According to UNO estimations, the world population is going to increase significantly from at present 7 billion to more than9 billion people by 2050. Simultaneously, the available agricultural area and grassland will decrease rapidly due to climate changes and soil degradation and fossil fuels will be exhausted in the foreseeable future. For these reasons, humankind will be confronted with great challenges and has to change its dealing with natural resources. Existing biological resources must be used by innovative processes more sustainably than before. Bioeconomy can significantly contribute to meeting these challenges. The basics of bioeconomy are the biotechnological research and the resulting innovations in the agricultural economy and the manufacturing sectors and all related services, which develop, produce and process or otherwise use the biological resources (plants, animals, microorganisms).

Plants are the central column of the bioeconomy, as they are the basis of all life. Photosynthesis provides the material basis on which our society is built on. Even today, we do not only depend on plants for our food and nourishment, but plants also provide the raw material for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries and are used as fuel.

The plant-based bioeconomy is one of the key industries of the 21st Century to secure the future provision of food, feed and renewable resources and to overcome the dependence on fossil fuels. The ScienceCampus Halle - plant-based bioeconomy (WCH) unites leading experts in the field of plant science, agricultural, economic and social sciences in order to meet these social challenges of our time.