Regional meets national

The Bio4MatPro competence centre is a flagship project funded by the BMBF as part of the structural change in the Rhenish mining area (NRW), which is driving forward the biological transformation of industries in the region and testing it in 23 R&D projects. This year's Bio4MatPro annual meeting took place on 6 and 7 May and was also attended by the BMWK-funded TransBIB project. Prof. Ulrich Schwaneberg from the Chair of Biotechnology at RWTH Aachen University is the initiator and coordinator of the Bio4MatPro competence centre and heads work package 5 "Industry-related training" as part of the TransBIB project.

Against the backdrop of the Henkel Centre in Düsseldorf, TransBIB project coordinator Dr Matthias Scholz (Technical University of Munich) presented the "Transfer Network for Accelerating the Industrial Bioeconomy" with its core approaches for establishing and scaling bioeconomic solutions. Max Kroymann, representing the BMWK, was also present as part of a panel discussion on the needs of innovation ecosystems for the biological transformation of industries.

As a central goal of TransBIB, the exchange and networking with regional activities and lighthouse projects from the model regions of the bioeconomy is the key to a national "bottom-up" network. The TransBIB partner CLIB - Cluster Industrial Biotechnology was also present at the conference and presented the newly launched graduate cluster "AUFBRUCH", funded by the BMBF. The "KlarTEXT" cooperation platform project, which focuses on the textile industry, was also presented by Prof. Rabe from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences as part of the presentation of key players in structural change.

In addition to representatives from academia, politics and associations, industry representatives and start-up sponsors were also present.