After 40 months of collaboration, the BE-Rural project concluded with its Final Conference, held in Frombork, Poland, from 11 to 14 July 2022. Approximately 40 project members and regional bioeconomy stakeholders – representing research organisations, universities, cluster associations, local action groups and regional authorities from eight EU Member States and candidate countries – gathered to reflect on BE-Rural's achievements.

Within the framework of the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020, Holger Gerdes and Zoritza Kiresiewa, together with the POWER4BIO project, organized a breakout session on "Local-Level Bioeconomy" on 18 November 2020. This session formed part of the workshop "Rebooting the economy – sustainability, growth, and climate action delivered by the bioeconomy," which the European Commission's DG RTD hosted in collaboration with BE-Rural, POWER4BIO, and other partners. Holger and Zoritza took charge of the program design: they introduced BE-Rural, implemented participatory methods, and coordinated the flow via digital platforms so that more than 30 participants engaged interactively.

A democratic dialogue with a broad spectrum of stakeholders and the society is considered necessary for the transformation to a sustainable bio-based economy. As such, several dedicated bioeconomy strategies across Europe and beyond outline objectives towards broader stakeholder and public engagement. In this book chapter Zoritza Kiresiewa, Laurens Duin and Holger Gerdes address the degree of participation and the role of the individual actor groups and society in strategy development processes and recommend concrete actions for more inclusive and effective stakeholder and public engagement.

BE Rural developed and piloted a new framework to help decision makers consider ecological limits when drafting regional bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps, and with this to contribute to Priority 3 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy: "Understand the ecological boundaries of the bioeconomy".

This report provides the context and justification for the development of BE-Rural's Sustainability Screening, a description of its methodological procedure, and the syntheses of results from the two experimental implementations of the approach in the Stara Zagora and Vidzeme regions, which are included in full as annexes to this report. The last chapters present the main lessons learned from these two pilots and the overall conclusions of the task.

Rural regions in Southeastern and Eastern Europe are facing multiple challenges such as a rural exodus, aging populations, a declining industrial base and low innovation performance. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. In response to this, stakeholders in the five BE-Rural regions developed bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps for enhanced rural development. This publication presents short summaries of the regional strategies and roadmaps focusing on the regional context in terms of available natural resources, the social, economic and political context, the strategy development process and the priorities outlined in the strategies.

The objective of the online event is to explore the extent to which the implementation of a bioeconomy concept can leverage the reactivation of regional economies across Europe.

Tarpey, J., Beusch, C. 2020: Small-Scale Technologies and Business Models for Regional Bioeconomies. Joint Guidance Document for Stakeholders. Ecologic Institute, Berlin.

With the recent update of its Bioeconomy Strategy, the guidance of its advisory bodies and the engagement of regional groups and representatives, Europe has found a new track towards a sustainable bioeconomy, building on the notion that regions are the most appropriate territorial level at which to implement bioeconomy strategies. The BE-Rural project incorporates this regional focus into its core vision, putting its regional Open Innovation Platforms (OIPs) front and center in the process of studying the potential for regional bioeconomies, and articulating and implementing strategies to make them a reality.

This report outlines the conceptual framework of BE-Rural and provides practical guidance to the design and implementation of the five regional Open Innovation Platforms (OIPs) within BE-Rural. This conceptual framework aims to provide guidance regarding the overall ambition of BE-Rural, and the foundations by which the project will operate throughout its duration. The first part of this document describes the context, objectives and regional focus to be taken within the project. The second part outlines key concepts and founding principles that lay at the heart of the project. Following this, the conceptual framework of BE-Rural is presented and discussed.

In September 2019, the European Commission organized the 'European Research & Innovation Days' to shape the EU's future research and innovation policy. Holger Gerdes, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, had been invited to take part in a panel discussion, which focused on the challenges and potentials of bio-based products and innovations. The video recordings from the session can be watched online.

The bioeconomy carries the promise to offer important opportunities for rural employment and regional added value. The transition towards a more efficient and fossil-free economy should actively involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders and citizens in order to provide them with the opportunity to participate as co-creators in the design of regional strategies and to promote a sustainable use of agricultural, forest and marine ecosystems. Building on this idea, the overall goal of BE-Rural is to explore the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting relevant actors in the participatory development of bioeconomy strategies, roadmaps and business models. The project will focus on regions in five modest and moderate innovator countries: Latvia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.