As part of its contribution to the European Commission’s public consultation "Towards a circular, regenerative and competitive bioeconomy", Ecologic Institute has actively supported the policy discourse through targeted publications and strategic engagement. Developed under the Horizon Europe projects SCALE-UP and 3-CO, these outputs reflect concrete regional experience and promote a transition that respects ecological boundaries, strengthens regional governance, and ensures social inclusion.

The European bioeconomy has great potential to support climate, biodiversity, and development goals. Yet rural actors – farmers, SMEs, and local authorities – often face barriers to participation, from lack of knowledge to limited funding access. Four EU projects – RuralBioUp, SCALE-UP, BioRural, and MainstreamBIO – have released joint recommendations for an updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy.

This policy brief is a product of the SCALE-UP project that aims to serve as an input to the public consultation on the revision of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy.

The bioeconomy concept presents an attractive framework for policymakers in Europe, as it holds the potential to foster innovations that match specific community needs with regionally available resources. The SCALE-UP project aims to enhance the capacity and expertise of multi-actor partnerships to accelerate the development of market-ready bio-based products and services while facilitating their successful market deployment. Additionally, SCALE-UP strengthens collaboration among primary producers, SMEs, industry clusters, social actors, and policymakers, promoting a cohesive approach to innovation.

The Ecologic Institute-led SCALE-UP project played a central role in the European Rural Circular Bioeconomy Conference (EuRCBC), held on 13 and 14 May 2025, at Comet Louise in Brussels. As a member of the Rural Bioeconomy Alliance, SCALE-UP – together with five other EU-funded projects – brought together stakeholders from local communities, policymaking, industry, and rural regions to explore concrete pathways for accelerating Europe's rural bioeconomy. Representatives from Ecologic Institute – Holger Gerdes, Zoritza Kiresiewa and Gerardo Anzaldúa – delivered insightful presentations and contributed to dynamic panel discussions.

The SCALE-UP consortium organised a thematic conference in the frame of Bio360, which took place on 5 and 6 February 2025 in Nantes, France. The international trade fair, dedicated to advancing the bioeconomy, drew more than 450 exhibitors and 40+ conferences featuring pioneering solutions in bio-based materials, circular agriculture, and renewable energy. As the coordinator of the SCALE-UP project, Ecologic Institute played a key role in bringing together innovators, investors, farmers, and researchers to discuss sustainable bio-based solutions.

On 31 October 2024, Work Stream 7 “Balancing socio-economic and environmental objectives: Indicators, tools and practical insights” of the SCALE-UP training programme convened its first session. The aim was to present and discuss monitoring frameworks, indicator sets and participatory tools that enable regional stakeholders to reconcile potentially competing social, economic and ecological goals within the bioeconomy. Holger Gerdes and Zoritza Kiresiewa (Ecologic Institute) welcomed 43 bioeconomy stakeholders – from SCALE-UP's focal regions and beyond – and outlined how a functional framework is needed to navigate trade-offs and embed bio-based solutions in a sustainable, regenerative and just regional bioeconomy.

On 12 December 2024, Work Stream 7 of the SCALE-UP training programme convened its final session. Seventy-two bioeconomy stakeholders from SCALE-UP's focal regions and beyond gathered to review key outcomes and identify priorities for the EU Bioeconomy Strategy update. Zoritza Kiresiewa (Ecologic Institute) opened the session by emphasizing two objectives: first, to examine critical topics – such as regulatory alignment, producer integration, and resource competition – that will shape the future EU Bioeconomy Strategy; and second, to reflect on the cumulative insights generated by SCALE-UP over the past months and their relevance for policy design.

The overall goal of SCALE-UP is to support regional multi-actor partnerships, consisting of private businesses, governments and policymakers, civil society organisations, and researchers in identifying and scaling-up innovative and sustainable bio-based value chains that build on regional resources. Through its approach, SCALE-UP will adapt, implement and evaluate tools to help regional actors to overcome the apparent bottlenecks towards fully exploiting bioeconomy potentials in their region.