The International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB) is an independent think tank composed about forty high-level bioeconomy leaders and experts from all hemispheres, representing different backgrounds and expertise. While the members of the IACGB serve in their personal capacity, many of them also advise the bioeconomy landscapes and governments of the countries or regions to which they relate.
The IACGB intends to act like a platform of platforms to facilitate international collaboration and mutual exchange in all aspects of relevance for sustainable and circular bioeconomy development by working together with multiple stakeholders across the globe, through leading representatives from policy, science, civil society and the business sector.
The IACGB initiates, designs and organizes the Global Bioeconomy Summit, a leading global conference and platform for exchange and discussion of recent developments for a sustainable and circular bioeconomy worldwide. It was initially formed to support the planning and organization of the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2015 and has been maintained, extended and updated since.
The IACGB meets regularly to debate current bioeconomy developments around the world and to frame options and ideals for future developments. The IAC inspires stakeholders around the globe to take back home its recommendations and to facilitate their implementation.
Strategic Goals
To fulfill our vision and mission, we:
• observe, execute and document bioeconomy efforts globally
• identify common challenges and opportunities for synergies in the bioeconomy
• conduct a transparent and science-based dialogue among key stakeholders from governments, academia, civil societies and business
• recognize important fields and issues for international policy action and provide policy advice
• bring together and collaborate with other existing bioeconomy activities and initiatives from around the globe
• promote synergistic R&D partnerships between stakeholders from more advanced and emerging bioeconomies
• promote and induce knowledge sharing and collaboration in bioeconomy development at the local, regional and the global level
• encourage regional partnerships that can facilitate future GBSs.
Activities and Key Outputs
• One of the IACGB’s key outputs is the Global Bioeconomy Summit (GBS), a high-level biennial policy-focused conference.21 It has become the leading international bioeconomy policy event with a format to globally review and discuss emerging opportunities and challenges of bioeconomy and develop visions for future development of sustainable bioeconomy among key actors from governments, academica, industry, finance and civil society.
• The IACGB may initiate the development of a GBS partnership consortium that will help to carry the GBS forward and ensure the contingency and stability of the IACGB’s future goals and activities.
• The IACGB steers the development of GBS-signature outputs: including but not limited to exhibitions; global expert surveys; policy reports; the communiqué and a scientific high-profile journal paper.
• The IACGB supports supra-regional and global expert meetings with policymakers and policy stakeholders to motivate international collaboration and to encourage and co-organize regional bioeconomy conferences.
• The IACGB may release policy briefs on key bioeconomy-related questions, and may commission studies, develop flagship reports, market outlooks, workshops and conferences.
• The IACGB hosts a website which communicates the IACGB’s work to the broader bioeconomy community and the general public.
• The IACGB seeks to nurture the format of Bioeconomy Youth Champions as ambassadors to drive the bioeconomy among younger generations.
• The IACGB members participate in other policy & research fora to communicate policy recommendations and the IACGB understanding of sustainable bioeconomy and its contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The IACGB may develop and promote knowledge platforms where expertise can be bundled and evidence-based information on recent bioeconomy policy developments is shared.
• The IACGB may develop a mechanism to support small and medium-sized companies in the area of the bioeconomy.
