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Knowledge category: Projects

emPOWERing regional stakeholders for realising the full potential of european BIOeconomy

Updated on 31.05.2023

The EU-funded POWER4BIO project aims at empowering regional stakeholders to boost the transition towards bioeconomy regions in Europe by providing them with the necessary tools, instruments and guidance to develop and implement sound sustainable bioeconomy strategies.

Acronym: POWER4BIO
Countries: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovakia
Project website: https://power4bio.eu/
Start and end date: 01.10.2018 - 31.03.2021
Budget: 2 969 894 EUR
Funding source: Horizon 2020

More information

The danger posed by climate change has led governments and organisations to seek out novel green solutions that could help hinder its effects. Unfortunately, transitioning into a bioeconomy isn’t easy for most stakeholders, and there’s no set methodology available.


POWER4BIO will define a methodology based on a 3-steps approach (stakeholders engagement, regional analysis and strategy development) to guide European regions when preparing and reviewing their regional bioeconomy strategy and its associated implementation plan (roadmap), and which will be ultimately integrated in a Bioregional Strategy Accelerator Toolkit.


POWER4BIO will also develop a catalogue of bio-based business models, including best practice examples, to support regions understand, identify and select the most adequate bio-based solutions for developing their bioeconomy. POWER4BIO will issue recommendations to use and align the main funding instruments and policies in Europe to support bioeconomy business models.


Moreover, POWER4BIO will rely on a comprehensive programme to foster mutual learning and intra- and interregional collaboration and networking among regional stakeholders to ensure knowledge transfer across sectors and regions, and to jointly develop and complement different sustainable bioeconomy value chains within ten participant regions member of the consortium – five of which coming from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – from nine different countries.


Finally, POWER4BIO will design and deliver an ambitious training programme to increase the skills and capacity of the regional stakeholders in several important aspects of the bioeconomy (sustainability in the bio-based value chains, synergies in funding instruments, technology transfer and entrepreneurship, etc.).


All in all, the potential brought in the project is huge, considering that the ten participant regions represent a population of around 88 million people, a GDP of EUR 2460 billion and an area of almost 450 000 km2.

Relevance for Circular Systemic Solutions

The methodology for regional bioeconomy strategy development is presented in a format of guidelines, based on literature review and experiences collected with POWER4BIO five Western (WE) regions about their own experiences on regional bioeconomy strategies. All of the developed tools were applied by the project to support five CEE regions with identifying barriers and challenges to regional bioeconomy as well as with the development of their regional bioeconomy strategies. Based on the defined strategies, the project also supported CEE regions in further development of their regional implementation plans (roadmaps). The developed methodology and approaches to identifying the status of regional bioeconomy are useful tools, which other regions can draw inspiration from and even replicate to develop their own regional strategies and implementation plans. The developed approaches can support a region in the process of identifying where the biggest potential for local bioeconomy lies and what intervention areas for a local Circular Systemic Solution can potentially be.

Main results and lessons learnt

The project produced several useful outputs, including:
 

  • key performance indicators to evaluate regional bioeconomies, and a report that compiled key performance indicators for the short and medium-term bioeconomy potential assessment (https://power4bio.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/POWER4BIO_D2.2_Key-performance-indicators-to-evaluate-regional-bioeconomies_FV.pdf);
  • recommendations for the use of existing tools when developing regional bioeconomy strategies, and a report that presents an inventory of most interesting existing tools for supporting the analysis of the different aspects of a regional bioeconomy;
  • an overview of suitable regional policies to support bio-based business models; a report that presented an overview of the type of policies that can regulate and stimulate the development of a bioeconomy in a direction that is environmentally and economically sustainable; an overview of barriers to and opportunities for successful application of regional policies aimed at supporting or stimulating a bio-based economy (BBE); and an overview of the EU policy instruments that have been developed in the last decade directing, setting definitions and goals, and supporting development of the bio-based economy in Europe;
  • summaries of five new regional bioeconomy strategies (CEE regions; https://power4bio.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/POWER4BIO_D5.3_Summaries-of-5-new-regional-bioeconomy-strategies_20201111_FV.pdf); and summaries of five new regional implementation plans (CEE regions; https://power4bio.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/D5.4-Summaries-of-5-new-regional-bioeconomy-strategies.pdf);
  • summary report on specific interventions, a report featuring five Western and South European regions participating in POWER4BIO presents the regional status regarding bioeconomy, encountered challenges and specific interventions taken by the regions themselves and/or recommended during the development of the project. The interventions have been developed in the following categories: mobilisation and cooperation among stakeholders; training skills and expertise; policy framework and legislation; funding and financial instruments; business development and markets; and biomass supply, availability, information and monitoring.

Horizon programme(s) and/or topic(s)

Programme:

 

  • H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Topic:

 

  • RUR-09-2018 - Realising the potential of regional and local bio-based economies

Responsible organisation and contact details

FUNDACION CIRCE CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION DE RECURSOS Y CONSUMOS ENERGETICOS


Contact the project: https://power4bio.eu/contact

Project consortium partners

DBFZ DEUTSCHES BIOMASSEFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH, STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH, META GROUP SRL, EPC - PROJEKTGESELLSCHAFT FUR KLIMA NACHHALTIGKEIT KOMMUNIKATION MBH GEMEINNUTZIG, DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL SA, BAY ZOLTAN ALKALMAZOTT KUTATASI KOZHASZNU NONPROFIT KFT., Ukrainian National Forestry University, CONSEJERIA DE AGRICULTURA ,PESCA, AGUA Y DESARROLLO RURAL, MAZOWIECKA AGENCJA ENERGETYCZNA SPZOO, JIHOCESKA UNIVERZITA V CESKYCH BUDEJOVICICH, CHEMIE CLUSTER BAYERN GMBH, SPRING SUSTAINABLE PROCESSES AND RESOURCES FOR INNOVATION AND NATIONAL GROWTH, VLAAMSE GEWEST, SLOVENSKA POLNOHOSPODARSKA UNIVERZITA V NITRE, EUROPEAN CHEMICAL REGIONS NETWORK, AKI AGRARKOZGAZDASAGI INTEZET NONPROFIT KFT

Sectors

CEAP2 key product value chain

CEAP2 key product value chain

CEAP2 key product value chain

e.g. chemicals, cosmetics, bio-based industries

e.g. B2B services

e.g. healthcare

including bio-based economy

Territories involved

large 500 000-200 000, medium 200 000-50 000, and small cities 50 000-5 000

large metropolitan area >1.5 million, metropolitan area 1.5 million-500 000

predominantly urban regions, intermediate and predominantly rural regions, refer to TERCET typology NUTS 3 region