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Fossil-fuel depletion and food security are among many issues which highlight the need to put the EU’s economy on a more sustainable footing. The bioeconomy can play a central role in this, such as in the transformation of renewable resources into food, animal feed and clean energy.
The EU-funded BIOSTEP project promoted dialogue around how to grow Europe’s bioeconomy in a sustainable way by organising activities such as the ‘Bioeconomy in Everyday Life’ exhibition. Targeting the general public, the exhibition visited the UK, Italy and Bulgaria, showcasing innovations like cups and clothes made from coffee grounds, tyres made from dandelions and shoes made from rice husks, not to mention bioreactor facades and dresses fashioned from milk!
Living labs in Bulgaria and Italy involved local people and organisations in innovative processes aimed at developing sustainable products and services that meet both daily needs and regional bioeconomy strategies. Dialogue between policymakers, scientists, business and civil society took place through interviews, web-based consultations, workshops and other events.
‘Throughout the project we designed and implemented a wide range of activities to engage stakeholders and the public in development of the European bioeconomy,’ says Zoritza Kiresiewa of the Ecologic Institute in Germany, the project coordinator. ‘One of our key outputs is our report on the lessons learned from BIOSTEP, which makes recommendations for future stakeholder and public engagement with the aim of maximising the impact of EU research and innovation.’
These recommendations – which include providing more background information on the bioeconomy concept at exhibitions, tailoring engagement activities to national and regional contexts and contemporary policy discussions and involving local authorities in living lab-style activities – are already being put into practice.
‘The BIOSTEP outputs will play a crucial role in our new Horizon 2020 project, called BE-Rural,’ says Kiresiewa. ‘It focuses on biobased rural and regional development strategies and builds on our experience with bioeconomy engagement tools and regional bioeconomy roadmaps.’