‘The rocky path from research to commercialisation of biosurfactants’ was impressively described by Wim Soetaert in the 34th BioSC Lecture on 12 September 2025. The BioSC Lecture was also a keynote lecture at the Biosurfactants Conference 2025 at RWTH Aachen University. 145 registered participants from the international biosurfactant community followed the inspiring story from the start of research, through partnerships and funding, supporters and investors, to a production facility, company foundation and market launch. A path on which the challenges of the individual development steps were mastered, e.g. the generation of a suitable production strain with a suitable product portfolio from wildtype strains, application testing and the construction of a pilot plant. Wim Soetaert presented a successful example of the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy through process development, scale-up and custom production.