Sharing success stories and advancing regional strategies on bioeconomy

Brussels, 26.6.2019

On 26 June 2019, the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN), partner in POWER4BIO, organised a thematic event on “Realising the bioeconomy potential in European regions: policy and practice”, with the participation of Jácint Horváth (HU/PES), member of the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The event gathered various regional policy, cluster and business representatives to share knowledge and on-the-ground experiences on bioeconomy strategies and business developments.

Contributing with concrete actions

The chemical industry in regions in the ECRN network is an integral part of the bioeconomy value chains and bio-based chemicals sector is predicted to grow with nearly 17 % in the next 10 years. Speakers at the ECRN event highlighted that small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as carriers of innovation, are at the core of the transition to bioeconomy. Regions have undertaken various initiatives, funded projects, and created platforms to support SMEs with the specific challenges that they face.

Challenges 

The main challenges for all the cases presented during the ECRN event are both how to create structured collaboration between sectors, such as with the primary sector in order to connect urban and rural areas, and how to develop successful market incentives and create larger market demand for the bioeconomy.

Inter-regional cooperation is to be enhanced as well and CoR member Jácint Horváth highlights in his opinion that networks like ECRN need to be involved “in knowledge transfer systems” in the future, so that they can systematically facilitate the knowledge exchange among European regions. 

Conclusions

ECRN will continue to support its member regions in their commitments to achieve a holistic EU regulatory framework that matches the principle of sustainability and to enhance inter-regional knowledge exchange and project cooperation.

The full report of the event can be downloaded here.

For more information about this event, including the presentation of the invited speakers, please visit the ECRN website:

http://ecrn.net/sharing-success-stories-and-advancing-regional-strategies-on-bioeconomy/

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