<p>Reconciling economic priorities with biodiversity conservation remains a key challenge for EU Member States in their efforts to pursue sustainable growth. A workshop on "Linking Biodiversity to National Economic and Social Priorities in EU Member States" was held by Ecologic Institute and IEEP in Berlin (Germany) on 19 July 2017 to explore this challenge in more detail and identify opportunities for unlocking nature's potential to contribute to socio-economic objectives. The presentations are available for download.</p>

<p>As part of the REFRESH Food Waste 2017 Conference the Food Waste Innovation Incubator Day took place on 19 May 2017. The workshop brought together food waste stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, companies of the food industry and policy makers.</p>&#13;&#13;&#13;

<p>Despite extensive discussions, no agreement has been found regarding a common soil indicator for measuring Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in Germany. Major obstacles include low data availability and the effort needed to measure physical soil conditions regularly. During an expert workshop on 27 March 2017 in Berlin, a new and simpler approach, developed by Ecologic Institute in cooperation with the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), was discussed to determine its suitability for LDN. The core idea of the approach is to measure land use and land use change, directly referring to soil quality in the sense of LDN. The workshop minutes are available for download.</p>&#13;

The Austrian government is currently in the process of developing a strategy for research, technology and innovation to support the emerging bioeconomy. Following this process, the development of a broader strategy is envisaged that comprises further policy domains and sectors. Against this background, the questions arise regarding what role civil society organisations should play in this process and how they can contribute to shaping the further development of the Austrian bioeconomy.

Since the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 countries worldwide have started processes towards the implementation of the goals and targets. Some of the targets are often already part of national strategies and instruments. Others are new and still need to be further specified to national circumstances – target 15.3 and the concept of "Land Degradation Neutrality" is one of these.

The second BONUS Soils2Sea workshop in the Swedish case study region brought together project partners from BONUS Soils2Sea, as well as an engaged group of Polish and Swedish farmers, representatives from the community Mykanow, a representative from a fishing association, the Länsstyrelsen Skåne (The County Administrative Board Skåne), and Havs- och vattenmyndigheten (Swedish Marine and Water Authority). Highlights of the workshop were a film screening of a Soils2Sea documentary recently shot in Poland, presentations on the Tullstorp river restoration project, and a world cafe stakeholder discussion on different governance scenarios to regulate nutrients. The workshop was followed by a field trip to the Tullstorp river, where the different restoration measures and the recently created wetlands could be experienced hands-on.

Circular Economy promises a lower resource and energy use, new employment sector and economic growth. However, can an European circular economy fulfill these expectations and what environmental, social and economic impact does a transition to such an economy bear? The project CIRCULAR IMPACTS will answer these questions by collecting and assessing the existent knowledge base. On 27 October 2016, Lucas Porsch from Ecologic Institute presented the goals of the project. The slides are available for download.

Impact Assessment is an essential process in the world of policy-making. At the EU level, it is a requirement for every new policy project. UBA led a study to analyze the consideration for environmental impacts in these studies and whether there were lessons to learn for Germany. Ecologic Institute collaborated with Zurich-based INFRAS to scrutinize a sample of IAs published by the European Commission and analyze emerging trends. UBA and the consulting team then organized a workshop in Brussels to discuss their findings with representants of European Institutions (DG Environment, European Policy Research Service, Joint Research Center, etc.) and international IA experts. The presentation slides by Ecologic Institute and INFRAS are available for download.

The BioSTEP policy workshop focuses on local and regional businesses and their role in the regional bioeconomy. It explores a broader model of the bioeconomy (bottom-up, participatory) and discusses how small and medium-sized enterprises, civil-society organisations and further relevant actors can be engaged in the (further) development of a regional bioeconomy strategy in Scotland.

<p>The sixth workshop of the Forum was marked by the beginning of the 2nd management cycle of the Water Framework Directive. At the event, the results of the first management cycle with regard to the status of the fish fauna and the envisaged measures to improve this quality element were reflected. In this context, the assessment methods for the fish fauna in surface water bodies and the passability of barriers and the resulting measures were considered.</p>&#13;&#13;

On 13 September 2016, the expert workshop "Discussion of an assessment system for civil society initiatives to measure sustainability and transformative potential" took place in Berlin. At the workshop, about 30 participants from science, policy, foundations, and sustainability initiatives discussed the first draft of a criteria catalogue for measuring and presenting the societal benefit of niche sustainability initiatives, especially their sustainability and transformative potential. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the assessment system. In the workshop, the application of the criteria catalogue to two case studies was also presented. The criteria for estimating the sustainability potential, the transformative potential, the organizational capacity for action, and the scalability of the initiatives were developed from 13 political and scientific assessment systems and from transition literature.

In implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Germany has to deal with a range of new challenges. Achieving goals in land and soil protection, for example, cannot build on a long tradition of policymaking or on a solid basis of information and data for monitoring. An expert workshop together with the Federal Agency of Environment (UBA) and Federal Ministry of Environment (BMUB) on 6 July 2016 in Berlin sought to clarify how Germany can achieve "land degradation neutrality" domestically. Stephanie Wunder from Ecologic Institute presented results from a report, which served as the basis for intensive discussions among the participants.

In the last few years, transformation research has gained increasing attention as means of studying socio-ecological crises and radical change towards sustainability. Especially the transformative research mode, through which research actively engages in societal change processes, is intensely debated. This workshop, organized by DRIFT with support from Ecologic Institute, aimed at self-reflection on empirical and theoretical foci, frameworks and suitable research methods in transformation research. The workshop report is available for download.

Concluding four years of interdisciplinary collaboration and research, the BASE project brought together representatives working on climate adaptation policy at EU and Member State level, as well as local practitioners for an interactive day on climate change adaptation in Brussels. The main focus of the workshop was a series of policy observations that emerged from research in the BASE project. As a result another policy recommendation was developed which is available for download.

The workshop "Rostock 2050 – Measures for a post-carbon city, was the fourth and final workshop held in Rostock as part of the project Post-Carbon Cities in Europe: A Long-Term Outlook (POCACITO). In this workshop, the results of the modelling exercise undertaken by the POCACITO team were presented to and discussed with the stakeholders of the participation process in Rostock. The modellers had quantified the decided-upon measures and the ambitious measures of the post-carbon vision elaborated in the previous workshops. The results were presented in a "business-as-usual 2050" and a "post-carbon 2050" scenario. Learning from these results, the participants discussed the gaps remaining on the trajectory to a post-carbon future and which areas should be prioritised to be successful. Furthermore, a focus was on the question of how the EU or the national level could help the city of Rostock to reach its post-carbon goals.