In the framework of the  BIOTRANSFORM  project, a working group of representatives of regional and local authorities came together on 10 October to discuss the main governance and financing challenges to the transition to biobased circular systems. The session also saw the valuable participation of other EU projects on circular economy, research and technology institutes and bioeconomy clusters.

The working group took place in hybrid form, with participants sitting in ACR+ offices in Brussels, and others joining online. The session featured a presentation of the BIOTRANSFORM project and a presentation of the Andalucian circular bioeconomy strategy delivered by the ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The participants then filled in a dedicated Miro board with their thoughts on the main barriers to the circular bioeconomy transition from a governance and financing perspective.

There was active participation and contribution from the audience, and among the key bioeconomy governance challenges, some of the key ones identified were the difficulty to onboard different political representative from various policy departments, and the lack of knowledge and tools to set up a bioeconomy strategy. The intermittent flow of side stream materials for processing needs, and the scepticism of investors in unproven businesses were mentioned among the key financing challenges.

 This working session is the first step into the creation of technical transition guidelines for public authorities, listing effective governance and financing instruments to transition to a circular bio-based system.

The working group will be mobilised twice again throughout the duration of the project, to gather concrete feedback on the tools and methodologies developed by the project to ensure they well respond to the policy makers’ needs.