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Launch of the European Bioeconomy Obser­vat­ory Pilot website

24.10.2014
On 8th Octo­ber, the European Com­mis­sion has launched the pilot web­site of the European Bioeconomy Obser­vat­ory, mark­ing the latest evid­ence of pro­gress towards mak­ing the European Bioeconomy Strategy a real­ity. The Obser­vat­ory is the first attempt to gath­er and present in one place vital data about the devel­op­ment of the bioeconomy. It will be a crit­ic­al resource for policy-makers, busi­ness people and oth­er stake­hold­ers design­ing the policies and invest­ments at nation­al and region­al level. An innov­at­ive bioeconomy is vital for the re-indus­tri­al­isa­tion of Europe and could pro­duce 1.6 mil­lion new jobs by 2020 and 90,000 by 2030 in the mari­time and bio-based chem­ic­al sec­tors alone.

What pro­gress has been made in imple­ment­ing the European Bioeconomy Strategy?

Adop­ted by the European Com­mis­sion in 2012, the European Bioeconomy Strategy aims to pave the way to a more innov­at­ive, resource-effi­cient and com­pet­it­ive eco­nomy that recon­ciles food secur­ity with the sus­tain­able use of renew­able bio­lo­gic­al resources for indus­tri­al and energy pur­poses. The strategy is built on three pil­lars: invest­ments in research, innov­a­tion and skills; rein­forced policy inter­ac­tion and stake­hold­er engage­ment; and the enhance­ment of mar­kets and com­pet­it­ive­ness in bioeconomy.
  1. Research, innov­a­tion and skills: Over €4 bil­lion is avail­able to sup­port bioeconomy-related research and innov­a­tion under Hori­zon 2020 – over twice the budget avail­able under the pre­vi­ous 7th Frame­work Pro­gramme. The res­ults of the first call for pro­pos­als under Soci­et­al Chal­lenge 2 of Hori­zon 2020 — ​“Food secur­ity, sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, mar­ine and mari­time research, and the bioeconomy” – will be pub­lished in Novem­ber. It included oppor­tun­it­ies to apply for fund­ing for research and innov­a­tion on sus­tain­able food secur­ity, on blue growth (unlock­ing the poten­tial of seas and oceans), and on cre­at­ing an innov­at­ive, sus­tain­able and inclus­ive bioeconomy.
  2. Policy inter­ac­tion and stake­hold­er engage­ment: In early 2013 the European Com­mis­sion ini­ti­ated a three-year pro­ject to set up the Bioeconomy Obser­vat­ory in order to reg­u­larly assess the pro­gress and impact of the bioeconomy. On the 8th Octo­ber, a pilot ver­sion of the Bioeconomy Obser­vat­ory web­site, includ­ing a first set of data on the bioeconomy, has been launched. The web­site, designed and man­aged by the Com­mis­sion’s in-house sci­ence ser­vice, the Joint Research Centre, will be fur­ther built up over time provid­ing policy-makers and stake­hold­ers with ref­er­ence data and ana­lyses for policy devel­op­ment and invest­ments in the bioeconomy. The Com­mis­sion has also estab­lished the European Bioeconomy Pan­el to sup­port inter­ac­tions among dif­fer­ent policy areas, sec­tors and stake­hold­ers in the bioeconomy. The Pan­el was cre­ated with 30 mem­bers rep­res­ent­ing busi­ness and pro­du­cers, policy-makers, the sci­entif­ic com­munity and civil society.
  3. Mar­kets and com­pet­it­ive­ness: The Bio-based Indus­tries Joint Tech­no­logy Ini­ti­at­ive is a Pub­lic-Private Part­ner­ship (PPP) between the EU and the Bio-based Indus­tries Con­sor­ti­um (BIC). A total of €3.7 bil­lion will be inves­ted in bio-based innov­a­tions over 2014 – 2020. The EU con­tri­bu­tion (Hori­zon 2020) will be €975 mil­lion, while the Bio-based Indus­tries Con­sor­ti­um will con­trib­ute €2,730 mil­lion (of which €1,755 mil­lion will be ded­ic­ated to addi­tion­al activ­it­ies such as Flag­ship pro­jects). As an emer­ging industry, it will be import­ant to use this PPP to lever­age cap­it­al mar­kets and addi­tion­al private and pub­lic funds (e.g. syn­er­gies with EU Struc­tur­al Funds) to top up exist­ing pub­lic and private com­mit­ments. It is ded­ic­ated to real­ising the European bioeconomy poten­tial, turn­ing bio­lo­gic­al residues and wastes into green­er every­day products through innov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies and biore­finer­ies. It should res­ult in at least 10 new bio-based value chains, and 5 advanced biore­finer­ies. The first call for pro­pos­als of the Bio-based Indus­tries Joint Tech­no­logy Ini­ti­at­ive was pub­lished in July 2014, with a clos­ing date of 15 October.

How is the bioeconomy good for Europe?

  • Innov­at­ive bio-based and food indus­tries are vital for the re-indus­tri­al­isa­tion of Europe and the food and drink industry is already the single largest man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor in the EU. Research and innov­a­tion can be lever­aged to cre­ate a new, resource-effi­cient indus­tri­al paradigm based on indus­tri­al sym­bi­os­is and col­lab­or­a­tion across tra­di­tion­al indus­tries – often tran­scend­ing tra­di­tion­al dis­tinc­tions between ser­vices and manufacturing.
  • The bioeconomy is also an import­ant source of new jobs – espe­cially at loc­al and region­al level, and in rur­al and coastal areas. It has been estim­ated that bio-based chem­ic­al pro­duc­tion could rep­res­ent 30% of all European chem­ic­al pro­duc­tion by 2030, up from just 2% in 2005, provid­ing 90,000 new jobs. Based on a coast­line 7 times longer than that of the US, the EU’s mari­time eco­nomy could provide 1.6 mil­lion new jobs by 2020.
  • Bio-energy and mar­ine energy will be an integ­ral part of Europe’s future energy secur­ity. Replace­ment of fossil raw mater­i­als with renew­able bio­lo­gic­al resources is an indis­pens­able com­pon­ent of a for­ward-look­ing cli­mate change policy.
  • Cli­mate change, extreme weath­er, the grow­ing world pop­u­la­tion, reduced access to crit­ic­al nutri­ents such as phos­phates – these are just some of the factors that could sig­ni­fic­antly increase the risk of a major dis­rup­tion of food sup­ply. The chal­lenges of food secur­ity are glob­al, and the EU has an import­ant role to play in address­ing them. [shor­tend]
Source: European Commission
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