At the 5th BioSC Symposium on March 5, 2021, scientists from the BioSC and external experts from academia and industry combined a review of the BioSC's ten-year existence with an outlook for the future. The BioSC Supervision Award, endowed with € 25,000, was presented for the first time as the Christian Patermann Award and thus dedicated to the founder of the knowledge-based bioeconomy. The award winner is Dr. Michael Wustmans (University of Bonn).

In fall 2010, the BioSC founding contract was signed. The 5th BioSC Symposium, originally planned for fall 2020, honored the tenth anniversary of the BioSC on March 5, 2021, combining a look back at ten years of bioeconomy research with a look ahead to future developments and challenges.

he former chair of the German Bioeconomy Council, Prof. Dr. Christine Lang, delivered the keynote address on "Sustainable Bioeconomy as a Transformative Force in a Global Context". As the event progressed, speakers from the BioSC alternated with external experts from academia and industry. The topics ranged from new technologies and active ingredients for plant cultivation to biobased processing of renewable feedstocks and the customized production of high-value compounds, as well as transformation processes and sustainability aspects. In addition, international cooperations were presented.

The concluding panel discussion featured high-ranking participants: Thorsten Menne, Deputy Head of the Research Department at the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Andrea Noske, Head of the Department for Sustainable Management and Bioeconomy at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, were joined by Professor Wolfgang Marquardt, Chairman of the Board at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Professor Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, former member of the Management Board of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, and Uwe Fritsche, director of the International Institute for Sustainability Analysis and Strategies in Darmstadt.

At the 5th BioSC Symposium, the BioSC Supervision Award, endowed with €25,000, was presented for the sixth time to honor young scientists for outstanding achievements in supervising doctoral students. The award was presented for the first time as the Christian Patermann Award and thus dedicated to the founder of the knowledge-based bioeconomy. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian Patermann personally handed over the prize to Dr. Michael Wustmans from the Chair of Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Bonn.