This information day is an opportunity for attendees to get some insight into the Societal Challenge 2 calls for proposals of Horizon 2020, for the Work Programme of 2020, covering Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy.

Come and learn about the Societal Challenge 2 calls for 2020 and get some practical information on how to successfully apply to the open calls for proposals.

Register right now: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/horizon-2020-info-day-societal-challenge-2-calls-proposals-2020

Registration for the event is free of charge and compulsory. However, due to limited space, applications will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. Registrations are open until 28 June 2019. Travel and subsistence costs should be covered by the participants.

Please note that a brokerage event is also organised for these calls on 3 July 2019 by the BioHorizon project. More information and registration are available here: https://foodbrokerage2019.b2match.io/.

The Lombardy Green Chemistry Association, the regional point of reference of the bioeconomy ecosystem, organises the workshop as one of the main events to be held in Lombardy during the National Bioeconomy Day promoted by the Cluster SPRING and Assobiotec.

The event triggers the interregional cooperation and is part of the Vanguard Initiative’s “Bioeconomy Pilot” which is co-lead by the Lombardy region and aims at enhancing the Smart Specialization Strategy of 25 European regions.

The workshop aims to raise public awareness and promote dialogue on bio-energy production across Europe, bringing together academics, researchers, stakeholders, policymakers and business representatives operating in the bio-based value chain. The objective of the workshop is to exchange ideas on how to support the interregional cooperation on the innovative use of non-food biomass, share experience and discuss bottlenecks in the final step from technical maturity to industrial and market implementation.

Bioeconomy and Bio-based Industry for the Rural Renaissance of Regions (3BiR3)

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

Join us for a webinar on 10 May 2019 at 11:00 AM CEST.

Register now!

Are you involved in promoting innovative bio-based products, or engaging stakeholders in dialogues on the bioeconomy, and  interested in recent initiatives? Then you may want to engage with other stakeholders that share your interest and join our webinar.

BioCannDo is about explaining the idea of the bioeconomy and of bio-based end products in a clear and understandable language, in a scientifically correct manner, and connecting it to everyday life. Collaboration partners can share and learn about innovative approaches and good practices in approaches and formats for bioeconomy awareness raising and education.

What can you expect from the webinar:

We will present a brief overview of BioCannDo project results. Then you will hear about the outcome of comparing results of a literature survey, conducted in the RoadToBio project, and three consumer surveys, conducted in a live setting in the BioCannDo project, on public perception of bio-based products. In the third session you will learn about BLOOM project results to engage different stakeholder groups in Austria and Germany in co-creation workshop to learn about their hopes and fears regarding the implementation of the bioeconomy.

Webinar agenda:

1. Snapshot of BioCannDo results – Erik Lohse, FNR (DE)

2. Communication on bio-based products: BioCannDo consumer surveys & RoadToBio literature analysis – John Vos and/or Swinda Pfau, BTG Biomass Technology Group (NL)

3. BLOOM: Bioeconomy co-creation workshop experiences in Austria & Germany –  Clemens Gattringer, Ecosocial Forum (AT)

Interested? Check our website www.allthings.bio to learn more about BioCannDo and register now to join our 1-hour webinar on Friday 10 May (11:00-12:00). You are welcome to share this invitation with other members of the bioeconomy community.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the Webinar.