1

NEWSLETTER 4

31 October 2015

Contents Welcome to BERST .................................................................................................................. 1

News from BERST team ........................................................................................................... 2

Successful BERST end-conference .............................................................................................. 2

Key note speakers ................................................................................................................ 3

BERST products.................................................................................................................... 5

Upcoming events .................................................................................................................... 7

BERST posters and webinars ..................................................................................................... 7

Welcome to BERST

We are pleased to present to you the 4th and last issue of the e-newsletter of BERST, the acronym

of BioEconomy Regional Strategy Toolkit, which is a Coordination and Supply Action project

supported by EU funding under the FP7 framework. Private and public stakeholders from EU

regions and academics from EU universities and research institutes work together with the

ambition to deploy the bioeconomy potential in European regions.

The BERST project duration is from December 2013 to December 2015. The BERST consortium

consists of 7 regional partners from Finland, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece; and 8

research partners from United Kingdom, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

This e-newsletter addresses researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders from within and

outside the project who are interested in the latest research activities in the area of regional

bioeconomy. This last Newsletter is mostly devoted to the BERST end-conference that took

place on 14 October 2015 in Brussels. You can also visit our website www.berst.eu. Read

more: BERST flyer.

BERST consortium, Terneuzen 2015

2

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

News from BERST team

Successful BERST end-conference The BERST project duration is from December 2013 to December 2015. The end-conference of

the project took place on 14 October 2015, from 17h00-19h30, in the Scotland House in Brussels.

The event was organised as side event of the Open Days of the Regions and Cities (12-15 October

2015), in close cooperation with ERRIN, the working group BioEconomy and the Committee of

the Regions.

First, the event had a market place with posters about the BERST products that have been

developed, and posters about the regional bioeconomy profiles of the BERST regions in the project.

Second, in the focus room 3 guest speakers gave interesting presentations about their bioeconomy

story, seen from different perspectives:

The 3rd Steering Committee meeting took place on

31 August 2015 and 1 September 2015 in Saarijärvi

(Finland) and was hosted by JAMK University of

Applied Sciences and our regional partner Keski-

Suomen Liitto. In this last regular internal project

meeting, the progress of the work plan was discussed.

At the end of the SC meeting, there was an interesting

site visit to the Metsä Group´s next-generation

bioproduct mill in Äänekoski. More information about

this paper industry is under http://biotuotetehdas.fi/in-

english or open the link: http://youtu.be/khMHrZmElxQ

area;

After the 3rd SC meeting, several BERST partners presented specific BERST products on the

Bioenergy 2015 Conference, 2-4 September 2015 in Jyväskylä. Read more: http://

www.bioenergyevents.fi/Home.

Contact: Laura Vertainen and Anneli Ylimartimo (JAMK), Hannu Koponen (Keski-Suomen Liitto)

1. Manuel Gomes Barbero (from JRC-

IPTS in Seville) talked about the data

needs to measure and monitor the

bioeconomy, and about the efforts of

the Commission to close data gaps.

2. Christophe Luguel (from the

‘Industries & Agro-Ressources’ (IAR)

biocluster in France) gave insight in

how this cluster has developed into

Good Practice biocluster.

3. Lambert van Nistelrooij (Member of

the European Parliament) spoke about

bioeconomy strategies.

Contact: Remco Kranendonk and Ingrid Coninx (Alterra Wageningen UR), Myrna van Leeuwen (LEI

Wageningen UR)

3

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

Key note speakers

Steps are undertaken towards the setting-up of the

Bioeconomy Observatory through the Bioeconomy

Information System Observatory (BISO).

The BISO team consists of IES-Brussels, IES-Ispra

(Italy) and IPTS-Seville (Spain).

Bioeconomy sectors: combination of well covered

sectors with many databases available and poorly

defined, complex supply chains, and lack of data.

DataM: biomass estimates database

ASBIO study: provision of data and analysis

on biomass supply and demand by JRC;

mandata given by all Commission DGs with

interest in bioeconomy.

Study of the EU biobased industry:

survey to identify main drivers and barriers

affecting the development of biobased

products within the EU and to benchmark

EUs biobased industry against the biobased

industries in key competitor regions.

Take along issues:

- increasing populations that must be fed;

- depletion of natural resources;

- impacts of ever increasing environmental

pressures;

- climate change.

These topics request for monitoring and

evaluation of the bioeconomy sector and

its impacts. Projects like the JRC study

and BERST contribute to BISO and

ASBIO and thefore to the policy-making.

Manuel Gomes Barbero from EC JRC-IPTS in Seville talked about the data needs to measure

and monitor the bioeconomy, and about the efforts of the Commission to close data gaps.

Contact: manuel gomez-barbero (EC JRC-IPTS)

4

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

Christophe Luguel from the ‘Industries & Agro-

Ressources’ (IAR) biocluster in France gave

insight in how this cluster has developed into a

world class cluster dedicated to Biorefinery and

Bioeconomy (http://www.iar-pole.com/).

Read more in Presentation Christophe Luguel - IAR

biocluster

MISSION: to connect the different actors of the

bioeconomy chains in order to develop long-term

collaborations

IAR is a competitiveness cluster:

- a network of companies, education centres, public

and private R&D units, on an identified territory;

- to support innovation by developing products and

technologies, partnerships and creating a

favourable environment for innovation;

- on a given topic: biomass valorisation within the

Biorefinery concept.

Hurdles to unlock the biobased

potential:

- bring all actors/sectors together to build

new biobased value chains;

- invest in R&D, pilot, demonstration and first

industrial units;

- create a favourable policy environmnent for

market.

Contact: Christophe Luguel (IAR biocluster, France)

5

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

Lambert van Nistelrooij, who is a member of the European Parliament) spoke about the

European Frameworks on Regional Development and on Bio Economy.

BERST products

Besides presentation of invited speakers, the final conference was organised as a marketplace

that had a dynamic and informal setting to foster dialogue and matchmaking between BERST and

other bioregions in Europe. Results of the BERST project were promoted by using posters. BERST

partners were available to explain the participants of the final conference about their

experiences. A series of BERST posters have been created about respectively objectives, findings

and recommendations of the BERST project, as well as a summary of the bioeconomy profiles of

BERST regions

Aubergine fibres, verge grass or pruning waste as building materials; it all sounds too green to

be true. But we have big ambitions: In 2030 it will be possible to make vegetable waste flows

from the structural work of a building with the

Regional profile reports (dynamic

reports: BERST metabase)

Lambert had an inspiring talk and he was very

enthusiastically presenting his messages,

focussed on bringing people in motion to work

on the European Agenda of an inclusive and

smart Europe. Lambert is focussing on Regional

Innovation for long. He is critically following the

RIS3 processes of implementation. He

announced the mid-term review in 2017 and he

underlined the regions to recognize the

continuous processes of entrepreneurial

discovery, measuring and comparing the assets

of a region upon other regions, and to make

optimal use of these advantages in regional

development.

Lambert is also supporting the bioeconomy. He is actively involved in initiatives in Southern

Netherland. He is having strategic discussions on his own property with various players in the field

of agriculture and processing industries. Lambert is pointing out the importance of creativity in

order to reach the society and civilians, relevant to deploy the bioeconomy. Further he mentions

the BioBased Industries Consortium as a network in which the upscaling of initiatives should take

place.

Contact: Remco Kranendonk (Alterra Wageningen UR)

6

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

Contact: Myrna van Leeuwen (LEI Wageningen UR)

- detailed profile reports for BERST regions;

- dynamic reports for non-BERST regions–

based on a template with standard tables,

spiders and pies – as long as data have been

collected under the BERST project; reports can

be supportive for making specialized strategy

towards developing the bioeconomy;

- reports are under BERST metabase.

-

are Besides presentation of invited speakers, the final

conference was organised as a marketplace that had a

dynamic and informal setting to foster dialogue and

matchmaking between BERST and other bioregions in

Europe. Results of the BERST project were promoted

by using posters. BERST partners were available to

explain the participants of the final conference about

their experiences.

Aubergine fibres, verge grass or pruning waste as

building materials; it all sounds too green to be

true. But we have big ambitions: In 2030 it will be

possible to make vegetable waste flows from the

structural work of a building with the

CS and GP analyses

Analysis of Criteria and Indicators

analyses

Analysis of Instruments & Measures

GP analyses

Organisation of CoPs and webinars

Instruments & Measures GP

analyses

HELLENI

Link to catalogue of CS and GP Link to Catalogue of C&I

Link to Catalogue of I&M Link to Webinars

Regional bioeconomy profile reports are a key output of the BERST project:

- http://berst.databank.nl)

are Besides presentation of invited speakers, the final conference was organised as a marketplace that

had a dynamic and informal setting to foster dialogue and matchmaking between BERST and other

bioregions in Europe. Results of the BERST project were promoted by using posters. BERST partners

were available to explain the participants of the final conference about their experiences.

Aubergine fibres, verge grass or pruning waste as building materials; it all sounds too green to

be true. But we have big ambitions: In 2030 it will be possible to make vegetable waste flows

from the structural work of a building with the

7

BERST NEWSLETTER 31 October 2015

Upcoming events

BERST posters and webinars

A series of BERST posters on objectives, findings and

recommendations of the BERST project; BERST end-conference, 14 October 2015, Brussels

BIOBASED TUESDAY. “On Tuesdays, we talk about

how to build our bioeconomies”, September and October 2015 (virtual).

In 2016/2017, there will be another chance for innovative

biomass-related start-ups and business ideas to compete

for attractive prices, access to a valuable network of

experts and an extensive coaching programme. In

addition, the next round of PlanB will include an ideation

jam hosted by an industrial cluster partner from the Cluster

Renewable Raw Materials. More info will be available soon:

http://www.straubing-sand.de/biocampus/ planb/.

Contact: Ann-Kathrin Kaufmann (BioCampus Straubing

GmbH)

In May 2016, the BioCampus Straubing GmbH will be launching the second round of its business plan

competition “PlanB – Biomass.Business.Bavaria”. PlanB was initiated in 2014 in order to stimulate

the start-up culture in the realm of the Bavarian Bioeconomy and particularly in the area of energetic

and chemical-material use of biomass. Fifteen teams handed in their business plans. During a two-

stage coaching and evaluation process, the 3 winning teams were selected. The first price and 3.000 €

were awarded to a young industrial biotechnology start-up called CASCAT GmbH (www.cascat.de).