On November 13-14, 2018 a Focus Group workshop was organised in Rome under the BIOVOICES project. The workshop aimed at bringing together experts in the bioeconomy field from Business, Research and Education, Public Administration, Civil Society as well as users in order to discuss and validate the project’s findings on the key challenges that must be addressed at the European and national level, drawing in this way the framework of the Mobilization and Mutual Learning (MML) activities that will follow.
Mr Apostolos Malamakis from Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering (LHTEE) of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Aristotle University Thessaloniki participated in the Focus Group discussions, representing the BIOREGIO project.
Figure1: BIOVOICES Focus Group workshop in Rome
The challenges for market uptake of bio-based products was actively discussed among the participating key stakeholders that numbered more than 60. They were European experts that through their discussions managed to validate the most relevant challenges to boost bioeconomy and biobased products. On day 2 of the event, the participants shared ideas on the organisation of a Mobilisation and Mutual Learning (MMLs) community to address the identified challenges about bioeconomy. Such an approach is considered relevant, attractive and motivating for the quadruple helix stakeholders to contribute and finally to deliver impactful outcomes such as policy recommendations, action plans, agreements, further collaboration, etc.
The BIOREGIO partners support the idea since it is directly connected to the overall BIOREGIO project purpose and it boosts the bio-based circular economy and enhances transfer of expertise on best available technologies and cooperation models.
