Bio-based Economy – Innovations in practice

Presentation: Panel discussion
Date: 26 September 2019
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Panel discussion: Holger Gerdes

In September 2019, the European Commission organized the 'European Research & Innovation Days' to shape the EU's future research and innovation policy. Holger Gerdes, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, had been invited to take part in a panel discussion, which focused on the challenges and potentials of bio-based products and innovations. The video recordings from the session can be watched online.

The European Research & Innovation Days brought together researchers, scientists, innovators and policy-makers and featured three main elements: a high-level Policy Conference, the Innovative Europe Hub and the ‘Science is Wonderful’ exhibition of EU-funded projects. The event was part of the strategic planning process that sets the foundations for the first work programmes of Horizon Europe, the EU's next research and innovation framework programme for the period 2021 - 2028.

The session "Bio-based economy – innovations in practice", which was attended by 65 bioeconomy stakeholders, looked at the main challenges and potentials of bio-based products and innovations from the perspective of research, covering industrial, environmental and regional aspects. Holger Gerdes' contribution to the session focussed on potential implications of bio-based developments in the context of the EU's Cohesion Policy, and on current limitations regarding the assessment of the environmental performance of bio-based products and processes.

The session agenda is available for download [pdf, 400 kB, English]. The video recordings from the session can be watched online.

Session Speakers & Panelists:

Ignacio Martin, CIRCE Foundation
Holger Gerdes, Ecologic Institute
Malene Sand Jespersen, COWI
Riccardo Schiatti, Energochemica
Barna Kovács, BIOEAST Initiative, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU

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Publication:Policy Brief

First page of the BE-Rural Policy Brief "Enabling rural regions to recognise the ecological boundaries framing the bioeconomy"

BE Rural developed and piloted a new framework to help decision makers consider ecological limits when drafting regional bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps, and with this to contribute to Priority 3 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy: "Understand the ecological boundaries of the bioeconomy".

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Publication:Report

This report provides the context and justification for the development of BE-Rural's Sustainability Screening, a description of its methodological procedure, and the syntheses of results from the two experimental implementations of the approach in the Stara Zagora and Vidzeme regions, which are included in full as annexes to this report. The last chapters present the main lessons learned from these two pilots and the overall conclusions of the task.

Note on the Development of a Sustainability Screening for Regional Bioeconomy Strategies

Deliverable 5.4 H2020 Research project BE-Rural

Year 2022

Publication:Document

Rural regions in Southeastern and Eastern Europe are facing multiple challenges such as a rural exodus, aging populations, a declining industrial base and low innovation performance. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. In response to this, stakeholders in the five BE-Rural regions developed bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps for enhanced rural development. This publication presents short summaries of the regional strategies and roadmaps focusing on the regional context in terms of available natural resources, the social, economic and political context, the strategy development process and the priorities outlined in the strategies.

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Year 2021

Event:Conference

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8 September 2020
online

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Tarpey, J., Beusch, C. 2020: Small-Scale Technologies and Business Models for Regional Bioeconomies. Joint Guidance Document for Stakeholders. Ecologic Institute, Berlin.

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Year 2020

Publication:Document

With the recent update of its Bioeconomy Strategy, the guidance of its advisory bodies and the engagement of regional groups and representatives, Europe has found a new track towards a sustainable bioeconomy, building on the notion that regions are the most appropriate territorial level at which to implement bioeconomy strategies. The BE-Rural project incorporates this regional focus into its core vision, putting its regional Open Innovation Platforms (OIPs) front and center in the process of studying the potential for regional bioeconomies, and articulating and implementing strategies to make them a reality.

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Year 2019

Publication:Document

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Sustainability and Participation in the Bioeconomy: A Conceptual Framework for BE-Rural

Deliverable 1.1 H2020 Research project BE-Rural

Year 2019

Project:Horizon 2020

The bioeconomy carries the promise to offer important opportunities for rural employment and regional added value. The transition towards a more efficient and fossil-free economy should actively involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders and citizens in order to provide them with the opportunity to participate as co-creators in the design of regional strategies and to promote a sustainable use of agricultural, forest and marine ecosystems. Building on this idea, the overall goal of BE-Rural is to explore the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting relevant actors in the participatory development of bioeconomy strategies, roadmaps and business models. The project will focus on regions in five modest and moderate innovator countries: Latvia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Bio-based Strategies and Roadmaps for Enhanced Rural and Regional Development in the EU (BE-Rural)

Apr 2019 - Mar 2022

Event: Europäische Forschungs- und Innovationstage
Organizer: European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), International
Panel discussion: Holger Gerdes
Team: Dr. Zoritza Kiresiewa
Date: 26 September 2019
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Language: English
Project: Bio-based Strategies and Roadmaps for Enhanced Rural and Regional Development in the EU (BE-Rural)
Project ID: 2815
Keywords: Bioeconomy

Governance

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

bioeconomy, bio-based products, research & innovation, Horizon Europe, EU

Europe

Further Links

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Funding: European Commission, Directorate-General Research & Innovation (DG Research & Innovation), International

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Horizon Europe - the next research and innovation framework programme