Realizing the Bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea-workshop III
On 4-5 March 2015 the 3rd workshop on realizing the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region will be held in Warsaw. The Warsaw venue will be announced shortly.
The workshop is the third workshop planned under an initiative by the Nordic Council of Minister to speed up the realization of the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region. The initiative aims to:
• To engage stakeholders across the region and across sectors, private as well as public, in a dialogue on bioeconomy opportunities and challenges in the Baltic Sea Region.
• To break down the widespread silo mentality that currently leads to a fragmented pursue of the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region. Showcasing and developing next bioeconomy practices where different sciences, industrial technologies, local and tacit knowledge, and policy enablers have come together “in the right mix” will play an important role to demonstrate the importance and value of cross-sectorial cooperation.
• To facilitate identification and incubate a number co-operation actions (10 steps) that are particular important to realize the transition towards a bioeconomy for the Baltic Sea Region.
The first workshop in Tallinn 26-27th of March 2014 concluded on the importance of:
1) emphasizing on the translation of dialogue and policies into concrete actions and impact;
2) using existing network structures and partnerships to support project practitioners to navigate between financial mechanisms for cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region;
3) engaging the private sector through cooperation platforms that are attractive to businesses such as bioeconomy product exhibitions, match-making and other business-close activities.
The second workshop in Berlin 18-19th of September aimed to address these challenges and to discuss concrete proposals in these regards. Also, in Berlin– further steps towards the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region – with pre-seed financing from the Nordic Council of Ministers – were launched. The second workshop addressed assets, enablers, bottlenecks and opportunities related to in particular:
• Ensuring impact
• Engaging the private sector
• Financing the transition towards the bioeconomy
This third workshop in Warsaw on 4-5 March 2015 aimes to go further, by:
1) Engaging and including Polish partners, Polish perspectives and Polish experiences in efforts towards realising the bioeconomy - in Poland and in the Baltic Sea Region at large.
2) Taking stock on current Baltic Sea Region bioeconomy cooperation activities and efforts, their preliminary results and the implications for further efforts to ensure sustainability in cooperation.
3) A Project Village proving opportunities to develop and launch three additional bioeconomy cooperation actions (steps towards the bioeconomy) with pre-seed funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers. This could be under headings such as Business Models, Regulations and Biogas - but could also target other themes). 7 pre-seed projects (steps towards the bioeconomy) are already unfolding, namely Local Capital, Green Proteins, Markets for Wood(based) Biomass, Tightening the Phosphorous Circle, Bio for Non-Food, Stakeholder Engagement and Blue Bioeconomy. These exiting efforts are also open to new partners.
3) Setting out a 3-year framework for further - political as well as practical - cooperation to realise the bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region (including by leveraging on-going bioecomony cooperation activities implemented with national, Nordic and European Union funding).
The Nordic Council of Ministers is currently working together with local partners in Poland to develop further the details of the programme. We will send this through to you in the beginning of the new year. Please do not hesitate to make contact if you have additional bioeconomy topics and issues that you would wish the workshop to address.
A few practicalities:
Time: to be announced shortly
Venue: To be announced shortly.
Participants are responsible for their travel and accommodation.
More information HERE
