The bioeconomy has yet to be appropriately included in international fora on innovation, climate, biodiversity and sustainable development policy. Therefore, bioeconomy needs its own independent global forum. This is what the 700 participants agreed upon at the second Global Bioeconomy Summit 2018 in Berlin.

The Innovation prize is being awarded annually for excellent ideas in the areas of life sciences and biotechnology. In the frame of the German Biotechnology Days 2018, Dr. Felix Jakob, Prof. Ulrich Schwaneberg und Prof. Andrij Pich received the prize which is endowed with 2.000 € and sponsored by the journal BIOSpektrum. The Jury stated that the development of microgel containers for controlled release of nutrients and protective agents has the potential to solve important problems in agriculture.

Integrative research approaches promoting the transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) – this is the objective of the two new "FocusLabs" which will be funded for three years from 2018 onwards. These FocusLabs are part of the Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), NRW’s scientific centre of excellence for sustainable bioeconomy.

We would like to thank all BioSC members and our national and international partners for their engagement and good cooperation during the last year! 2018 will be an existing and promising year for bioeconomy. Several preparations are already running and national as well as global developments indicate that the concept of an integrated bioeconomy will be internationally pushed forward.

The 2nd International BioSC Symposium attracted around 160 people interested in the topic “Towards an Integrated Bioeconomy”. The high potential and different opportunities of the bioeconomy were highlighted in the vividly presented keynote of Prof. Lene Lange of the Technical University of Denmark. The integrated character and scientific developments of the bioeconomy were shown in presentations of the interdisciplinary research concepts of the BioSC FocusLabs and in the following sessions reflecting socioeconomic perspectives, strategies for plant production and resource management and green value chains.

At this year’s internal retreat more than 130 BioSC members met in the Maternushaus in Cologne to learn about latest developments. While BioSC projects were presented in the morning, the afternoon presentations included as well talks about externally funded projects and information about funding programmes in the framework of bioeconomy.