Fostering ‘Bioeconomy Strategy’ through synergies: managerial implications from Interreg Europe

Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Management, Economics, and Finance

Year: 2019

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.icmef.2019.11.719

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Fostering ‘Bioeconomy Strategy’ through synergies: managerial implications from Interreg Europe

Yannis Mouzakitis and Giannis T. Tsoulfas

 

 

ABSTRACT: 

Back on 2012, the European Commission launched and adopted the Bioeconomy Strategy in order to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and meet its energy and climate change policy targets. In this vein, the concept of bioeconomy, namely the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value-added products, is multi-faceted in terms of ambitions, initiators, and barriers, involving several types of stakeholders, indifferent (local, regional and national) settings. This paper sheds light on the regional level of bioeconomic development, focusing on initiatives which are financially supported by EU. More specifically, we conduct secondary research on 20 regional schemes funded by the Interreg Europe Initiative, and we analyse /compare the above case-studies with respect to 26 variables. Based on this evidence, we discuss the effectiveness, the greenness, and the innovativeness of the selected projects, and we evaluate the contribution and the potential of (funded) cross-regional synergies as a policy tool in the transition towards a bio-based model of sustainable development.

Keywords: EU policy; bioeconomy transition; circular economy; regional development; sustainable development.