Everything is ready in Glasgow, Scotland, to host the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy. Taking place on 18-20 October at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, EFIB 2016 – organised by EuropaBio and Smithers Rapra – will take advantage of the opportunity to increase engagement between policy makers and a broad range of stakeholders connected with the existing biobased value chain, and reach a new network of end users from a range of industries.
With themes ranging from inspiring new business models, circular economy and the availability of feedstocks, this year’s EFIB agenda will provide a comprehensive update on the status and outlook of biobased industries.
Featuring CEOs of key players who have recently announced significant investments in Europe will provide their perspectives on the state of business in Europe, from developing new and novel partnerships along the value chain, to ensuring that capital investment is made available.
Scotland was the first UK country, and one of the first in Europe, to present its own strategy for the circular economy. Announced last February by the Minister for the environment, Richard Lochhead, it will allocate €70 million between national and European funds to reduce considerably food and building waste (representing 50% of all Scottish waste). As stated by Lockhead, “reducing food waste by only one third – one of the targets by 2025 – could add £500 million to the national budget”.
In January 2015, the Scottish government presented “The Biorefinery Roadmap for Scotland”, a document highlighting, with a ten year horizon, the action and support required to place Scotland as a country able to promote sustainable industries onto the global market. The key element of such document is the national Plan for industrial biotechnology, aiming at increasing the turnover of such sector from £189 million of 2012 to £900 million in 2025 which – in order to achieve such goal – in 2014 led to the launch of IBioIC (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre).
IL BIOECONOMISTA 