Despite the summer vacations, nearly 70 people attended the 5th BIOEAST webinar, which aimed to present good practices on different aspects of the bioeconomy value chain.
The first of the 5 good practices was a Polish startup, the MakeGrowLab. The co-founder of the startup Roza Janusz showed what packaging materials are obtained as a result of biorefining. She also spoke about the innovaton ecosystem and the opportunities and challenges startups are facing She drew attention to some needs in bioeconomy, such as new waste regulation strategies, or new definitions of „bio”.
Dr Fred Eickmeyer gave a presentation about the development of the Russian Dandelion (Taraxacum kok-saghyz) from a wild plant to an industrial crop. He said that within the next few years the global demand for natural rubber will increase.The tiny russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) has polyisoprene chains in its roots that meet the needs of the tyre industry. Mr Eickmeyer actively works on the breeding of the russian dandelion to improve quality and quantity of the plant for raw material purposes
Chiara Pocaterra, project manager of Biovoices presented the methodology and challenges of the project for market uptake of bio-based products. She adressed concrete case studies of supporting Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in the design of educational paths in bioeconomy.
Dr Marin Roje as a Senior Research Associate at Ruđer Bošković Institute talked about the importance of bioprospecting of the Adriatic Sea. He presented the BioProCro which is a virtual platform to lead the raising of research and application of results in the field of blue biotechnology.
Through a good example from North-Karelia, Finland, Dr Sari Pitkänen demonstrated how a community can be put at the service of bioeconomy. She gave a short overwiev of the endowments of the region, the regional and national network and unique collaborationFurthermore, Dr. Pitkänen explicated the goals and challenges in front of the smart forest bioeconomy in the region.
Finally, Dr Barna Kovács held the final presentation drawing conclusions from the webinar series. After the presentation, he thanked all the speakers and stakeholders for participating in the webinars. He also announced that BIOEASTsUP webinars will continue from September.