Rais­ing aware­ness of the bioeconomy

The European Com­mis­sion set out the chal­lenge and oppor­tun­ity in a Com­mu­nic­a­tion launched last year, ​“Innov­at­ing for Sus­tain­able Growth: a Bioeconomy for Europe”. This set the goal of mov­ing to a low-emis­sions eco­nomy, integ­rat­ing demands for sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture and fish­er­ies, food secur­ity, and the sus­tain­able use of renew­able bio­lo­gic­al resources for indus­tri­al pur­poses, while ensur­ing biod­iversity and envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion. The over­all aim is to move the European eco­nomy towards great­er and more sus­tain­able use of renew­able resources, build­ing on research, innov­a­tion and invest­ment. Anti­cip­a­tion and upgrad­ing of know­ledge and skills and bet­ter match­ing of skills and jobs are key to the suc­cess of the bioeconomy strategy in deliv­er­ing growth and new employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies in Europe. Already the EU bioeconomy has a turnover of nearly EUR 2 tril­lion and employs more than 22 mil­lion people, account­ing for 9 % of total employ­ment in the EU. But action will be needed to sup­port its growth. A big­ger bioeconomy will require policy makers at nation­al and EU levels to be pre­pared with the know­ledge and skills neces­sary to devel­op and adapt policies to sup­port its expan­sion. To date, very few such oppor­tun­it­ies exist. An expand­ing bioeconomy will also require com­mu­nic­a­tion skills to effect­ively dis­cuss the nuanced com­plex­it­ies of mod­ern bioeconomy with the pub­lic and to engage civil soci­ety. Invest­ment, research, innov­a­tion and skills are seen as key areas of focus to ensure growth and fur­ther integ­ra­tion of the bioeconomy sec­tors. In addi­tion imple­ment­ing mul­tidiscip­lin­ary edu­ca­tion pro­grammes, encour­aging mobil­ity, and organ­ising the devel­op­ment of new bioeconomy cur­riculum in uni­ver­sit­ies and provid­ing new train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for those in high but also low skilled jobs. With this mind, a con­fer­ence ​“New skills for a European Bioeconomy” was hos­ted recently by the European Com­mis­sion. The con­fer­ence brought togeth­er bioeconomy and edu­ca­tion and train­ing stake­hold­ers to dis­cuss the role of skills devel­op­ment in driv­ing and facil­it­at­ing the growth of the bioeconomy and seiz­ing the employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies that this implies. The con­fer­ence dis­cussed the new skills needed for aca­demia, industry and primary pro­du­cers; the path­ways for their acquis­i­tion; as well as how those new skills, com­pet­ences and capa­cit­ies could be optim­ally put to work to drive change and devel­op new mod­els for the future of the bioeconomy sec­tors. The con­clu­sions will be presen­ted at a bioeconomy stake­hold­er con­fer­ence, planned to take place in Dub­lin on 14 – 15^th Feb­ru­ary 2013. The debates of the con­fer­ence are expec­ted to provide use­ful inputs for future activ­it­ies under the EU’s next research fund­ing pro­gramme, Hori­zon 2020. Source: European Commission