CTA and the Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development presented today, at the EuRCBC Conference held in Brussels, Andalusia’s success story within the framework of the European project ROBIN, as an example of a regional Circular Bioeconomy model.
The EuRCBC Conference (European Rural Circular Bioeconomy Conference) brings together today and tomorrow, both in person in Brussels and online, dozens of experts from across Europe to advance the implementation of the Bioeconomy in support of a more sustainable and resilient future.
The EuRCBC conference has been jointly organized by six EU-funded projects, two of which include CTA as a partner: ROBIN and SCALE-UP. Both held their final event during this gathering. The other participating projects were MainstreamBIO, RuralBioUp, BioRural, and Biomodel4Regions.
Circular Bioeconomy Governance Models
Specifically, Mar Cátedra, Technical Advisor at the General Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and María García, Innovation Consultant at CTA, presented Andalusia’s case at the EuRCBC Conference within the framework of the ROBIN project, as an example of co-creating structures and governance models for Circular Bioeconomy at the regional level.
Andalusia has been one of five EU pilot regions that used the ROBIN project to promote these new innovative governance models aimed at fostering the circular bioeconomy.
The ROBIN project, which held its final event during this EuRCBC conference, is led by Greek partner Q-Plan, and its Andalusian partners are the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (CAPADR) of the Regional Government of Andalusia, the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production Research and Training (IFAPA), and CTA.
Innovative value chains
Another of the six projects participating in this major European conference, EuRCBC, was SCALE-UP, in which CTA also participates as a partner, and which likewise held its final event during this gathering.
The European project SCALE-UP has identified and scaled up innovative and sustainable bioeconomy-based value chains. SCALE-UP focused on facilitating knowledge exchange and capacity building for sustainable rural development, supporting regional stakeholders (farmers, businesses, associations, entrepreneurs, researchers, and public administration) in identifying and developing innovative bioeconomy-based business models.
To achieve this, SCALE-UP implemented various activities to help regional actors harness the potential of the bioeconomy in six European pilot regions, including Andalusia, which was selected for its strong potential to develop the bioeconomy due to the abundant availability of biomass.
Presence of the BIC and DG Research
The event featured representatives from the Biobased Industries Consortium (BIC) and the DG Research and Innovation of the EU. Topics discussed included different perspectives on Bioeconomy and how these are complementary, tools to promote the European Bioeconomy, and inspiring success stories.
In addition, parallel events were held alongside the main conference, such as a roundtable on Bioeconomy promotion policies, a mutual learning workshop based on regional partnerships, and a “Train the Trainer” workshop from the ROBIN project, organized by CTA, to scale the Bioeconomy through the toolkit developed by this project.
