EPRC is part of an international consortium which has been successful in winning European funding of Euro 1.76 million under the Horizon 2020 programme for research on promoting stakeholder engagement and public awareness for a participative governance of the European bioeconomy.
The context for the study is that the bioeconomy (biofuels, biomaterials etc) holds potential solutions to important challenges of the future, but that the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with its products and processes will require extensive dialogue processes on its development. Led by the Ecologic Institute, and with partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the study will explore how governments at different levels can engage with public and private sector stakeholders in bioeconomy-based innovation and business model development processes. EPRC research will focus on assessing national and regional bioeconomy strategies, including EU-funded S3 strategies, to identify cases of good practice that could be applied elsewhere.
The EPRC research team of Professor John Bachtler, Dr Sara Davies and Steve Miller will also involve Professor David Charles, formerly at EPRC and now at Lincoln University.