IFIB2024

Our Italian partner, Cluster SPRING, organises the IFIB, the International Forum on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy each year. This year, IFIB took place in Bologna from 03 -04 October.

The event focused on scale-up – which technologies, which regulation, which infrastructure, which education system can support scale-up and implementation of bioeconomy innovations? While the speakers gave concrete examples of large companies, pilot facilities, and innovations by start-ups and established companies, they also voiced concerns over stifling regulation and a lack of political support. They also emphasised the need for concrete projects, and above all the need for innovations to address market needs – and to be given a level playing field to succeed. Our board member Ludo Diels joined a panel discussing the needs for education in bioeconomy, and how the next generation of bioeconomy enthusiasts and professionals could be trained. They agreed that the concept of bioeconomy should be included in curricula from an early age onwards, and that interdisciplinary communication was essential for bioeconomy.

In a round table on „The role of regions in implementing the ecological transition“, which was moderated by Christian Patermann, our colleague Tatjana Schwabe-Marković presented North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), and the BIOTRANSFORM project. The five regions represented on the panel (South-Eastern and South-Western Ireland, Andalusia, NRW, and Emilia-Romagna) presented a range of ways in which local policy makers and other stakeholders regarded the bioeconomy and offered support.

Read more about IFIB24 at the website of Cluster Spring.

IFIB2025 will be organised in Turin, from 25-26 September 2025.