Over the past two months, our partner Circular Change has brought the BIOEAST Initiative and the BIOEASTWIDE project to a wide range of audiences in Slovenia, the Western Balkans and Moldova. Through events, panels and international conferences, the team has shown how circular and bio-based approaches can open new opportunities for the region.
The season began on 10 September in Portorož with the BIOEAST Slovenia–Croatia Pitching Event 2026: Bioeconomy in the Spotlight. Circular Change led the event at the Grand Hotel Bernardin. It brought together entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers and business representatives for a pitching session, a panel discussion and networking. The event promoted BOOST4BIOEAST, announced BIOEASTWIDE, and invited participants to collaborate through the Si.bio HUB.
In September, the team also took BIOEAST to the GPP2ADRION project. On 14 September, at a partner meeting in Ljubljana, they presented initiatives relevant to the Western Balkans and looked for synergies. On 21 September, at an online transnational network meeting, they exchanged approaches to stakeholder engagement and regional cooperation.
On 7–8 October, Ladeja Godina Košir and Lucija Marovt spoke on two panels at the CEF Conference “Governing Climate Action” in Celje. Speaking to policymakers, public administration representatives and international experts, they presented the circular economy and the bioeconomy as a real opportunity for the region. They also shared lessons on cross-sector collaboration and on building strong national and regional bioeconomy ecosystems.
Finally, on 22 October, Ladeja Godina Košir delivered an online keynote at the 4th National Circular Economy Conference in Moldova. Her talk, “From Strategy to Action: A European Perspective on Accelerating the Circular Transition,” featured concrete examples of BIOEAST-related cooperation and invited Moldovan stakeholders to collaborate further with BIOEASTWIDE.
These activities show how the BIOEAST community keeps growing by connecting people, projects and countries around a shared vision of a sustainable bioeconomy in Central and Eastern Europe.
