Helmholtz expands research on bioeconomy

With its new Sustainable Bioeconomy portfolio theme, the Helmholtz Association is expanding its research network in the field and closing research gaps. The move will bring together five Helmholtz Centres, seven universities, one Fraunhofer Institute and the German Biomass Research Centre to study how to make the biomass business economically, ecologically and socially sustainable. The project will receive a total of €13.5 million in funding from the Helmholtz Association until 2015 with matching contributions from partner institutions. After this period, work in the area will continue within the framework of Helmholtz research programmes.

“We need a solid foundation of knowledge to develop sustainable usage scenarios for natural resources that are ecologically, socially and economically viable. That is why the Helmholtz Association has decided to strengthen its research on bioeconomy and to network the full ensemble of players,” says the Helmholtz Association’s President, Prof. Jürgen Mlynek.

Bioeconomy research is becoming more important around the globe. In the future it will make key contributions to solving the world’s food, energy and natural resource problems. In Germany the federal government has added the topic to its High-Tech Strategy. But the country’s Bioeconomy Council – created by the federal government as an advisory body and filled with high-ranking representatives from science, business, and society – reported in autumn 2010 that the national bioeconomy research landscape was very fragmented. In the light of this finding, two thirds of portfolio financing has been earmarked for networking projects that will feature cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional projects of current interest for bioeconomy research. The remaining third of portfolio financing will support innovative research topics such as using plants as raw materials for making bioplastics, or molecular farming, which uses genetically modified plants to produce active ingredients for medicine. Microalgae will also be scrutinised more closely for its suitability as a source of biomass and other valuable materials.

Participating partners bring a variety of competencies to the table, ranging from sustainable biomass and biogenic resource production, processing and conversion to environmental systems analysis, socioeconomic analysis and political consulting.

Partners in the Sustainable Bioeconomy project:

Forschungszentrum Jülich (spokesman Prof. Ulrich Schurr)
Helmholtz Zentrum München
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ ? German Research Centre for Geosciences
Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC ) (University of Bonn, University of Düsseldorf, RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich)
University of Stuttgart
University of Leipzig
Technische Universität München
Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus
Deutsches BiomasseForschungszentrum, Leipzig
Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Stuttgart

The portfolio process in the Helmholtz Association

Within the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation, the German federal government increased annual funding for research organisations to enable them to address issues of direct relevance to the future of society, promote talented young scientists and make research in Germany even more competitive and productive. The Helmholtz Association is using part of these additional funds to finance a number of portfolio themes that a panel of experts from all the Helmholtz Centres identified as particularly promising during a comprehensive evaluation process. The Association’s university partners will benefit from the funding, too. From the next funding period, work on the portfolio themes will be continued within regular research programmes.