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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BLOOM (Boosting European citizens knowledge and awareness of bioeconomy)

Teaser

Summary

An economy based on biomass promises to foster a circular economy and to enhance climate change mitigation, while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Bioeconomy covers a broad range of sectors, from the agro-food industry and fisheries to bio energies, bio-refineries and biochemicals. Despite the technological potentials and the proven applications, it has yet to enter into the public awareness as a promising solution to societal challenges. Technological interventions are not readily accepted and adapted by society. Further, there exists a general lack of information tailored to the general public and there is little awareness of existing bioeconomy products. It is not only the general public and consumers that suffer from a knowledge deficit, but also, knowledge sharing in or between polity, research, education and business is still at a very early stage of development despite some evidence of innovation infrastructures such as innovation centres or educational programs. At the level of universities and higher education institutes, educational programs, courses, departments dealing with bioeconomy are gradually being developed. Still, Bioeconomy in school education needs more attention.

As aresult of these challenges described above, BLOOM has the following main objectives:
Objective a): Raise awareness and enhance knowledge on bioeconomy: BLOOM will strengthen the awareness and knowledge regarding bioeconomy research and innovation by stimulating activities via regional hubs and developing outreach activities for EU citizens demonstrating the economic, environmental and social potential of bioeconomy.
Objective b): Reduce the fragmentation of awareness strategies and build up and strengthen a bioeconomy community: BLOOM will enlarge the engagement of triple helix partners from the domains of the market, the government and knowledge partners from civil society and the education sector and thereby complete the innovation ecosystem, which is needed for the deployment of bioeconomy.
Objective c): Gain a common understanding: BLOOM will create spaces for the much needed debate on preferences and values concerning bioeconomy; for interaction and exchange of information, knowledge, meaning and aspirations, with the aim of establishing consensus on how a bioeconomy can be realised.
Objective d): Foster (social) learning and education: BLOOM will make bioeconomy knowledge and research available for education. It will provide applications for different levels of educational schools programs, vocational training, etc. BLOOM will support learning between regional knowledge and innovation centers and citizen towards advancing capacities and competences.

Work performed

In the period covered by this report, the setting up of five regional hubs and a school network of teachers (primary and secondary level) were the central BLOOM activities. In order to be able to do so, a plethora of preparing activities and supporting tools were necessary, such as content analysis, stakeholder mapping and identification, as well es identifying appropriate methodological approaches.

The hubs allow for iterative processes involving (quadruple helix) stakeholders through various cycles of value development and idea generation through shared knowledge and experiences. The first 18 months were characterised by an intensive phase of co-creation workshops within the hubs. In these co-creation workshops, outreach target groups were identified and outreach materials and activities explored, designed and validated aiming at meeting regional needs.

The school network involving 20 teachers from 10 different countries developed the so-called BLOOM school box, containing curricula for the inclusion of bioeconomy into STEM classes of different school levels. Within these 18 months of the project the BLOOM school box was elaborated, tested and amended and in March 2019 teacher trainings in the 10 countries started and are underway. In March 2019, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focusing on bioeoconomy and a BLOOM â€œTeach bioeconomy!â€ competition for STEM teachers were also launched.

The BLOOMer platform, which functions as the framework for BLOOM\'s online presence. was set up. Users have access to all BLOOM materials on the platform repository. Also dissemination materials, such as fact sheets, prezis, ppt, gifs, give a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of bioeconomy. Additionally first BLOOM videos are available and the shooting process of the BLOOM documentary series has started. Monitoring tools were set up to evaluate all project activities.

Final results

BLOOM bridges the knowledge gap and disseminates bioeconomy knowledge to the society at large. It creates a quadruple helix on all organizational levels, crossing over theoretical and abstract knowledge, to practical applications, information and services.

BLOOM has selected regions in which co-creation activities take place. All regional partners are well-embedded in networks on bioeconomy, allowing them to integrate regional, national as well as international stakeholders from their networks. By identifying major facilitators and barriers in the co-creation workshops, BLOOM advances the understanding of the steps to take to accelerate bioeconomy deployment and embed this knowledge within new concepts, models and instruments that would be useful to policy makers, innovators, investors, communities and citizens.
BLOOM has had a significant impact through its co-creation approach. A diversity of stakeholders has been engaged from commencement to project completion. BLOOM includes the deployment of large scale outreach activities for multidisciplinary groups and communities developing innovative solutions to European societal challenges. BLOOM strengthens the engagement of stakeholders and the civil society in the bioeconomy innovation, industry and research.

By bringing together all these stakeholders, BLOOM also has an economic impact. There is a high potential for new routes of conversion and valuation in bioeconomy, but most of those value chains still need to be established. BLOOM supports this establishment by bringing together all the stakeholders from the regions and the bioeconmy networks and makes them exchange. The benefit of the BLOOM co-creation process is twofold: for one, the citizens and stakeholder will gain knowledge on benefits and issues pertaining to bioeconomy. At the same time, two-way communication with the hubs will see the industry convey insights into the stakeholders (consumers) thinking, possible approaches, needs and underlying assumptions of marketing strategies.

BLOOM raises citizen awareness, which can grow demand for bio-based products and lead to the establishment of new markets. Bioeconomy development can help rural areas to strengthen their unique regional profile and to explore their comparative advantages with other regions.
BLOOM also makes an impact on education. The European Commission calls for innovative formal and informal science education teaching and learning in order to raise awareness of young people on the different aspects encompassing science and technology in todayâ€™s society and to address the challenges faced by young people when pursuing careers in STEM. BLOOM developed and applied the BLOOM school box, which addresses boys and girls of different ages and provides different ways of bringing the topic of bieconomy closer.