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2013|14 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

29 at 24 universities, universities of applied research and non- university research institutions. From these they distilled seven scientifically suitable core research areas for Baden- Württemberg, and chose two spokespersons for each of these subgroups. The groups acted within a structure of supply and demand: thus, on the supply side, the research areas deemed most important were agricultural and plant sciences, forestry, aquatic biomass and biogenic residues. On the demand / uti- lization side, the key areas identified were application fields such as food production, and, subsequently, the material and energetic use of waste materials. This enabled the creation of a competence matrix, in which biodiversity, water and soil conservation, ethics, as well as economic and social sciences were named as cross-disciplinary areas. Following in-depth data collection and its detailed analysis, the strategy group identified three areas of research that, with the help of targeted research funding, will soon be able to provide visible stimuli to research and industry in Baden- Württemberg and beyond. The plan focuses on three areas of research – biogas, lignocellulose and algae – and at the same identifies structural measures to profile and sustainably strengthen Baden-Württemberg as an innovative bioeconomy region. Research fields for Baden-Württemberg Biogas has been identified as a research field for which sci- entific know-how is already available in Baden-Württemberg along the entire value chain. It therefore lends itself as an ear- ly candidate for implementation of the bioeconomy systems approach. Lignocellulose research is characterized by a large number of individual competencies spread across a broad spectrum of knowledge. The first step must therefore be to improve the bundling and networking of existing expertise, so that implementation is realistic in the medium term. The plan ascribes the highest degree of innovation – and conse- quently long-term perspectives – to research into the use of microalgae. The key objective here is the economically effi- cient production of microalgae along the lines of a biorefinery, i.e. production by means of integrated material and energetic use and for multiple applications. The selection of the three above-named areas with their sub-themes as research priori- ties is expected to lead to many completely new combinations of existing scientific competences, and thus promises great potential for innovation in Baden-Württemberg. Structural measures To underline the systemic approach, the development of re- search fields will be supported through the Baden-Württem- berg government’s new Bioeconomy Research Program and flanked by structural measures. The strategy group proposed three measures: a competence center for modeling and simu- lation of bioeconomy systems, a common graduate program to integrate bioeconomy from the start in the education of doctorate students, and a concept for the joint use of infra- structure that will enable the resource-efficient use of large and technically complex equipment in future. With its mani- fold expertise and experience in the field of bioeconomy that is characterized by the reconciling of seemingly conflicting demands, the Fraunhofer IGB itself has been able to contrib- ute many new impulses. It thus opens up new perspectives for innovation to its partners from science and industry both in Baden-Württemberg and further afield. Dipl.-Agr.-Biol. Sabine Krieg MBA Phone +49 711 970-4003 sabine.krieg@igb.fraunhofer.de Contact

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