Second POWER4BIO press release is published

15 January 2020

POWER4BIO cross-visits
The series of ten cross-visits to the POWER4BIO regions started in September

In September 2019, the series of ten POWER4BIO cross-visits has started with the first visit to Hungary. Until the end of POWER4BIO in March 2021, cross-visits to all ten POWER4BIO regions will be organised for project partners, regional stakeholders, policymakers and the members of the POWER4BIO Community of Interest. The POWER4BIO cross-visits offer great opportunities to receive information on business models, best practices, existing and potential value-chains as well as cross-border collaboration possibilities in the bioeconomy.

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 ten POWER4BIO regions. The main organiser of the event was the Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd., POWER4BIO representative of the Southern Great Plain region.

The visit started with a half-day “future thinking” workshop, in which the participants imagined a bioeconomy utopia. During the afternoon, a field visit was organised to the Pilze-Nagy Ltd. in Kecskemét to demonstrate a good practice example. The visitors were informed how biomass can be utilised 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. Several speakers from the fields of bioeconomy research, policy and administration discussed about policy conflicts for the bioeconomy and presented some good practices of the Hungarian bioeconomy. The symposium was followed by a round-table discussion where the role of bioeconomy in Hungary was discussed.

The second POWER4BIO cross-visit took place in Naples, Italy, 2 – 4 October 2019, and was organised by SPRING, representative of the Italian regions in POWER4BIO. On the first day, a dedicated POWER4BIO event presented the status of bioeconomy in those Italian regions involved in the project. Furthermore, the Italian bioeconomy strategy, available technologies in the bioeconomy and bioplastics fields were presented by representatives from industry and academia.

The following days, participants attended IFIB2019, the International Forum on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy. Co-organized by SPRING, with around 250 participants from 30 different countries, the forum represents a leading event on bioeconomy in Europe.

IFIB hosted innovative companies, leading bioeconomy clusters and research organisations and many other international bioeconomy stakeholders, giving to the participants information about different aspects, trends and technologies on bioeconomy in Europe.

On the last day, the Novamont R&D centre of Piana di Monte Verna was visited. Novamont is the Italian lead company for biodegradable and compostable bioplastic production. The R&D centre is focused on the development of industrial biotechnologies, such as the transformation of raw materials of renewable origin into molecules of industrial interest.

Upcoming POWER4BIO cross-visits take place in Bavaria (21 – 22 January 2020), Flanders (20 – 21 February 2020), Lviv (19 – 20 May 2020) and Central Germany (17 – 18 June 2020). The news section of the POWER4BIO website (www.power4bio.eu/news) is constantly updated and will provide further information about the upcoming cross-visits and the possibility to register.

For further information, please consult the POWER4BIO website and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.