A collaborative initiative presents new statistics and a roadmap for the bioeconomy in northern Sweden towards 2040

In March, new tools were launched to monitor and develop Sweden's regional bioeconomy. Soon afterwards, a European webinar brought together six pilot regions to share their strategies for achieving a sustainable, circular bioeconomy. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how to strengthen and encourage collaboration within the bioeconomy across Europe.

Organised under the Biomodel4Regions project, the webinar presented each region's journey — from the challenges they faced to their key success factors — with a particular emphasis on how their work can inspire other regions to develop a roadmap tailored to their own geographical, climatic, and socio-economic conditions.

The six pilot regions that took part were:

• Normandy in France
• the Delta region in the Netherlands
• the Nitra region in Slovakia
• Northern Sweden
• Western Macedonia in Greece
• Tuscany and the rest of Italy

Despite their differences, the regions agreed that cooperation, communication and skills provision are crucial for a successful transition to a circular and sustainable bioeconomy. These factors were identified as key drivers in strengthening the bioeconomy at both the local and EU levels.

At the Swedish launch in March, a new statistical tool was presented to help regions monitor their development. This marked an important step in years of national collaboration, aiming to provide better support and insights for developing Sweden's bioeconomy. This is the second time that bioeconomy statistics have been compiled at a regional level and are now available up to 2022 in an interactive tool.

"The most important thing about the event is that we have brought together bioeconomy stakeholders and provided them with two valuable resources to further strengthen the bioeconomy in Swedish regions," said Magnus Matisons from BioFuel Region.

The Bioeconomy Roadmap has been presented both nationally and internationally, with a good turnout — the international workshop was attended by over 70 people from a dozen European countries, including policymakers, researchers, innovation clusters, communicators, and other committed individuals ranging from the EU to regional levels.

Towards a bio-based economy in northern Sweden

The developed roadmap is a strategic framework for transitioning to a competitive, sustainable and resilient bioeconomy that aligns with national ambitions. It focuses on seven key areas of development: finance; infrastructure; product development and markets; natural resources; education and skills; governance and policy; and cross-sectoral collaboration.

While the primary focus is on the forest-based bioeconomy, many of the strategy's recommendations can be applied to other sectors of the bioeconomy. The document is intended to support the four northern regions in the continued development of their policy documents.

RISE, which collaborated with BioFuelRegion to develop the roadmap, also emphasises the importance of collaboration:

'We need a common direction in order to pool our strengths and make use of northern Sweden's unique resources. This roadmap is a first step — but real change takes place through collaboration between regions, industry, academia, and the public sector," says Eleonora Borén, project manager at RISE.

Would you like to read these blueprints? Sign up here to gain access to the full library for download. 

Find out more abut the project BioModel4Regions here