First POWER4BIO cross-visit in Hungary

Budapest, September 25 and 26

The first POWER4BIO cross visit took place in Hungary, on 25-26 September 2019. Altogether, more than 50 experts participated, including Hungarian stakeholders and the representatives of the 10 regions of the POWER4BIO project. The main organiser of the event was the Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd., representative of the Southern Great Plain region.

The visit started with a half-day ”future thinking” workshop, in which the participants imagined a perfect world from the point of view of bioeconomy and tried to describe this perfect world regarding research, society, political and business sectors. During the afternoon, a field visit was organised to the Pilze-Nagy Ltd. in Kecskemét. The visitors were able to see a good practice, how the biomass can be utilized for mushroom production and in biogas plants. The first day was closed by a networking event in Lajosmizse.

The second day of the visit took place in Budapest, on the National Agriculture and Food Exhibition and Fair. Three companies, active in the field of bioeconomy, were visited: Herbária Zrt, Tungsram and Grapoila/Virgin Oil Press Kft. In the afternoon, the “Vision and collaboration opportunities of bioeconomy-related organisations” symposium was organised. First, the Hungarian Bioeconomy Cluster was introduced by Ákos Koós, representative of Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. Then, Dr Dries Maes (Administration of the Flemish Region, Department of Economics, Science and Innovation) talked about the policy conflicts for the bioeconomy. The Bioeconomy Group of Agricultural Chamber was introduced by Dr Adrienn Nagy. She showed some good practices of the Hungarian bioeconomy as well. The representative of Ministry of Agriculture, Ákos Kristóf talked about SCAR-AKIS and BIOEAST. The last presentation was given by the representative of Ministry of Innovation and Technology, Dr Barbara Botos, who showed the possible connection between the bioeconomy and climate policy. After the presentations, a round-table discussion took place, with the participation of the above-mentioned presenters and Dr Nora Hatvani, research fellow of the Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. Participants talked about the importance of bioeconomy in Hungary, as well as the good practices of the field.