Increasing knowledge of biological processes leads to innovations well suited for addressing societal challenges. The field in which this innovation occurs has been framed as ‘the bioeconomy’. For the European Commission, “[t]he bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources from land and sea – such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms – to produce food, materials and energy”.1 Envisioning the future and focusing more on biotechnology, an OECD study predicts that “[t]he bioeconomy in 2030 is likely to involve three elements: advanced knowledge of genes and complex cell processes, renewable biomass, and the integration of biotechnology applications across sectors”.2 We treat R&I on bio-based materials as well as bioenergy jointly as both sectors can be expected to have highly complementary effects, e.g. in terms of inputs and the use of bio-reactors.3 While the bioeconomy has vast potentials in terms of resource efficiency and renewable energy, there is also the danger that it is competing for land with other use forms, e.g. food and forests. Currently biomass has very low demand elasticity and its consumption thus hardly increases with income. However, the increasing use of biomass in high-tech applications will result in a higher elasticity, thus leading to a coupling of demand with income. This can be expected to increase the prices for biomass.4 Increased hunger for land - if unchecked - may lead to further loss of biodiversity and quality soil and serious risks for subsistence consumption in low-income countries. This makes the source of feedstock an important consideration: What uses are competing? How can biomass production be increased without upsetting eco-systems? Does it need to be increased or can we use it more efficiently instead?

• 1. Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014 - 2015. 12. Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials. European Commission Decision C (2015) 2453 of 17 April 2015. http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/ma...
• 2. OECD International Futures Programme. 2009. The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda. Paris: OECD., p. 19
• 3. See e.g. Ntaikou, I., C. Kourmentza, E. C. Koutrouli, K. Stamatelatou, A. Zampraka, M. Kornaros, and G. Lyberatos. 2009. ‘Exploitation of Olive Oil Mill Wastewater for Combined Biohydrogen and Biopolymers Production’. Bioresource Technology, Second International Conference on Engineering for Waste Valorisation (WasteEng2008, 100 (15): 3724–30. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2008.12.001.
• 4. Steinberger, Julia K., and Fridolin Krausmann. 2011. ‘Material and Energy Productivity’. Environmental Science & Technology 45 (4): 1169–76., pp. 1173f.