What is the Bioeconomy? What are the products of renewable origin of daily use? Is it possible to make more sustainable choices for the environment and for our health, replacing the fossil-based products?

Products of natural origin can answer these questions. Waste or by-products can be a great resource for the circular economy and for the bioeconomy: fabrics from coffee grounds, elephant poop paper, apple and orange peel, cosmetics from tomato peel or insects. Biodegradable toys, Spirulina as superfood, restoration with prickly pear, building applications from fungi, 3D printing with hemp: these are just some of the possibilities offered by the bioeconomy!

On 27 and 28 September 2019, the Italian edition in Frascati of the European Researchers’ Night will host the BIOECONOMY Village, promoted by the BIOVOICES, STAR-ProBio, Biobridges and LIFT projects funded by the European Commission.

At the BIOECONOMY Village UNITELMA Sapienza, FVA new media research, Curioctipus, Algaria and Ma.Re. Project will show you what the bioeconomy is!

Come and discover them in occasion of the European Researchers’ Night organized by Frascati Scienza, #BEES -BE a citizEn Scientist, the great event that brings science to the streets, among citizens, young people and students.

The Bioeconomy offers huge potential to tackle societal challenges such as resource efficiency, climate change, maintaining European competitiveness and creation of jobs.

Increasing public awareness and knowledge about all areas of the bioeconomy is a major challenge

Despite the important investments, strategies and action plans implemented at Regional, National and European level, the 2018 revision of the European Bioeconomy Strategy (pdf) declares that “increasing public awareness and knowledge about all areas of the bioeconomy remains one a major challenge, which the European Commission aims to address by supporting communication initiatives to raise awareness of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the bioeconomy and bio-based products, and its benefits, such as more green jobs.

According to the European Bioeconomy Strategy “Consumers and their behaviour play a major role in the transformation process. As demonstrated by a number of studies, consumer awareness and knowledge are important factors determining responsible consumption behaviour. Additionally, raising awareness is also important to accelerate the implementation of Bioeconomy strategies at national, regional and community level, and also to allow the citizens to have their say and provide their feedback on bioeconomy-related issues, such as through the EU Citizens’ Initiatives tool.”

Need to share experiences in bioeconomy communication

Several initiatives and projects have been funded by the EC and State members to improve consumers’ awareness and knowledge, media and social media are increasingly paying more attention to sustainability themes and the large public is every day more interested and sensitive to these issues.

To design impactful bioeconomy communication, it is important to build on the previous projects and initiatives, share the experiences, learn from successful activities and identify gaps, barriers and areas of improvement. This should be done through mobilisation and mutual learning among stakeholders.

In this context, the workshop “The role of communication and education in promoting circular and sustainable bioeconomy” has been organized to promote the discussion and sharing of best practices and lessons learned through the bioeconomy communication activities.

The workshop will be jointly organized by four HORIZON 2020 projects: BIOVOICES, BioCannDo, Biobridges and LIFT (envisaged start: May 2019), all members of the European Bioeconomy Network which will play an important role in communicating and promoting bioeconomy at local and national level, as stated in the updated 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy.

The workshop will bring together EU-funded projects, European platforms and networks, Member States networks, together with quadruple helix stakeholders (Industry/Investors, Research/ Education, Public administration/Policy Makers, and Civil society) dealing with communication and awareness raising on the circular bioeconomy.

The event will take place on 8 July, as satellite event of the conference European Bioeconomy Scene 2019. The event is hosted by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Meritullinkatu 1, Helsinki – Finland).

The discussion will address questions like: communication formats and channels; multipliers to be involved; messages and arguments to be used (in terms of style, scope, terminology); etc. It will include an operative session that will focus on supporting the updated European Bioeconomy Strategy through communication activities: action plan, synergies and recommendations to maximise the opportunities and impact of bioeconomy communication at national and European level.

It is also expected that the workshop will facilitate the creation of synergies to maximise the opportunities and impact of bioeconomy communication at national and European level.

Article by Susanna Albertini

The Blue Bioeconomy focusses on novel and innovative uses of renewable biological resources in aquatic and marine environments to develop food, feed and non-food products, including among others, chemicals, fertilisers, building materials, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.

The Blue Bioeconomy Forum brings together different stakeholders in the blue bioeconomy to further the development of this promising sector. We are engaging with the community to better understand the challenges that all the different actors face in promoting growth and business opportunities, as well as research challenges that hamper the roll-out of new innovations. We organised an event on 7 December 2018 to gather input and held workshops on 11-12 March to further gather detailed information for this roadmap.

Now we would like to engage with the wider community (of which you are part) to help us shape the content of the roadmap, to be presented on 25 June in Brussels.

We would highly appreciate your input! Please help us further explain and understand the potential of the blue bioeconomy. You can do so by filling in this survey and/or forwarding it to a colleague. The survey is intended for members of the business and research community who are active in the blue bioeconomy.

To take the survey click HERE

Yours sincerely,

the Blue Bioeconomy Forum Secretariat.

The BBI JU Info Day 2019 will take place on 12 April 2019 in Brussels.

The aim of the event is to bring together potential participants interested in the BBI JU 2019 Call for proposals.

Registration for the event is free but obligatory and needs to be completed using the electronic registration tool. Places will be offered on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis so we would advise to register as soon as possible.

The morning sessions will provide information about the BBI JU initiative and all aspects of the Call process. Details of the 2019 Call topics as well as more information on the event are available on the BBI JU website.

The afternoon will provide an opportunity for participants to hold face-to-face meetings that can be scheduled as of 8th of March using the professional/corporate profile in the BBI JU Partnering Platform.

Throughout the day, participants will have the opportunity to speak to representatives from BBI JU’s founding partners and Member States as well as exchange views with entities in synergy with BBI JU. The BBI JU’s Programme Office staff will also be available to answer questions about the Call process and procedure.

We look forward to welcoming you to our 2019 Info Day in Brussels!

Read the news on BBI JU website