During the last twenty years, EU policymakers have placed high priority on the expansion of bio-based value chains based on indigenous feedstock to reduce use of petrochemicals, mitigate climate change, reduce import dependency and promote local economies. This is evident from a multitude of EU policy initiatives and research programmes. While data and methods measuring the contribution of the bioeconomy to the societal objectives is relatively well developed for traditional sectors and products (i.e. food, feed, pulp & paper, and bioenergy chains), the same is not true for emerging innovative industries, such as chemistry and materials sectors that process biomass into bio-based intermediate and end products.
To understand the development of the bioeconomy and trade-offs caused by different (often conflicting) policies, it is important to monitor its economic, environmental and social impacts; measure the different kinds of biomass used and needed; and develop future scenarios with adjusted conditions.
To achieve this, we need appropriate data and ways to analyze them. Therefore, the overall objective of the BioMonitor project was to establish a statistics and modeling framework for the bioeconomy that would be supported by a stakeholders and be compatible with and implementable in existing systems of statistical and customs offices, laboratories, and industries. The BioMonitor framework enables the quantification of the bioeconomy and its economic, environmental, and social impacts in the EU and its Member States via various indicators.
We successfully built the BioMonitor Model Toolbox that contains newly developed (BioMAT) and enhanced analysis tools (e.g. MAGNET, AGMEMOD, EFI-GTM, and EFISCEN) for bio-based materials and bio-chemicals. In addition, we completed a number of case-studies that provided important inputs into the quantitative models and helped contextualize their results.