Flagships of the Bioeconomy in Austria

Contribution to the implementation of the Austrian bioeconomy strategy Bioeconomy stands for an economic concept that aims to replace fossil resources (raw materials and energy sources) with renewable raw materials in as many sectors and applications as possible. It encompasses all industrial and economic sectors that produce, process or use biological resources.

The bioeconomy thus offers a great opportunity to meet global challenges, such as advancing climate change, food and water shortages or increasing environmental pollution, while at the same time strengthening economic development. The bioeconomy therefore represents one of the four fundamental pillars of the decarbonisation of the economy and consequently makes a significant contribution to the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality.

The framework for the implementation of the bioeconomy is provided by the Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy adopted in 2019. In this strategy, guidelines were developed - in alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – to address potential conflicts of objectives and to optimise synergies with other objectives of the 2030 Agenda, which will subsequently guide all activities in the field of the bioeconomy.

The federal government has committed itself to implementing the Austrian bioeconomy strategy in the government programme 2020-2024 (→ BKA). The programme has already formulated recommendations for action that contribute to the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality.

Pathway to the implementation of the Austrian bioeconomy strategy
Based on a structured and participatory process with 20 events and more than 400 participating experts from business, science, civil society and administration, about 800 inputs in the field of bioeconomy were collected and processed into more than 100 measures in various aggregation processes.

The "Flagships of the Bioeconomy" show the first steps of the transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality. They bring the bioeconomy measures that are currently being implemented before the curtain and show the important contribution they make to making Austria's economy more sustainable and climate-friendly.

Flagships of the Bioeconomy

Flagship "Sustainable Bio-based Consumption Patterns"

This flagship deals with measures to achieve a corresponding willingness on the part of consumers to change their behaviour towards more conscious consumption, for example through the repair bonus or the example of public authorities.

Flagship "Promoting and demanding the bioeconomy"

This flagship contains the new bioeconomy-relevant funding priorities of domestic environmental funding (UFI) as well as current activities and possible options for reducing land sealing.

Flagship "Regional value creation through the bioeconomy"

On the one hand, this flagship describes regional infrastructure measures that can be supported, among other things, by the future design of rural development. Thus, the Climate and Energy Fund's call for proposals for a bioeconomy/circular economy priority region in Austria was also carried out within the framework of the Climate and Energy Model Region (KEM) programme. After numerous applications, the Styrian Volcanic Region was able to secure the award.

More information at → vulkanland.at

Flagship "Driving innovation in renewable resource use"

This highlights research cooperations and introduces new topics for implementing the bioeconomy strategy, such as pushing starch as a raw material or textile recycling as part of applied research.

Flagship "Biobased circular economy"

The bioeconomy-relevant spectrum of the circular economy and the green chemistry initiatives already being implemented or the development of a secondary raw materials market are presented here.

Flagship "Austrian Timber Initiative"

The measures of the Austrian Forest Fund aim, among other things, at the development of climate-safe forests, the promotion of biodiversity in the forest and at strengthening the use of wood as a raw material as an active contribution to climate protection. Numerous measures of the Austria Forest Fund also contribute to the implementation of the bioeconomy strategy. For example, as part of the Austrian Wood Initiative, timber construction is to be promoted more strongly, research intensified and technical infrastructures for the production of gas, biofuels and hydrogen from wood financed.

More information at → bml.gv.at

Flagship "Understanding Ecological Guardrails of the Bioeconomy"

This flagship describes basic life science research for sustainable bioeconomy development as well as future developments on research infrastructure in this field.

More information at → boku.ac.at and → ffg.at

Flagship "Awareness Raising - Knowledge Management Bioeconomy"

This describes bioeconomy-relevant focal points in the curricula, as well as measures for raising awareness to deepen knowledge about the bioeconomy, and knowledge transfer from research to all levels of the education system.

Brochure "Flagship Projects of the Bioeconomy in Austria" (PDF, 6 MB)