Last week we hosted our first kick-off event for the cluster. This was an important moment to highlight our plans for the coming months and to shine a light on the work of educational institutes, investors and business in realising a circular bioeconomy.
The first panel featured expert speakers from Clean Technology Centre Cork, Circular Bioeconomy Research Group at MTU, biotechnology company Nutramara, European Circular Bioeconomy Fund and CLIC Innovation.
The discussion centred on how to make circular bioeconomy mainstream. Based on their expertise, the panelists reflected on closing the gaps in skills and talent development, accessing capital, navigating the regulatory environment, access to technology processing facilities and GHG documentation and measurement.
To help close these gaps, our panelists uncovered interesting areas where collaboration is needed:
- Local projects for reduction, measurement and conversion of waste from food and processing sectors (like seafood, agri-food) into valuable bio-products through applied research, innovation projects and training.
- Investment trends and the underlying importance of preparation and networking to attract company and project financing from investors.
- A strategy and roadmap to enable collaboration and open innovation with a group of industry, SMEs, educational institutes to solve specific circular bioeconomy challenges and therefore unlocking commercialisation of new solutions required by the private sector.
To wrap up the event, a panel of speakers from Munster Technological University campuses highlighted the support available for enterprises with circular bioeconomy ideas and solutions.
Through programs support is available for market studies, enterprises (from ideation to market), technology validation, food waste prevention training, access to Irish and European networks and many more.
Check out the recording for more details and the presentation here.
At the cluster, we are currently working on the strategy and roadmap for the next 3 years, we’re looking for input from enterprises large and small and key stakeholders. Get in touch with Catriona Power info@cbcsw.ie for more information.
