoted the early identification of potential conflicts of interest. Moreover, well established communication channels and a content-wise and administrative coaching by the coordinators contributed to a smooth and concentrated work focused on results. Finally, PRODIAS partners were working in a trustful atmosphere that proved their slogan: One Goal, One Project, One Team! On behalf of the PRODIAS coordinators, I would like to thank all partners for the passion they put into PRODIAS, for an inspiring and creative atmosphere, smooth and focused cooperation, and for working towards the joint goal of making PRODIAS a success. The special issue you are holding in hands introduces the achievements of the fruitful cooperation of academia and industry and outlines potential future R&D work triggered by PRODIAS. Prof. Michael-Helmut Kopf BASF SE No abstract.