New project: Biomonitor – Monitoring the Bioeconomy
The newly started BioMonitor project wants to address the information gap and mismatch of emerging innovative industries coming from the chemical and materials sectors that deal with the production of bio-based intermediate and end-products. It also wants to resolve the lack of indicators needed to quantify the bioeconomy’s economic, environmental and social impacts in the EU and its Member States.
“We urgently need a set of reliable tools to measure the size and developments of the EU bioeconomy,” as pointed out by Justus Wesseler of the Wageningen University, who is the coordinator of the BioMonitor project. “The BioMonitor project will assist the EU leaders in assessing to what extent the UN sustainable development goals are met, and what measures could help the rural development in the EU.”
These will be achieved by developing an integrated quantitative kit composed of a comprehensive bioeconomy database, an all-around data analysis and modelling toolbox, and a platform tailored according to professional stakeholders’ needs. Various training methods and communication tools will be provided to guide them and to guarantee the uptake of these new set of bioeconomy standards over a longer period of time.
EFI leads a work package on the design of the BioMonitor toolbox, which will contain enhanced tools and models for monitoring the development of the European bioeconomy. EFI also leads a case study on new wood-based products and will contribute to the development of indicators on industrial uses of biomass, as well as scenario analysis of the future bioeconomy development.
BioMonitor is a project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Biotech programme. It provides an opportunity for all 18 partners from 10 countries to offer an effective and robust methodology catered to the people working in statistical and custom offices, laboratories, policy makers and industries all over the world. Earlier this month, the project held its kick-off meeting in Brussels.
BioMonitor (Monitoring the Bioeconomy) has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Biotech Programme under grant agreement n° 773297. The project started in June 2018 and is set to run for four years.
