Mario Bonaccorso, Pierluigi Argoneto, Konstantina (Nadia) Vougogiannopoulou (p), María García Alegre, George Sakellaris, Inma Sánchez Cantero, Filipa Sacadura, Konstantinos Vorgias, Lorenzo Sutton, Francesco Caracciolo, Alenka Dovč, Laurent Augier, Volkan Pelitli, Cristina Viera Bardón, Evie Demetriou, Phoebe Vayannou, Jessica Frigerio

Denise Gider

BioINSouth project aims to support regional policymakers in integrating ecological limits into bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps for circular bio-based activities. By developing guidelines and digital tools within the safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) assessment framework, the project fosters innovative methodologies for assessing environmental impacts across various industrial bio-based systems.

Targeting Southern Mediterranean European regions, particularly those lagging behind such as Cyprus, Slovenia, Greece, and Portugal, BioINSouth will also involve broader participation from Spain, France, Italy, and international cooperation with Türkiye. Leveraging the BIOEAST initiative that focuses on central Europe, BioINSouth will establish QH-based regional Multi-Actor Regional Groups (MARGs) to lead co-creation activities in the establishment of eight bioeconomy-oriented regional HUBs in Campania (Italy), Peloponnese (Greece), Andalusia and Asturias (Spain), Centro (Portugal), Slovenia, Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France), and Cyprus. These HUBs will promote the exchange of best practices, and foster innovative methodologies for assessing environmental impacts and circularity in bio-based sectors. BioINSouth aims to enhance regional competitiveness, innovation capacity, and contribute to the EU's fair and green transition.

A key component of BioINSouth is the analysis of regional stakeholders. Using the digital tool Wheesbee, developed by Innovation Engineering (PNO Group), the project determined bioeconomy technologies and top innovators based on their participation in funded projects over the last 10 years. This tool helped map stakeholders in BioINSouth HUBs regions, understanding the interests, objectives, and relationships of local actors, for developing effective bioeconomy strategies. By engaging diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, public authorities, market operators, civil society, and research organizations, the project ensures that methodologies and tools are tailored to regional needs and challenges. The stakeholder analysis identifies opportunities and barriers, enabling targeted interventions that drive sustainable bioeconomy practices.

The overall methodology promotes collaboration and the exchange of best practices within a macro-regional BioINSouth Network and with international organizations. Demonstrated in eight regions, the concept will be transferable and replicable throughout other Southern European regions and beyond, ensuring sustainability and circularity in bio-based sectors. This project underscores the importance of regional policies in driving sustainable bioeconomy practices and fostering inclusive growth.

Acknowledgment: Project BioINSouth (Grant Agreement No. 101156363) is co-funded by the European Union and supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CBE JU. Neither the European Union nor the CBE JU can be held responsible for them.

Denise Gider (p), Christian Klar, Ulrich Schurr

Panagiotis Koronaios

The transition to a circular bioeconomy requires regionally tailored approaches that align with local resources, governance structures, and stakeholder dynamics. While policy frameworks such as the European Green Deal outline broad sustainability objectives, their successful implementation depends on regional adaptation and systemic coordination. To address this, the BIO2REG regionalization framework defines bioeconomy model regions as structured, geographically defined areas where circular bioeconomy principles drive innovation, sustainable growth, and socio-economic resilience.

This framework builds on the practical experience of establishing a circular bioeconomy model region in the Rhenish mining area, initiated by the Bioeconomy Science Center in 2010 and expanded through BioökonomieREVIER at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. Initially developed to support regional transition in response to the lignite mining phase-out, the concept has since been refined and further developed through the Horizon Europe project BIO2REG by experts and stakeholder-driven consultations and workshops. The resulting framework offers a structured methodology to identify, categorize, and support regions in their bioeconomy transitions, recognizing varying levels of maturity—emerging, developing, and mature bioeconomy model regions.

A core aspect of this regionalization approach is its nested governance model, which integrates local, regional, national, and macro-regional strategies to ensure policy coherence and effective implementation. The concept acknowledges that regions serve as operational units possessing a degree of homogeneity in bioeconomy characteristics, such as resource availability, stakeholder composition, and market access. It emphasizes systemic transformation, linking multiple dimensions—including governance, innovation, knowledge transfer, and sustainability—while fostering interregional collaboration to scale best practices and accelerate transition pathways.

BIO2REG operationalizes this framework through targeted interventions for regions, including regional network events, interregional exchanges, and stakeholder mentoring programs, providing tools for multi-level governance alignment, knowledge transfer, and cross-sectoral cooperation. Additionally, the Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA) tool developed by UEHR at Panteion University enables regions to assess region’s bioeconomy potential.

By presenting a conceptual yet implementation-oriented regionalization framework, this submission advances the understanding of how regions can structure their bioeconomy strategies, effectively translate high-level policy ambitions into concrete regional action plans and position themselves as drivers of sustainable economic transformation within the European circular bioeconomy landscape.

Panagiotis Koronaios (p), Georgios Maroulis , Panagiotis Kalimeris, Antonios Rovolis

Konstantina (Nadia) Vougogiannopoulou

Bioeconomy is presented as a promising alternative framework towards a more efficient and greener economy based on the replacement of non-renewable and fossil resources with renewable ones. In a nutshell bioeconomy, based on the European perception of the term, could be described as an economic framework operating with the use of biomass as an input to fulfil the economy’s needs, such as food, feed, materials and energy (Proestou et al., 2024). The transition to a circular and sustainable bioeconomy is a key priority for the European Union which identifies bioeconomy as the vehicle towards achieving the European Green Deal. As a result, the first European Bioeconomy Strategy established in 2012, aimed to harmonize economic with environmental and social related goals (European Commission, 2012). In 2018, the European Bioeconomy Strategy was updated by adding new parameters in the framework and emphasizing the cross section of bioeconomy with circular economy, as well as the environmental related topics and the importance of the regions (European Commission, 2018).
The importance of regions in the implementation of European Union’s bioeconomy strategy remains crucial for the transformational process of the linear economy (European Commission, 2022). The transformation process could be challenging, especially in regions with carbon-intensive economic activities, such as coal mining, intensive agriculture, forestry, and fishery sectors. Towards this direction, the Horizon Europe “BIO2REG” project (https://bio2reg.eu/) funded by the European Union, aspires to design and implement a region-specific blueprint for assessing the EU's regional transition to bioeconomy. Towards this objective, a Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA) framework was designed to identify the status of bioeconomy in the EU regions. The presented study is based on the methodology followed in a prior effort to classify the status of the regions of the 8 countries participating in the “BIO2REG’’ project and is further extending the analysis by including the total 244 NUTS II (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) regions of the EU-27.