The “Bioeco Hub”
About this good practice
Bioeconomy is a major challenge at European level and many fundings opportunities exist (Horizon Europe, LIFE, Interreg …). To fully exploit this potential, stakeholders need to be better informed on the different funds and programmes’ content and expectations. They also need to meet and know each other, share good practices, experiences and project’s ideas, in order to make relevant project emerge on the territory and create the synergies necessary to the successful implementation of a circular bioeconomy.
To meet these challenges, the Regional Council has created the “Bioeco Hub”, a working group gathering stakeholders with the following objectives:
1) creating a collective dynamic in Pays de la Loire, to gather regional expertise and competences ;
2) enabling the emergence of European projects in response to calls for proposals from the European Commission and the structural funds managed by the Regional Council ;
3) taking better into account the interests of regional actors in the value chain of the circular bioeconomy.
The Hub works as an opened working group with no official membership. Its roadmap has been co-designed by its participants that include local authorities, universities and research centres, clusters, start-ups and SMEs, NGOs and associations.
The Hub meets 2/3 times a year depending on the European agenda. The meetings are organised at the Regional Council and at the members’ premises, so the operating and animation is shared.
Resources needed
The Hub is co-managed by the Regional Council (3 directions involved : European policies/Environment/Agriculture), the Brussels’ regional representation office and the Food Technocampus. (0.25 FTE on average )
The hosting of the Hub’s meetings is organised by the members on a voluntary basis.
Evidence of success
-Meetings organised 2-3 times/year gathering 15-30 members (local authorities, research, clusters, start-ups, SMEs, associations…)
-Regular news on EU & other fundings, events and networking opportunities, are provided within the network by email
-The Hub represents stakeholders and brings their needs to the attention of representatives of the various European funding programmes for bioeconomy (CBE-JU, Horizon...)
-Joint project proposals between some Hub members are underway for the next calls
Potential for learning or transfer
Given the multiplicity of European funds and themes of calls for projects, it is essential to have an organisation that plays a monitoring role and disseminates information tailored to the needs of regional actors.
In the same way, in order for coherent and structuring projects to emerge for the territory, it is necessary to create places for meetings and cooperation between actors who sometimes do not know each other well or are not used to working together.
The co-leadership of this Hub by regional authority representatives, who have both the knowledge of European funds and the knowledge of the actors and projects in the territory, allowing to bring the right actors to the table, is an element of success that can easily be replicated in another region.