Projects
EBU Projects
Bioeconomy Austria
Bioeconomy Austria is a growing and Austria-wide bioeconomy network of companies, research, politics and society.
The goal is to exchange knowledge, close loops and identify and implement joint projects. Because in the sense of the bioeconomy, renewable raw materials from forests, water and fields create regional added value, supply security and sustainable living conditions.
The implementation of a sustainable bioeconomy means turning away from fossil resources (raw materials, energy) and pushing renewable raw materials. This brings new opportunities for the business location, protects the climate and takes competing land use interests into account. Bioeconomy Austria first links all relevant and interested stakeholders who want to move towards this goal in a network and then forms a thematic bioeconomy cluster with the participants. Clusters follow the logic of a value chain-oriented synchronisation of business, research and location policy objectives. Projects in the area of RTI, cooperation and know-how transfer, as well as lead projects in the area of education, co-design and cross-sector networking are considered as levers for this. At the beginning of the project, the focus is laid on the wood sector; subsequently, the methodology developed will be extended to all areas of the Austrian bioeconomy.
Find out more on the project homepage https://www.bioeconomy-austria.at/
Wood for Globe - Towards a Global Wood Policy Platform: Sustainable Wood for a Carbon-neutral Bioeconomy
Wood and non-wood forest products and their value chains provide substantial contributions to rural and urban livelihoods and directly contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Scaling-up the sustainable use of wood as a carbon-neutral material in construction or wood fibre utilization has high potential to become a cost-effective and innovative contribution at scale to achieve carbon neutrality and build more resilient economies.
The project fosters on the one hand dialogues on policy-level and on the other hand the technical/practical exchange of expertise through mobility grants including academia. Sharing and learning from latest-available scientific knowledge and experiences supports informed decision making and contributes to ensuring a resilient and diverse natural resource base.
This project is understood as a steppingstone to a longer-term vision strengthening the global efforts of scaling up sustainable wood use in the context of the Austrian wood-based bioeconomy and climate protection efforts and linking them with sub-regional initiatives such as the European Green Deal and the related New European Bauhaus.
The proposed initiative and global dialogue platform allow to strengthen the international dimension of the Austrian Wood Fund (Österreichischer Waldfonds) and to specifically scale up the use of wood in view of contribution to global climate goals aligned with the “Think.Wood” and “Bioeconomy Austria” initiatives as part of sustainable economies. Given that wood as a renewable material has been identified as top priority on the Austrian political agenda towards a bioeconomy, the project will provide a timely contribution to the ongoing policy debate in Austria.
Project coordinator: IUFRO
Project partner: FAO
Project duration: December 2022 – September 2024
Project funding: Austrian Forest Fund (Österreichischer Waldfonds, M9)
Centre for Bioeconomy in the FIS
For further information please, have a look on the BOKU page Forschungsinformationssystem (FIS).