From Local Solutions to Global Transformation

October 19, 1pm
Dublin, Ireland

Join us in Dublin to explore how regions across Europe are advancing the bioeconomy transition – from forestry and agricultural regions to coastal communities. Take the opportunity to connect with peers facing the same regional challenges.

The bioeconomy transition is increasingly built region by region, through governance decisions and stakeholder initiatives. But regional actors rarely get the chance to exchange experiences.

This event, co-organised by the Horizon Europe BIO2REG project and EFI Bioregions, will take place alongside the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2026. It brings together regional policymakers, practitioners and researchers to compare notes on approaches that can be adapted across regional contexts, and explore opportunities for future collaboration.

It also marks the final public event of the BIO2REG project, presenting key findings and regional case studies in the context of the Bioeconomy Summit.

The BIOECONOMY GIANTS project has launched Open Call 1, offering travel vouchers (up to €500) for primary producers to attend the BIOECONOMY Bootcamp, part of the Pitch Perfect and Boost the European Bioeconomy event.

The initiative aims to connect primary producers with the wider bioeconomy ecosystem, providing opportunities for networking, knowledge exchange, and collaboration with industry and research actors.

Eligible applicants include farmers, forestry producers, cooperatives, and organisations representing primary production, based in EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries.

Deadline: 31 July 2026, 17:00 CEST

More information and application: https://bioeconomygiants.com/open-call-1/

In the final year of the BOOST4BIOEAST (B4B) project, the BIOEAST community gathered for the Annual BIOEAST Bioeconomy Conference jointly held with the project’s Annual Meeting between April 20th to the 23rd at the very special location; in the jewel of Dalmatian coast, Zadar, Croatia, hosted by the University of Zadar.

At the Annual Project Meeting (20–21 April), all 30 partners of the B4B consortium took stock of last year’s progress and prepared for the final rush of remaining activities, generating lasting impact and carrying on in a new follow-up project, BIOEASTWIDE. During the second year, B4B has made strong progress in co-creating inclusively the bioeconomy action plans through national workshops organised by the 11 BIOEAST HUBs across the CEE countries, updating the BIOEAST Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) with the help of the seven, macro-regional Thematic Working Groups (TWGs), successfully assessing the macro-region’s bioeconomy competences, biomass availability, educational needs and innovation systems and organising the first BIOEAST Open Innovation Challenge (OIC) which recognised 8 promising solutions boosting bioeconomy innovation across the macro-region. The major goals for 2026 remain to deliver the final bioeconomy action plans and the SRIA, to hold five pitching events with investors for the winners of the OIC and other startups and innovators and turn overall results into valuable policy recommendations for national and European decision-makers.

Following the project meeting, the BIOEAST Bioeconomy Conference (22–23 April), co-organized by the B4B project and the BIOEAST Initiative, brought together more than 120 participants from across the CEE to initiate discussion about the policy implications, future impact and valorisation opportunities of the bioeconomy action plans at national, macro-regional and European levels while showcasing good examples of bioeconomy strategy implementation from the BIOEAST macro-region.

The conference was opened by David Vlajčić, Vice president of Croatian Government and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Croatian Ministry of Agriculture, Ante Ćurković, Deputy Mayor, City of Zadar and Josip Faricic, Rector, University of Zadar.

Tugomir Majdak, State Secretary, Croatian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries kicked off the plenary by giving an overview of the current state of Croatian bioeconomy and presented the newly adopted national bioeconomy strategy. The strategy outlines the most prominent development areas from mapping the availability and demand for biomass​, managing sustainably natural resources​, fostering scientific and research activities and innovation as well as their usage in bioeconomy​, to enabling selected bioeconomy value chains​ and fostering the consumption of domestic bioeconomy products.​ Wim Haentjens, Head of Sector for Bioeconomy at DG Research and Innovation provided a comprehensive outlook on how EU’s new Bioeconomy Strategy will be implemented considering specific geopolitical factors. He highlighted the strong alignment with the BIOEAST Initiative and its UniNet for supporting the implementation and acknowledged the project’s efforts in advancing bioeconomy policies in the CEE countries, especially the strong link established with the national ministries. Barna Kovács, Secretary of the BIOEAST Initiative, closed the plenary with a call to further strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of BIOEAST countries by turning local biomass, biowaste and natural resources into higher value products and services through research, innovation and knowledge-based cooperation, including education, thereby contributing to the EU’s strategic autonomy through a new BIOEASTWIDE cooperation which will not only include the BIOEAST countries, but the Western Balkan, Ukraine, Moldova and other EU countries. (The foundations of this EU-wide partnership will be laid down by the follow-up project of BOOST4BIOEAST, the BIOEASTWIDE from 2026 onwards.

After the plenary presentations, the programme continued with an engaging panel discussion highlighting the innovative solutions of five winners of the BIOEAST OIC moderated by Kevin Ryan from Irish Bioeconomy Foundation. Rossen Kolev, co-founder and CEO of SmartFarm Robotix introduced a chemicals-free automated solution for weed management, Simona Kelher, from KNOFmowa, a modular, free-standing partition wall made from locally collected surplus materials, Alen Hrustić, CEO of ALGO EKO, a multispectral and hyperspectral cameras implemented on drones to determine the usage of illegal plant protection products in organic agricultural production, Rastislav Rasi from NLC,  the Smart BIOHUB Network which operates 78 decentralised collection hubs across the Banská Bystrica Region (Slovakia) to optimize biomass and biodegradable waste logistics and Camelia Tulcan, from University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I”, presented a digital platform developed for circular economy training, stakeholder collaboration, and sustainable energy design.

Following the panel, an action plan valorisation workshop took place engaging every participant to discuss how to transform strategic documents to action moderated by Valeria Csonka from ÖMKi. The session began with Aleksejs Nipers, Associate Professor and Leading Researcher from Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, who talked about the successful example of Latvia’s bioeconomy action plan implementation emphasising that an action plan without a strategy loses direction​ and the importance of meaningful stakeholder involvement that ensures ownership​. In the interactive session, participants worked in pre-assigned groups of 8–10 people with the aim to help them understand how strategic documents could be turned into concrete actions under different decision-making conditions. Participants took on roles such as decision-makers, policy designers, stakeholders, and observers. During the exercise, participants explored various implementation options, negotiation strategies, and barriers.

The day concluded with the closed TWG sessions discussing the finalisation of thematic SRIAs across seven thematic priority areas (agroecology, bioenergy, food systems, forestry, freshwater-based bioeconomy, education, and advanced biobased materials), the upcoming science-policy dialogues and continuing the joint work in the BIOEASTWIDE project.

The conference also featured a poster exhibition which showcased 19 posters on best practices and projects focusing on advancing bioeconomy policy and governance from the BIOEAST countries or relevant to the macro-region. Best Poster Awards recognized outstanding contributions to the field which were given to “Co-creating a National Roadmap for Circular Bioeconomy in Poland: A Bottom-up, Multi-Actor Approach” poster presented by Piotr Jurga from Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation State Research Institute, Poland and to “Boosting Circular Bioeconomy Innovation in Estonia BIOEAST HUB” poster presented by Olha Aleksandrova from the Estonian University of Life Sciences.

Field trips closed the conference on the next day. The participants had the opportunity to visit two unique practical examples of sustainable and circular bioeconomy solutions; a traditional cheese dairy on the Island of Pag, Sirana Gligora and one of the oldest working saltworks in Europe, the organically certified Nin Saltworks.

The conference was part of a series of events, organized back-to-back with the meetings of the BIOEAST Board, TWG Coordinators and B4B annual project meeting making the week between 20-23 April specifically dedicated to the BIOEAST community in Zadar.

We would like to thank all speakers and participants for offering their insights and ideas on shaping the future of the macro-region’s bioeconomy and hope to meet again at the Final Conference of the project held in Brussels on 25 November.

Conference related materials are available on the BIOEAST Knowledge Platform here.

The unique concept of presenting all advanced recycling solutions and related topics at one event makes the Advanced Recycling Conference 2026 a comprehensive and exciting conference experience, including technologies such as extrusion, dissolution, solvolysis, enzymolysis, pyrolysis, thermal depolymerisation, gasification, and incineration with Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU).

Call for Abstracts is open until 31 July 2026: https://advanced-recycling.eu/call-for-abstracts/

Ambitious recycling targets set by the EU, the commitments of the chemical industry and brands, as well as the demands of customers are putting enormous evolutionary pressure on the recycling sector. Large shares of unrecycled waste streams on the one hand are set against the demand and search for renewable feedstocks for chemicals and materials on the other hand, leading to discussions as to which technologies are the most suitable for which waste stream and how to evaluate the environmental impact.

Advanced recycling technologies are developing at a fast pace, with new players constantly appearing on the market, from start-ups to giants and everything in between – new plants are being built or upscaled, new capacities are being achieved, and new partnerships are being established.

With all these developments, it is difficult to keep track. The “Advanced Recycling Conference“ will take place over two days in the heart of Cologne, aiming to clear up this jungle of information by providing an overview and in-depth insight into all available recycling technologies for various streams of different plastics wastes as well as into political topics and environmental impacts. The ARC will provide a new home for technology providers, related industries, waste management companies, brands and investors as well as policy makers and scientists active in the versatile and interdisciplinary field of recycling. By bringing together all relevant topics and experts, the event will provide a framework for new partnerships, ideas, approaches, and value chains.

Speakers will have a unique opportunity to present their recent developments to a wide and relevant audience including exchange and networking with stakeholders along the whole plastics value chain. All new and innovative recycling solutions will be covered by the conference such as physical processes based on extrusion and dissolution, chemical processes based on solvolysis, biochemical processes based on enzymolysis, as well as thermochemical processes based on pyrolysis, thermal depolymerisation, gasification and incineration with CCU.

Registration: https://advanced-recycling.eu/registration/

Topics of the conference

• Markets, investments and policy
• Circular economy and ecology of plastics
• Physical recycling
• Biochemical recycling
• Chemical recycling
• Thermochemical recycling
• Other advanced recycling technologies
• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU)
• Upgrading, pre- and post-treatment technologies
• Digital and AI-based solutions

Following the successful kick-off of nova talks, the second edition turns to one of the most pressing and controversial topics in the transition towards a circular textile economy. Under the title “Textile Recycling: quo vadis? Just a hype or the next big thing?”, this interactive online session will explore whether current developments signal a genuine systemic shift – or whether the momentum risks fading before large-scale impact is achieved.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sp3uSwv4RvCmqNkI1hvxeA

Three experts will guide the discussion: moderator Asta Partanen (nova-Institute), together with Heli Kangas (Valmet) and Melina Sachtleben (Institut für Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen University (ITA)), exchange on their different perspectives from industry, research, and policy on the status quo of textile recycling.

Innovations in AI-based sorting and fibre-to-fibre recycling are addressing long-standing challenges such as complex material blends and quality consistency. Mechanical and chemical recycling processes are progressing beyond pilot stage, yet questions remain about scalability, cost competitiveness and reliable feedstock supply.

At the same time, evolving policy frameworks in EU – including separate textile collection in place, recycled content targets and extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes – are redefining market conditions. Clear and coherent regulation will be crucial to unlock investment and enable large-scale infrastructure.

Looking ahead, investment in chemical recycling, upscaling strategies and growing brand demand for recycled fibres could turn textile recycling into a key pillar of the renewable carbon economy – if technological and economic hurdles can be overcome.

Experts in Textile Recycling and Cellulosic Fibres

Valmet is a leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. With a strong focus on circularity and resource efficiency, the company supports industrial solutions that advance recycling, fibre processing and the transition towards a more sustainable, renewable carbon economy. Heli Kangas, Development Manager at Valmet, provides her expertise and insights from an industrial perspective.

The Institute for Textile Technology (ITA) at RWTH Aachen University is one of Europe’s leading research centres for textile science and engineering, covering the entire value chain from fibre materials and textile production technologies to smart and sustainable textile solutions. ITA’s work spans high-performance fibres, advanced manufacturing, technical and functional textiles, as well as circularity and recycling research, linking cutting-edge innovation with industrial applications and academic teaching. Melina Sachtleben, Research Assistant at ITA, discusses the topic from a more research-oriented perspective.

Hosted by nova-Institute

nova-Institute is an independent research and science-based consultancy focused on sustainability and renewable carbon cycles. It supports the chemicals, plastics and materials industries in replacing fossil carbon with renewable carbon from biomass, carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), and recycling. Its goal is to defossilise carbon-dependent sectors and enable a circular, climate-neutral carbon economy.

Hosted and moderated by Dr. Asta Partanen, Senior Expert at nova-Institute, the unique nova talk format encourages lively discussions and dialogue with the audience, who are actively invited to ask questions. nova-Institute ensures professional hosting and moderation, guaranteeing consistently high-quality and in-depth content.

This nova talk is sponsored by Valmet. Textile Technology supports the format as a media partner.

Register here free of charge: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sp3uSwv4RvCmqNkI1hvxeA