Fostering ‘Bioeconomy Strategy’ through synergies: managerial implications from Interreg Europe

Abstract

Back on 2012, the European Commission launched and adopted the Bioeconomy Strategy in order to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and meet its energy and climate change policy targets. In this vein, the concept of bioeconomy, namely the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, is multi-faceted in terms of ambitions, initiators, and barriers, involving several types of stakeholders, in different (local, regional and national) settings. This paper sheds light on the regional level of bioeconomic development, focusing on initiatives which are financially supported by EU. More specifically, we conduct secondary research on 20 regional schemes funded by the Interreg Europe Initiative, and we analyse /compare the above case-studies with respect to 26 variables. Based on this evidence, we discuss the effectiveness, the greenness and the innovativeness of the selected projects, and we evaluate the contribution and the potential of (funded) cross-regional synergies as a policy tool in the transition towards a bio-based model of sustainable development.

Techno-economic Assessment Of An Olive Mill Wastewater (OMWW) Biorefinery In The Context Of Circular Bioeconomy

“…In particular, it focuses on bio-based products and services, seeking to substitute the current linear material and energy flows with circular loops [Carus & Dammer, 2018;Giampetro, 2019;Stegman et al, 2020]. In this direction, CBE addresses several widely publicized sustainable development goals, and it has entered the agenda of policy plans in all continents, resulting in a growing number of initiatives implemented at different geographic levels (local, regional, national, and supranational) [Mouzakitis & Tsoulfas, 2019;Nizami et al, 2017;Salvador et al 2022]. The concept of biorefinery (de Jong et al, 2012; Mohan et al (2016), where biofuels, chemicals, and a wide spectrum of high value bioproducts are produced from biomass using several conversion technologies [Cherubini, 2010;Mohan et al (2019)] constitutes a major step towards CBE.…”