Scaling-up and industrial transition to bioeconomy

Making the global bioeconomy a reality is a huge challenge. It will disrupt industries and markets. It will need thoughtful regulation, ambitious incentives, and success in attracting investment. Over the next years, the industry will increasingly need to move from small-scale demo plants to industrial demonstrators and first commercial plants. As the industry transitions to the bioeconomy, large existing industries will have to undergo massive changes, shifting to sustainable biobased products, at great financial investment. Established and new, innovative companies need to see not only the societal shift, but also the economic feasibility of their endeavours. Success will depend on the right networks to integrate into value chains and access to finance. In Europe, clusters like 3Bi support industry in finding the right partners for collaboration and to sharpen value propositions. Funding programmes like the BBI JU help fund demonstrators and flagship plants. Around the globe, policy makers are taking different measures to support the shift towards non-fossil base resources and encouraging investment. Despite these measures, scale-up clearly remains a major challenge. Are the existing instruments sufficient, can they be improved, or does the bioeconomy need new, different, support structures?