„POWER4BIO" develops regional bioeconomic strategies and implementation plans through cross-border knowledge exchange

The bio-based economy is a strongly emerging sector with enormous potential. With a turnover of around two billion euros, it provides employment for almost 22 million people throughout Europe. Nevertheless, in many regions of Europe, the full potential for the production of sustainable products is still not being exploited. The "POWER4BIO" research project with participation of the DBFZ aims to support the regions in their transition to a bio-based economy.

Instead of renewable, biobased raw materials, in 2019 fossil resources will still be used primarily as raw materials for products of the bio-economy. Against this background, the "POWER4BIO" research project, launched in October 2018, concentrates on awareness raising, networking, policy dialogue and mutual learning from the regions involved in the project. The aim is to promote cooperation between regions within a country as well as between countries and to create a sustainable socio-economic system based on the efficient use of local natural resources.

The project's activities focus on five Central and Eastern European regions and five Western European regions. They cover an area of 450,000 km2 with about 88 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product of 2.4 billion euros. Germany is represented in POWER4BIO by the regions Bavaria and Central Germany (Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony). The POWER4BIO consortium consists of 17 institutions in Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine and is coordinated by the Spanish Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption CIRCE. The project activities will be funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 funding programme to the tune of approximately 3 million Euro.

Supported by the Leading-Edge „BioEconomy cluster“, the DBFZ coordinates the activities in POWER4BIO for the Central German region. The research centre also supports the regional initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe with guidelines and instruments, which should enable participating initiatives to establish suitable working structures in a short period of time and to develop a common sustainable and competitive vision and bioeconomic strategy. Under the leadership of the DBFZ, Western European regions that have already developed regional bioeconomic strategies and roadmaps will also be supported by specific measures to overcome obstacles that arise in the implementation of their strategies and the realisation of objectives. Further information on the project can be found at: www.power4bio.eu

 


Smart Bioenergy – innovations for a sustainable future

The DBFZ works as a central and independent thinker in the field of energy and material use of biomass on the question of how the limited available biomass resources can contribute to the existing and future energy system with sustainability and high efficiency. As part of the research the DBFZ identifies, develops, accompanies, evaluates and demonstrates the most promising fields of application for bioenergy and the especially positively outstanding examples together with partners from research, industry and public. With the scientific work of the DBFZ, the knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of energy and integrated material use of renewable raw materials in a biobased economy as a whole should be expanded and the outstanding position of the industrial location Germany in this sector permanently secured – www.dbfz.de/en.