Building a Better Bioeconomy, from the Ground Up: Scaling Bioeconomy Development to Reduce Risk in Biobased Value-Chain Investments

Articulated with practical goals and inclusive metrics, bioeconomy development initiatives can scale biobased value chains to confront the gathering storm of environmental, geopolitical, and socioeconomic challenges facing societies around the world. After 10 years of focusing its bioeconomy efforts on biotechnology and related R&D, the USA began to increase emphasis on biobased value chains in 2022 with the issuance of then-President Biden’s Executive Order 14081 (the “Bioeconomy EO”). While retaining significant activity in biotech innovation, much of the investment programming implemented under the Bioeconomy EO was directed toward de-risking biobased product manufacturing at higher technical readiness levels. This fostered participation by more productive enterprises and diverse stakeholders in advancing the bioeconomy, and it portended greater impact for rural economic development and defossilization of energy and manufacturing sectors. The underlying objective was to leverage ample funding from then-recent legislation in a way that would reduce risk significantly enough to catalyze greater magnitudes of investment through public–private partnerships. This would in turn promote economies of scale with the ultimate goal of achieving price competitiveness and sustained feasibility in the market. Though important accomplishments were achieved in the 2 years before the Bioeconomy EO was rescinded by the subsequent Administration, the effectiveness of these programs could have been further improved using more systematic methodologies to prioritize investments across specific sectors, segments, and geographies, with forecasting of outcomes for ecological and socioeconomic resilience. Adaptation and synthesis of such methodologies should be explored, based on comparative assessment with other action-oriented bioeconomy initiatives around the world. This is necessary to meet a higher standard of rigor in risk assessment and reduction required to attract private-sector investment and stakeholder support, which is increasingly relied upon given increasing demands on public funds for other purposes. For maximum effect, such efforts should dovetail with high-visibility development opportunities where public–private partnerships for investments in sustainability and innovation already have strong momentum.