Circular Bioeconomy Governance Profiles of ROBIN Regions
Creators: name: Nastis, Stefanos
name: Stylianidis, Efstratios
name: Natos, Dimitrios
name: Michailidis, Anastasios
name: Theofilou, Asterios
name: Skondras, Alexandros
name: Skalidi, Ifigeneia
name: Bakousi, Aikaterini
name: Tokas, Nikolaos
name: Karachaliou, Eleni
name: Kaslama, Pinelopi
name: Nydrioti, Ioanna
name: Chalamaki, Maria Eleni
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: The aim of this deliverable is to analyze the circular bioeconomy policy mix in the five ROBIN regions

within Germany, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, and Spain, to profile the project areas. Specific aspects

that are analyzed are: i) regional and local peculiarities, ii) the positioning of circularity and

bioeconomy within regional policies, iii) the Quadruple Helix (QH) actors, operating principles and

working relationships within the bioeconomy governance system, iv) the policy cycle components of

the bioeconomy strategies, including policy monitoring system (and KPIs) and v) challenges and

opportunities for circular bioeconomy policy (SWOT analysis). The regions represent a diverse

territorial array, reflecting the territorial or regional diversity of the EU, as well as a diversity of level

of implementation of circular bioeconomy policies.

The deliverable is part of WP1, Setting the scene, and the analysis of the regional policy mix in the

ROBIN regions provides valuable information for WP2, Co-creating the regional governance models

and structures, and WP3, setting up and operating the regional governance models and structures.

The analysis of the regional policy mix in the five ROBIN regions was conducted through the regional

partners that are members of the ROBIN consortium, as well as with the assistance of the other

consortium partners. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in the design

and implementation of each regional bioeconomy strategy were administered to representatives of

the five ROBIN regions, that were involved in the design and implementation of each regional

bioeconomy strategy.

The ROBIN regions represent a diverse representation of EU territories in terms of regional and local

peculiarities, although there are commonalities in the bioeconomy sectors and products, and the

bioeconomy value chains. There are differences in terms of the regions’ implementation of the

circular bioeconomy strategy and in terms of the circular bioeconomy governance model.

In the ROBIN pilot regions, only Baden-Wuerttemberg has an already implemented bioeconomy

strategy while the rest of the regions are on their way towards developing their regional bioeconomy

strategy. It is interesting that all regions presented similar challenges related to the four different

categories of barriers (institutional, implementation, financial, and other).

Barriers such as the lack of an official governmental framework to streamline the way to bioeconomy,

and the lack of data and monitoring processes related to institutional challenges were present in all

regions. Implementation barriers related to the lack of knowledge on what bioeconomy is and the

lack of communication of the term bioeconomy and its benefits to the public were also present.

The financial barriers were evident in every pilot region, with the lack of funding for bioeconomy

initiatives standing as the main hindering factor to the uptake of a regional governance model

focused on bioeconomy. In the Zilina region of Slovakia, the Andalusian region of Spain, and the

Region of Central Macedonia of Greece, the bureaucratic burden was a discouraging factor to set

up and further develop a regional bioeconomy strategy.

Overall, the findings from the literature review were confirmed in the regional profiles, in terms of

barriers, benefits and opportunities for the uptake of regional bioeconomy governance models,

however new aspects were also introduced such as the environmental benefits of bioeconomy

applications (e.g., low footprint, climate change mitigation), human development (e.g., new jobs) and

awareness raising (e.g., engagement of all stakeholder groups). Also, it is evident that there is a

need of a streamlined framework to pave the way to regional bioeconomy governance models, and

the term bioeconomy and its benefits need to be communicated effectively to wider audiences.