Public Interventions Debate on the Biobased Industries
Today, in the European Parliament, Maria da Graça Carvalho co-hosted with Teresa Riera Madurell an event on HORIZON 2020: The best funding model for the Biobased Industries, organized by Novozymes.
The speakers included Maíre Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research & Innovation; Marie Donnelly, Director for new and renewable sources of energy, DG Energy, European Commission; Lars Hansen, President Region Europe, Novozymes; and David Baldock, Executive Director, Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).
The debate aimed at bringing together people from across the European Parliament, Commission, and Council, Government representatives and various businesses to debate the research and innovation potential of biobased industries in order to accelerate the development of the bioeconomy in Europe.
During the opening remarks, Maria da Graça Carvalho said that the European industry and, in particular, the biobased industries have the scientific, technological, and financial know-how to spearhead the shift to a sustainable resource-efficient utilisation of Europe´s renewable raw materials and, by so doing, lead the world into a new economic era.
Background information: The biobased vision is for a competitive, innovative and sustainable Europe: leading the transition towards a post-petroleum society while decoupling economic growth from resource depletion and environmental impact.
In this vision, the biobased industries will optimize land use and food security through a sustainable, resource-efficient and largely waste-free utilisation of Europe's renewable raw materials for industrial processing into a wide array of biobased products, from advanced biofuels to biomaterials.
In the context of the European Parliament discussions on Horizon 2020 and the Bioeconomy Strategy, the event pretended to provide an opportunity to debate the establishment of a PPP in the form of a Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) for biobased industries in Europe, how it can overcome the challenges involved in commercializing major society-changing new technologies and accelerate the development of the biobased economy in Europe.
In the picture Maíre Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research & Innovation with Maria da Graça Carvalho and Teresa Riera Madurell.