Nexus Bioeconomy 2026: “Actionable Pathways toward a Biobased Economy”

On 25^th August 2026, stakeholders from politics, industry, startups, research, and agriculture gathered at RootCamp for Nexus Bioeconomy 2026 to accelerate the transition from biological innovation to industrial application. Under the theme “Actionable Pathways toward a Biobased Economy,” the event demonstrated that building a competitive sector requires immediate, coordinated action across all value chains.

The program opened with remarks from Hannover Mayor Belit Onay, framing the bioeconomy as an indispensable strategy for regional resilience and climate adaptation.

Mind the Gap: The Infrastructure Imperative

The first panel confronted the most pressing physical barrier to scaling: infrastructure. Panelists Frederieke Reiners (GEA Group), Justus Reich (MicroHarvest), and Nicolaj Christoffersen (Danish Technological Institute) concluded that technology is no longer the main bottleneck. Reiners explained that promising technologies lack access to contract manufacturing and scaling facilities required to validate processes on industrial equipment. Justus Reich (Micro Harvest) emphasized the urgent need for open, "flexible scaling environments at a CMO capacity" to help startups achieve early commercial validation without bearing unfeasible upfront capital costs. Christoffersen advocated for open-access, multi-purpose facilities coupled with strong local ecosystems to prevent European innovations from migrating abroad: "Europe is not going to win on state aid, we have to be able to run the business ourselves".

Bioeconomy is not a niche. It is a strategic industry

Grant Hendrik Tonne, Lower Saxony's Minister for Economic Affairs, framed in his keynote that the bioeconomy is a central pillar of modern industrial policy rather than a niche environmental issue. He highlighted that reducing fossil raw material dependencies is critical for strengthening economic resilience and overall market competitiveness. Minister Tonne emphasized that regions like Lower Saxony possess a unique advantage by combining agricultural strength, industrial capacity, and a dynamic startup ecosystem to build complete, regional circular value chains. However, he noted that the primary challenge is now scaling these innovations, which requires robust, cross-sector collaboration to successfully transition from early founding phases to full-scale industrial application

Innovation Ecosystems and Cross-Sector Cooperation

During the second panel discussion, Lothar Hövelmann (DLG) emphasized that uniting traditional farming with new technologies is the missing link for market success: "What is lacking is the combination of the different actors in the chain. If you bring them together, making the processes better, making the products better, I think that will work". Agricultural entrepreneur Michel Finke echoed this need to break out of isolated industry silos: "We need cooperation, not just in the specific industrial bubble, like Hemp. We need to work together to get economically viable solutions. Michelle Spitzer (eco:fibr) emphasized that utilizing agricultural residues requires creating real economic value for biomass producers: "People often say, 'you use waste products so it must be really cheap,' but that's too simple, we have to give agricultural producers an economic perspective to change their daily business and make biomass utilization viable for the farmers themselves".

Europe Needs a long term industrial strategy for bioeconomy 

Expanding on this strategic need, Dr. Christian Janze of EY provided a macroeconomic perspective, warning that the global economy is rapidly restructuring around technology and circularity. He explained that the international shift toward a biobased economy is driven primarily by national resilience and the need for supply chain independence, not solely by climate goals. Pointing to competitors like China, which has explicitly targeted bioeconomy leadership in its latest five-year plan, Dr. Janze stressed that Europe must establish a decisive, unified industry agenda. He cautioned that failing to invest heavily in cross-sector collaborations and scaling infrastructure risks leaving Europe behind in the next major global economic race.

Bridging the "Valley of Death"

The third panel addressed the financial gaps halting commercialization, with participants unanimously agreeing that startups face multiple "valleys of death" rather than a single hurdle. Katrien Swerts (Rabo Investments) noted that while the jump from lab to pilot is difficult, the second valley (moving from pilot to a first-of-a-kind facility) is the deepest. Swerts called for creative blended-finance solutions to bridge this gap: "If we really don't want to miss out on this race, then we need to act now... we need to create some sort of coalition of the willing". Prateek Mahalwar (Bioweg) echoed this continuous challenge for entrepreneurs, stating, "there is no one valley of death. There are many". Mahalwar emphasized that navigating these successive phases requires strict market parity: "Price is the king in agriculture... bioeconomy needs to match synthetic economy prices. There is no other way out". Panelists, including Stefan Schwarz (KWS) and Andreas Recklingloh (Rentenbank), agreed that successfully crossing these multiple funding gaps requires not just public grants, but early customer integration and highly viable business models.

Moving from Discussion to Concrete Action

Instead of rushing to theoretical solutions, the event concluded with interactive breakout workshops exploring the problem spaces of infrastructure, cooperation, and the valley of death. Participants collaboratively revealed how these scaling challenges look different depending on stakeholder perspectives. The workshop affirmed the conference's ultimate takeaway: ideas, expertise, and willingness exist, and innovation hubs like RootCamp are essential for turning them into actionable projects.