The BIOEAST Initiative under the patronage of Hungarian Visegrad Group Presidency organizes on November 15th a workshop and panel discussion on funding opportunities by means of financial instruments. It targets the policy makers, public (ministries, agencies, offices) and private funders (banks) and the engagement of key stakeholders from different bioeconomy sectors of the BIOEAST macro-region. The purpose of the workshop is to provide information on European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) financing possibilities, engaging good examples of already financed and potential future projects.

The aim of the workshop is to give information on financing instruments related to the biomass production and processing, with special attention to encourage beneficiaries and investors. In the context of available funds for applications at technology readiness level 3-9 aims to present public and private funding opportunities for Central and Eastern European Countries.

One specific objective is to draw attention to the bottlenecks of the current system and to bring viable linkages between investors and market actors.

At this link you can see the agenda.

The Association for European Life Science Universities and  the European Community of Practice for Bioeconomy Education, with the support of EuBioNet, will held the webinar “Status and Future of Bioeconomy Education – Learning from EU projects“, which will take place on Thursday 4, Friday 5 November and on Friday 19 November 2021  from 9.00 CET on each day.

Below you can find the complete program and at this link you can download the agenda per each day.

The Community of Practice for Bioeconomy Education

The goal of the ICA CoP Bio-Edu is to enhance the quality, offer and diversity of education for the sustainable circular Bioeconomy in Europe, by bringing educational actors in contact with each other, both virtually and face to face. Together, they form a professional network, to

• share experiences and good practices among educational actors coming from different educational sectors and regional perspectives,
• consult with industry and stakeholders about skills demands and educational outcomes can be organized.
• develop educational projects to develop and evaluate new educational materials, strategies and innovative training concepts and

A          Webinar Focus

The Bioeconomy is complex with many enterprises interacting in the circular economy. At all levels of education – from school, vocational education and training (VET), universities and life-long learning – there is a need to develop new instructional constructs or modify existing programmes.  This updating will ensure that we address the requirement to deliver our students with the skills to support the change from a fossil fuel economy to the green circular economy of which the sustainable circular bioeconomy is a central part.

We have invited several EU Commission projects focusing on bioeconomy education to present the outcomes of their projects, or projected outcomes if the project is ongoing, at a series of Webinars this November.  We have asked each project coordinator (or partner) of the project to share their experience with us of how the outcomes of their project have, or will, impact on education for the sustainable bioeconomy.

B          Aims of the Webinar

• Estimate the impact of dedicated projects on Bioeconomy Education on the level of targeted groups in the projects and on socio-economic levels. Have there been measures or indicators for the impact? What do we learn from these case studies? >> Past and present situation
• Estimate the potential and impact of dedicated projects on Bioeconomy Education and consider a capacity building for the future. >> Learnings for future projects and long term implementation
• Examine key differences and particularities on regional level (e.g. “developed countries”, Eastern part of Europe, South of Europe) and how these differences are reflected in Bioeconomy education and according strategies. How is the impact of these differences on Bioeconomy Education? And vice versa: How strong is the effect of Bioeconomy Education on improvement and development in the different regions? That needs to be discussed also at the sectorial scale.

D          Expected outcomes

• Guidance in embedding the outcomes of the bioeconomy educational projects in curricular and other learning environments
• Extracting opinions and suggestions on designing new projects on bioeconomy education
• Enhancing and vitalizing networks in bioeconomy education in Europe to promote structures which push the development of thematic priorities relating to bioeconomy education in EC frameworks.

E          Target Audience

Members of educational or other Institutions (Higher Education Institutions, Universities, Research Centres, Public and/or Regional Administration Private Entities) involved or interested in Bioeconomy Education as well as members of EU projects with full or partial focus on Bioeconomy Education.

F          Webinar Format

The Webinar will be divided in two parts

In the first part, on 4 and 5 November, various EU projects are presented that address the topic of bioeconomy education as a central focus or as an important sub-area. Here, the entire possible range of educational topics is to be covered, i.e. starting with the improvement of social perception, through primary school education and education in secondary schools, university education and vocational training, to life-long learning and learning on the job concepts. This part serves to take stock of projects that have already been successfully completed, but also of one ongoing project.

For the second part, on 19 November, the goal is to address the questions formulated as objectives within the different subtopics along with examples presented at the first part (e.g. actions like knowledge transfer centres, specific programs, new tools, dedicated events or other measures).

Agenda per each day

Registration

Please register online for the Webinar at https://forms.gle/WnuD7AwwDmDytpYeA
There is no Registration fee

Deadlines:
The deadline for registration for Part A (4 & 5 November) is Wednesday 3 November @ 12.00 CET
The deadline for registration for Part B (19. November) is Thursday 18 November @ 12.00 CET

You will be sent a link to the TEAMS Webinar venue by email on Wednesday 3 November and Thursday 18 November.  The Webinar will be managed from Avans University of Applied Sciences, NL.

Forum Organising Committee

Ingar Janzik, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH and Bioeconomy Science Center, DE; George
Sakellaris, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, CZ & BioEast; Han van Osch, Avans University of Applied Sciences, NL; Simon Heath, Association for European Life Science Universities (ICA)

The event is supported by EuBioNet

For more information please contact
Simon Heath
ICA Secretary General
Association for European Life Science Universities (ICA)
Email: ICASecretariat@ica-europe.org

Next November 4th, Transition2BIO project will held the Mobilization and Mutual Learning Workshop “Toward the green transition: boosting regional bioeconomy uptake through education and engagement”, as a side event of the 19th European Week of Regions and Cities.

The workshop will take place online from 10:00 – 11:50 CET and it aims to discuss, in the form of a local dialogue, the main challenges in the communication and education of the bioeconomy at regional level, highlighting good practices and identifying future actions in the field.

Representatives from regional initiatives supporting the implementation of bioeconomy methods will attend the presentation of the Transition2Bio capacity-building programme in an interactive digital round table with the audience.

Please fill-in the Registration Form (https://bit.ly/3AvLbdT)

or contact Ms. Evi Polytarchi via the following e-mail address: polytarchi@qplan-intl.gr

Here you can find attached the agenda.

Next 30 september 2021 The Bioeconomy Pilot in the Vanguard Initiative will organize the webinar “Creating impact with biobased democases” as part of the morning workshop programme of the Lustrum edition of Natural Fibertastic Event.

 Programme

09.00 Intro to Vanguard and Bioeconomy Pilot by Ilaria Re,EU Project Director Vanguard Initiative
09.10 Lignocellulosic Biorefinery democase

• Fibers – Rob Elias, Director Biocomposite Center, Bangor, Wales region.
• Lignin to asphalt – Willem Sederel, Chair Circular Biobased Delta, South Netherlands region

09.30 Bioaromatics case – Ludo Diels, Senior Research Leader Vito, Flanders
09.40 Liquified Biomethane – Maurizio Bettiga, Chief Innovation Officer at Italbiotec SrL, Lobardy region
09.50 Update from one of the regions – Varmland region, Sweden (to be confirmed)
10.00 Questions and dialogue
10.30 Closure

The meeting takes place via Teams.

More info and registration here

Next October 21st from 11:00am to 1:00pm, Transition2Bio partners APRE and FVA are organizing, in the context of the sustainability week “Festival dello sviluppo sostenibile 2021” lead by ASviS the online workshop “Promoting the biotransition through communication, education and stakeholders engagement“.

Workshop objectives

The workshop (Language: italian) is addressed to regional actors (public administrations, clusters, innovation agencies, etc.) to strengthen their skills to communicate, educate and involve stakeholders in the implementation of bioeconomy strategies. Through the knowledge of good practices already implemented in some Italian regions, the workshop aims to present and deepen paths that can be started in your region to raise awareness of companies, primary producers, training and education institutions, citizens on new production activities, more sustainable consumption and lifestyles, in line with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the new Green Deal.

In particular, Goals 9 (Businesses, innovation and infrastructures) and 12 (Sustainable cities and communities) will be central in the discussion of new lifestyles and consumption that can contribute to the achievement of Goal 13 (Fight against climate change), showing how solutions deriving from the bioeconomy are essential to tackle and halt climate change.

The workshop is divided into two sessions: the first will show, through the stories of some representatives of regional actors, the good practices already implemented in different contexts. The second session will present some tools and methodologies developed by the European project Transition2Bio and the European bioeconomy network – EuBioNet initiative that regional actors will be able to reuse in their territories to promote the bioeconomy.

Click here for more information and registration.