The University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Founded in 1495, the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC; https://www.usc.gal/en) is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It employs over 3,400 professors and research staff, around 45% of whom are women. The university also employs over 1,200 administrative and support staff, around 8% of whom are involved in research. Each year, the university welcomes around 25,000 students. Its annual budget is approximately €300 million. The two USC research groups involved in BIOMAPS belong to different research institutes within the university and have participated in various European Union RTD Framework Programme projects. One of these groups, led by Prof. Massimo Lazzari, is part of the Centre for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS, https://www.usc.es/ciqus/en/) and focuses on all aspects of polymer degradation. The team led by Profs. Manuel Romero and Ana Otero, belongs to the Aquatic One Health Research Centre (ARCUS, https://arcus.usc.gal/en) and specialises in microbiological processes related to the formation and evolution of biofilms.

Role in the project
In BIOMAPS, the USC team will lead Work Package 7 (WP7) in collaboration with partners from VTT, AIMPLAS, and UNISS. WP7 will focus on investigating the biodegradation of polymers and materials developed in WPs 2–5, as well as assessing the potential to close the life cycle of vitrimerised PHA-based polymers through monomer recovery. As part of WP7, we will evaluate the biodegradability of vitrimerised PHAs (from WP3) and manufactured components (from WP5). To this end, we will isolate, identify, and characterise the microbial degradation of PHA-based materials using selected consortia from diverse environments and conditions. WP7 will also focus on obtaining new enzymes and enzymatic extracts with degradation activity, which will be compared to known polymer-degrading enzymes. Finally, we will explore ways to control the degradation of PHA-based materials from different WPs, aiming to recover chemical products—particularly monomers and crosslinkers—using the isolated enzymes. These degradation products will then serve as precursors for the biosynthesis of new polymers, supporting a circular economy approach.
USC team is also involved in the characterization of crosslinkers and PHA vitrimers, mainly though surface analysis, within the task 3.5 within the task devoted to vitrimerized manufacturing PHA.