Odisee at the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint-Undertaking (CBE JU) Stakeholder Forum

On 7 December 2023 Bart Hempen and Bram Van den Broeck (Odisee UAS) participated in the workshop titled “Developing skills in the bio-based industries: future bioeconomy education pathways” at the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint-Undertaking (CBE JU) Stakeholder Forum.

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is a partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) that funds projects advancing competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe.

The workshop brought together the projects in bioeconomy education: BioBec, BioGov.net and our sister-project GenB.

The objective of this workshop is to outline the necessary and missing skills and future job profiles, as well as discuss the skills-related regional dimension and priorities and share strategies to attract students and professionals towards careers related to the bioeconomy.

The BIObec project aims to build bridges between the bio-based industry and the education system by interlinking universities, innovation labs, and R&D centres with industrial actors and regions. https://biobec.eu/

BioGov.net establishes innovative governance models in the bioeconomy by providing an inclusive training and mentoring framework in specific European regions and building a bridge between knowledge and skills in the bioeconomy, secured by effective governance. https://www.biogov.net/

GenB is about informing and educating young people on more sustainable behaviours and choices to build a future Generation informed and interested in Bioeconomy. https://www.genb-project.eu/

Participants of the workshop presented and discussed success stories and formats for designing educational pathways that address the skills needed in the bio-based sector.

One of the questions that was addressed: “How to inspire, inform and attract students and professionals towards careers related to the bioeconomy?” Here we responded: “Young ambassadors should share their bioeconomy story. Students need to be made aware  of bioeconomy activities and jobs in their local area. Come to our BioBeo festival (www.biobeo.eu) on 15/3/24 at Odisee BXL.” At the networking break thereafter connections for the festival were made.