On 19 February 2020, POWER4BIO partners met in Brussels for the Project’s General Assembly and Steering Meeting. The event was hosted by the Flanders government that is also participating in POWER4BIO with its Department of Economy, Science and Innovation.
POWER4BIO is a project, launched in 2018, aiming at boosting the transition towards bioeconomy in European regions. The project provides regional stakeholders with tools, instruments and guidance to develop and implement sound sustainable bioeconomy strategies in their territories.
Bio-based economy is an emerging sector with huge potential for the European economy, moving roughly €2 billion and providing employment for almost 22 million people across Europe. Nevertheless, there are still many European regions that do not take full advantage of their potential in yielding sustainable products instead of fossil-based resources.
With 17 institutions from 11 countries across Europe taking part in the project, including ECRN, POWER4BIO is unleashing the bioeconomy potential in regions by analysing and stocktaking bio-based solutions, supporting regional actors to overcome barriers and to build sound policies, strengthening interregional cooperation and building a shared regional vision.
The General Assembly began with an opening speech by Ignacio Martín and María Izquierdo from the Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE Foundation), leader of the Project, who provided an overview on the progress, achievements and planned actions for the next year.
Among the achievements presented, there is the publishing of an online catalogue collecting existing bio-based solutions in partner regions that have potential for market uptake and a high technical readiness level (TRL) for bioenergy production, biomaterials, biochemicals as well as for food and feed. The catalogue is an essential tool to help stakeholders in the field of bioeconomy to get an overview of available options to convert a wide range of biomass feedstocks into an array of bio-based products.
Moreover, POWER4BIO is planning to hold a series of training sessions for regional stakeholders to spread bioeconomy knowledge at national and regional level. A total of four training divided into four thematic areas are scheduled: biochemistry (June 2020 in Halle, Germany), food (October 2020 in Andalusia, Spain), bioenergy (November 2020 in Czech Republic) and biomaterials (January 2021 in Poland).
Lastly, another product developed by the Project is the Bioeconomy Strategy Accelerator Toolkit (BSAT), a platform where all results and materials produced in POWER4BIO will be made available beyond the lifespan of the project.
