AseBio joins the ShapingBio project to accelerate innovation in Europe's bioeconomy
The initiative, which includes entities from a dozen countries, aims to find responses to European climate priorities with bio-based products.
AseBio met this week, in Berlin, with the participants of the European project ShapingBio. Its main objective is to support and accelerate innovation in bioeconomy in countries such as Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, France and Denmark, among others.
The set of actions, which will last 3 years and began in September, provide recommendations for measures and best practices on how to strengthen this innovation ecosystem, and how to improve its sustainability and resilience to find responses to Europe's food and energy challenges. This project aims to increase the impact of the bioeconomy with respect to the objectives set out in the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Union's (EU) Green Deal policy priorities and the EU's climate commitment for 2030 and 2050.
"This initiative aims to address current key challenges for the transformation towards the circular bioeconomy and sustainable food systems, such as the fragmentation of activities, for example, or the insufficient coherence between the different policy levels," added Sven Wydra, project coordinator. “In ShapingBio, we will offer new ideas, best practices and many opportunities for stakeholder interaction in the bioeconomy and to improve the information base," he added.
The potential of Spanish biotechnology
41% of AseBio members' launches in 2021 were bioproducts, according to data compiled for the AseBio 2021 Report. These companies working in bioeconomy seek to boost innovation in this area and align policies among all European countries. In this vein, in July last year, the association also knocked on the doors of ministries in Spain to raise awareness among public institutions and society of the benefits of bio-based products such as biofuels, biomaterials and bioplastics for our health and that of the planet.
Biotechnology acts as an essential bridge between different sectors such as agriculture, food and cosmetics and has an impact on 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. "At AseBio we want to position bio-based products in a new, more sustainable and resilient growth model. In these products, Europe has a real alternative to find responses to crises such as the energy or food crises", said Ion Arocena, CEO of AseBio.