Advancing Sustainable Circular Bioeconomy in Central and Eastern European countries: BIOEASTsUP

Project Information

BIOEASTsUP

Grant agreement ID: 862699

DOI

10.3030/862699

Project closed

EC signature date 4 September 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 3 000 000,00

EU contribution

€ 2 999 837,50

Coordinated by

INSTYTUT UPRAWY NAWOZENIA I GLEBOZNAWSTWA, PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT BADAWCZY
Poland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIOEASTsUP (Advancing Sustainable Circular Bioeconomy in Central and Eastern European countries: BIOEASTsUP)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The low performance and visibility of knowledge-based agriculture, aquaculture and forestry in the bioeconomy in CEE regions is an issue which has been widely recognized. Policy makers know the background of the bioeconomy concept and global challenges such as climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, coupled with a growing demand for food, feed and energy. This forces authorities to seek new ways of producing and consuming. New solutions are expected with the development of bioeconomy. Yet there is a need to engage all relevant policy making institutions on the national level in bioeconomy development and to involve them in macro-regional bioeconomy networks.

The BIOEAST political initiative (Central And Eastern European Initiative For Knowledge-Based Agriculture, Aquaculture And Forestry In The Bioeconomy) was initiated by the Visegrad Group Countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, subsequently joined by Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Estonia, Romania, Slovenia.
BIOEASTsUP is an H2020 project which was implemented Oct 2019 – March 2023 to support the BIOEAST initiative, the BIOEAST Vision 2030 and its Action Plan for the transition of 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) to bioeconomy. The main objectives were:
- triggering strategic thinking at governmental level and paving the way for development of national circular bioeconomy strategies;
- developing a macro-regional framework and a bioeconomy Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for the BIOEAST countries;
- facilitating evidence-based policy making by aggregating bioeconomy relevant statistical, quantitative and qualitative data;
- increasing the visibility of the bioeconomy within the quintuple helix in the BIOEAST region.

BIOEASTsUP mobilized the main actors of the bioeconomy macro-regional landscape. Policy documents have been elaborated, national policy makers and experts had been engaged in horizontal transnational peer discussion and internal evaluation process. The macro-regional SRIA has been developed in a bottom-up multi-actor approach, allowing current and future EU programs and calls to drill in the BIOEAST SRIA.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

National Platforms for Bioeconomy Development
Supported by the BIOEASTsUP project the 11 BIOEAST member countries have established national platforms setting the priorities for the development of the bioeconomy in each country, consisting of inter-ministerial groups (BAIMG) and National Stakeholder Groups (NSG). In total, more than 400 stakeholders have been engaged in completing orchestrated research and innovation gap analysis and the validation of other BIOEASTsUP reports.

Macro-regional structures in support of the BIOEAST initiative
Setting up the Advisory Council (AC) as an institutionalized structure of experts behind the BIOEAST Initiative provides long-term perspective for the whole macro-region.
The BIOEAST Thematic working groups (TWGs) as a long lasting and macro-regional thematic network have been created for better alignment of the research and innovation priorities among countries. Seven TWGs are already operational: Agroecology and Sustainable Yields, Bioenergy and New Value-Added Products, Food Systems, Forestry Value Chains, Fresh Water Based Bioeconomy, Bioeconomy education, and Biobased materials.
A Foresight report has been produced to provide a better understanding of existing and new trends which are important for the development of the BIOEAST macro-region’s bioeconomy.

The BIOEAST Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)
Seven core themes for the BIOEAST macro region were structured by the corresponding TWGs in Strategic Thematic Areas elaborating challenges, main research topics, expected outcome and subsequent impacts. The macroregional SRIA has been developed in co-creation with the BIOEAST stakeholders, validated and accepted by the BIOEAST Governing Board.

National bioeconomy concept papers
Eleven National Bioeconomy Strategy concept papers have been elaborated in a coordinated process as a basis for further development and implementation of national bioeconomy strategies. They provide policy support with complex tailor-made assessment, elaborated national roadmaps and action plans. They put forward the necessity of paradigm shift: towards holistic thinking and scientific crafting of bottom-up strategy for the valorisation of biomass as a renewable natural resource. The inter-sectorial focus drives both visionary thinking and strategic planning required to strengthen the systemic thinking on the environmental, social and economic sustainability in the production and processing of bioresources.

Visibility
The BIOEASTsUP project put a great emphasis on the visibility of bioeconomy, engaging widely in consultations stakeholders from eleven countries to co-create strategic documents and validate results.
On March 15-16, 2023, the BIOEAST Macro-Region High level Congress was organised in Warsaw under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Congress officially announced the newly developed BIOEAST SRIA and the eleven bioeconomy concept papers. The conference organized science-policy discussions to highlight key thematic priorities. It informed national and European policy makers on well assessed and validated key macro-regional priorities for bioeconomy development in CEE.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The BIOEAST SRIA provides great benefits to the macro-region for the empowerment of R&I system with targeted research for new high-quality knowledge, human capital formation, cooperation, and networking to unlock sustainable circular bioeconomy potential.

The national bioeconomy concept papers have triggered strategic thinking at the country level and serve as state-of-the-art policy documents laying grounds for bioeconomy strategies development, a process which has already started in a few countries.

Extensive reports on the state of biobased economies, the state-of-the-art innovation gaps and needs of the bioeconomy related R&I in the BIOEAST macro-region are available to advisors and policy analysts to support evidence-based strategies and policies.

The BIOEASTsUP project enabled launching the first two national bioeconomy BIOEAST HUBs in the Czech Republic (BIOEAST HUB CR) and in Poland (The Ministry of Agriculture). In Hungary the project helped the creation of a national multi-actor platform for laying the foundation of policy-science dialogue on industrial biotechnology and the development of innovative biobased-material value chains. These new working bodies of the BIOEAST Initative are acting as horizontal enablers engaging citizens societies and businesses in the countries of the BIOEAST macro-region.

BIOEASTsUP also provided targeted recommendations on how to catalyze the development of bioeconomy R&I policies and CAP policy in the BIOEAST countries for the 2021-2027 programming period.

Bioeconomy has a great potential to create jobs in rural areas across the regions of the CEE countries. Current efforts of all countries to secure food production can lead into sound support to the local food industries. This would generate distributed biomass potential from the food production cycle. Bioeconomy is offering a chance to use this biomass as a source material in creating higher added value products paving the way towards sustainable production and consumption and innovative business solutions.

BIOEASTsUP, Sofia, Nov 17-18, 2022

BIOEASTsUP kick-off meeting, Pulawy, Oct 2019

BIOEASTsUP 7th project partner official meeting, Sofia, Nov 2022