Sponsor Minister Peter Hauk MdL announces the Ideenwettbewerb Bioökonomie 2024. Eligible applicants include bioeconomic innovations, particularly those along the value chains of the agricultural, food, or wood industries.

Not only can the development or production process of a product stand as the focal point here, innovative services and business models are included as well. Beyond that, the state intends to highlight bioeconomic innovations that meaningfully contribute to the climate neutrality of Baden-Württemberg.

Winners will receive up to 10,000 Euros and will be recognized personally by Minister Peter Hauk during a public award ceremony.

(EN: At the Forefront! – Leader in Technology)
Objective: “Spitze auf dem Land! Technologieführer (ELR)” aligns itself toward innovation-oriented enterprises that have the potential to contribute to the technology leadership of Baden-Württemberg. There is a special focus on future-oriented enterprises that are advancing innovations for a circularly oriented economy or are in the realm of bioeconomy.
 
Target Audiences: Small and medium-sized enterprises in rural municipalities according to the Regional Development Plan (Landesentwicklungsplan) Baden-Württemberg.

Sponsor Minister Peter Hauk MdL announces the “Ideenwettbewerb Bioökonomie 2023” (EN: Bioeconomy Idea Competition 2023). The competition is seeking innovations along the agriculture, food, or wood value chains.
 
The focus is not only limited to products, but also the development of products or processes, as well as services and business models. More specifically, the state wants to recognize bioeconomic innovations that meaningfully contribute to the climate neutrality of Baden-Württemberg.
 
Winners will receive 10,000 Euro at an award ceremony on the 20th of November, 2023.

(EN: Sustainable Bioeconomy as a Driver of Innovation for Rural Development)
Objective: The Ministry of Food, Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection promotes applied research and development in the following focus areas: the efficient and sustainable production and provision of regional biomass, consumer-oriented product and process innovations along the food value chain, intelligent raw material and material flow management, new materials from wood, lignocellulosic crops and agricultural side streams as well as innovative concepts for the continued development of biogas plants.
 
Target Audiences: Universities and non-university-based research institutions as partners in combination with commercial industries such as societies, associations, civic cooperatives, non-governmental organizations.

(EN: Bioeconomy Innovation and Investment Program for Rural Development)
Objective: Under two funding lines, the Ministry of Food, Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection will support enterprises while they achieve their sustainable and innovative potential. R&D as well as investment projects are encouraged, particularly the construction of innovative production lines through investment grants. These measures shall achieve effective contributions to Baden-Württemberg’s sustainability and climate protection goals as well as ecological modernization of the economy, especially in the field of rural development.
 
Target Audiences: Small and medium-sized enterprises, or large enterprises as partners in combination with universities and research institutions, and associations.

(EN: Network initiatives for the development of Baden-Württemberg as a leading region of sustainable bioeconomy)
Objective: The funding program "Netzwerkinitiativen zur Weiterentwicklung der Leitregion Nachhaltige Bioökonomie Baden-Württemberg" supports topic-specific network initiatives that want to contribute to the implementation and continuing development of the circular economy of Baden-Württemberg. It shall support the dissemination and use of knowledge concerning the cultivation and utilization of resources from regional agricultural and forestry industries and enable the transition of the economy.
 
The funding line “Fachinitiativen” (EN: Subject initiatives) aims at the development of guidelines and concepts, as well as feasibility studies for the implementation of bioeconomical value networks.
 
The funding line “Clusterinitiativen” (EN: Cluster Initiatives) aims at the development of feasibility studies and concepts concerning the construction of new networks and clusters, with the goal of initiating long-term, structured collaboration.
 
The funding line “Bildungs- und Informationsinitiativen” (EN: Education and Information Initiatives) aims at the development of guidelines, concepts and learning material for consultation, education or higher education in bioeconomy, or selected topics of the bioeconomy.

Objective: RegioWIN aligns itself with actors from local public authorities, economy, and science in the regions and anyone that feels responsible for or is involved in the development of their area.

The Ministry of Finance, Labor and Tourism, together in cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts and the Ministry of Food, Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection, have launched the “Regionale Wettwebwerbsfähigkeit durch Innovation und Nachhaltigkeit – RegionWIN 2030” (EN: Regional Competitiveness through Innovation and Sustainability – RegioWIN 2030”) competition. The duration of the competition will be the European Regional Development Fund’s (ERDF/DE: EFRE) funding phase of 2021-2027. The goal is to optimize utilization of regional and local competencies in the framework of bottom-up processes.
 
“RegionWIN 2030” aims to improve the competitiveness of the region through innovation and sustainability to contribute to futureproof regional development.

As a state with a strong industrial sector and a focus on economic activity in the field of systems engineering, Baden-Württemberg requires a secure, sustainable supply of high tech raw materials such as rare earth metals. An innovative and biological technology such as biomining may just be the answer.
 
Biomining makes even deposits of small volumes of raw materials accessible and allows raw materials to be extracted from industrial waste materials such as metal slag or e-waste. In this way, sustainable biomining contributes to the conservation of resources and the protection of the environment.
 
The Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector funded technological and market feasibility studies, as well as other short feasibility studies into this important field.

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, together with the EU Commission, is funding the construction and implementation of five modular biorefineries as part of the ERDF funding programme "Bio-Economy Bio-Ab-Cycling".

In a sustainable bioeconomy, wastewater and waste treatment plants become important suppliers of raw materials. The aim is to obtain raw materials for products from waste and wastewater, which are then returned to the economic cycle and put to economic use.