Irish Bioeconomy Forum 2.0 (2024 to 2025)

Ireland’s first Bioeconomy Action Plan was published in October 2023. Action 1.3 of this Plan details a specific objective to renew the Irish Bioeconomy Forum for the period of the Action Plan (up to 2025) and to develop and implement an annual operational work programme for the group.

DAFM and DECC, as the lead stakeholders for this task, worked to re-establish the Forum in Q1 of 2024. Firstly, all past members of the Forum and Expert Advisory Group were invited to re-join the Forum. In addition to inviting previous members, DAFM and DECC sought new members to the Forum and, in February 2024, launch an Expression of Interest.

The first meeting of the renewed Irish Bioeconomy Forum took place in Backweston Laboratory Campus on 04 March 2024. The Forum now comprises 52 members, while the Expert Advisory group is made up of 19 members. The work of the Forum is supported by a Chairperson, two vice-Chairs and a Steering Group.

An Operational Framework and Annual Work Programme was developed for each year of the Forum. Based on feedback from members, three working group activities were initiated, focusing on (1) Development of a bio-industrial network in Ireland, (2) Bioeconomy demonstration initiatives, and (3) Bioeconomy & climate action.

Development of a bio-industrial network in Ireland

This scoping paper aims to support members of the Irish Bioeconomy Forum to discuss the potential for the further development of a bio-industrial network in Ireland. The key point from the paper is that the bioeconomy enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem identified by stakeholders requires strengthening and crunching based on a SWOT analysis and a workshop undertaken with stakeholder feedback from the Irish Bioeconomy Forum and analysis of international examples. It has been identified that the ecosystem has numerous parts but is fragmented and is not operating optimally and should be more impact focused and be able to respond more speedily.

Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiatives

This paper captures the Irish Bioeconomy Forum members’ ideation for bioeconomy demonstration initiatives in Ireland. The key point from this paper is that research has been essential in laying the foundations for the bioeconomy as it currently exists in Ireland. However, bioeconomy piloting and demonstration activities are viewed as a key component to ‘scale-up’ bioeconomy concepts and to demonstrate their viability in ‘real-world’ settings. Bioeconomy stakeholders provided context on existing bioeconomy support activities, as well as extensive details on prospective bioeconomy demonstration activities that would have the potential to significantly advance the scale-up and commercialisation of the bioeconomy across a range of opportunity areas. Bioeconomy scale-up opportunities have been identified in the agri-food, marine, construction & built environment, plastics & bioplastics, pharmaceuticals, waste valorisation, and bioenergy sectors.

Bioeconomy & Climate Action

The Forum is finalising a paper on Bioeconomy & climate action. The scope of the paper includes: (1) How bioeconomy development can contribute to achieving Ireland’s legally binding climate targets, (2) The role of the bioeconomy in supporting hard-to-abate sectors such as agriculture, construction, transport, and industry, and (3) The potential of the bioeconomy to enable carbon sequestration through soils, forestry, marine ecosystems, and bio-based products.

Members of the Irish Bioeconomy Forum, the Bioeconomy Implementation and Development Group, and other invited organisations, participated in an Irish Bioeconomy Study Tour to Denmark. The study tour took place across three days, between 18 to 20 June 2024.

• The objectives of this study tour included, among other things:

• To raise awareness of the bioeconomy and demonstrate the 'bioeconomy in action'.

• To develop bioeconomy networking and sharing of knowledge and innovation.

• To develop thought leadership and direction of travel on the bioeconomy.

• To discuss opportunities for, and barriers towards, collaboration and engagement for long-term bioeconomy development.

The study tour gave insights across the value chain, from Applied Research and Innovation, to Pilot Scale activities, to Large-scale, Commercial operations. Topics included anaerobic digestion & biomethane, biorefineries and biochar, as well as insights to bioeconomy policy, innovation, co-operative structures and clustering.

A summary note from this study tour can be viewed hereunder. If you would like to request a copy of any of the accompanying documents (as per the summary note), please email research@agriculture.gov.ie.