General Definition Bioeconomy

"The concept of bioeconomy covers the agricultural industry and all manufacturing sectors and their respective service areas, which develop, produce, process, reprocess or use them in any form biological resources such as plants, animals and microorganisms. Thus, it achieves a variety of industries such as agriculture, forestry, horticulture, fisheries and aquaculture, plant and animal breeding, food and beverage, wood, paper, leather, textile, chemical and pharmaceutical industries up to branches of energy industry."

These topics are described in English as the 4Fs (feed, food, fiber and fuel). In Europe it is called "knowledge based bio-economy '(KBBE). "Knowledge based" and "biobased" are the two core elements of this area which is characterized by its great diversity. Research and development in bioeconomy interlink classic academic areas, such as agricultural and food research with new research areas, such as white, green or red biotechnology. In this field, the biotechnology is going to transform many sectors of the economy within the next years, in particular in the fields of medicine, health, agriculture and nutrition. Furthermore, the efficient coupling of biological and chemical synthesis processes will be of great importance for the production of energy and raw materials.

Bioeconomy allows the use of available biological resources more effectively than previously by innovative methods and to supplement their fields of application on the basis of new scientific knowledge and findings.