The lecture series "Meet the Circular Economy - Sustainable Innovation in Practice", held in cooperation with the Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC) as co-organizer at RWTH Aachen University, successfully entered its second round in the summer semester 2023. In this event, students, experts and the general public gained insights into innovative concepts for sustainability and their practical implementation.

On 24 May, the German Bioeconomy Council handed over its recommendations for the implementation of the National Bioeconomy Strategy to BMBF and BMEL. Recommendations include, for example, sustainable land use, measures and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a turnaround in raw material consumption and the creation of reliable framework conditions for sustainable innovations.

Around one hundred BioSC members gathered for the ninth BioSC Forum, the annual internal retreat, to exchange information about new developments research results. In addition to the presentation of all running projects within the NRW BioSC strategy project, there were presentations on successful further developments from previous BioSC projects as well as an overview of BioSC initiatives in the field of education and early career.

The Summer School took place from 8-12 May at the Invention Center Aachen with participants from all over the world and lecturers from a wide range of disciplines. Numerous aspects of the topic of plastics were highlighted, from the extraction of various monomers from different bio-based resources, through polymerisation, to the degradation of the polymers and the recycling of the monomers.

At the MittelstandsMAKERTHON NRW from 9 to 11 May 2023, co-organised by the BioSC, interdisciplinary student teams developed surprising, creative and above all professional solutions for current entrepreneurial challenges. The winning team convinced with an almost market-ready approach for the production of customised and highly stable shipping materials made of paper.

After much interest last year, the public lecture series "Meet the Cicular Economy - Sustainability in Practice", co-organised by the BioSC, has started for the second time at RWTH Aachen University. At the first event on 24 April, the company Covestro, among others, presented its approaches to sustainable production. Six further dates will take place in May and June.