CEE2ACT Wrap-Up: Advancing Bioeconomy Action in Central and Eastern Europe

With the European Union’s updated Bioeconomy Strategy now in place, a crucial question comes to the forefront: how can national bioeconomy ambitions be translated into inclusive, actionable plans on the ground? At the final conference of the CEE2ACT project in Budapest, Hungary the CSCP project team explored this challenge by sharing insights from the journeys of ten Central and Eastern European countries. The discussion highlighted what it truly takes to build stakeholder-driven bioeconomy initiatives,  rooted in national contexts, shaped by collaboration, and capable of delivering tangible impact.

At the conference “The Future of the Bioeconomy in Central and Eastern Europe”, policymakers, industry representatives, researchers, and civil society organisations came together to discuss how European priorities can be turned into concrete action across the region.

Ten national bioeconomy roadmaps developed through the CEE2ACT project within the framework of EU priorities were presented, with a focus on a practical question: what actually works when building inclusive, stakeholder-driven bioeconomy initiatives at national level?

To answer this, the CSCP developed ten National Bioeconomy Hub Sheets and a Cross-Country Analysis Sheet, capturing concrete lessons from across Central and Eastern Europe. Based on experiences from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These concise insights highlight effective approaches to engaging stakeholders, coordinating diverse actors, and turning strategy into action.

The sheets were presented alongside national hub posters during a guided poster walk, where hub coordinators shared their roadmaps and engaged directly with participants. Together, the posters and sheets linked concrete national actions to broader lessons on stakeholder engagement, governance, and collaboration—helping participants move from individual examples to transferable insights.

The sheets also capture key challenges—such as maintaining long-term engagement and aligning diverse stakeholder interests. These insights are synthesised in the Cross-Country Analysis, which identifies shared patterns across all ten countries, including success factors, recurring bottlenecks, and transferable lessons to support bioeconomy implementation in line with the EU’s renewed focus on circularity, inclusiveness, and regional ownership.

These messages were reinforced through discussions with national ministries, the European Commission, the BIOEAST Initiative, and related EU-funded projects BIOECO-UP, BOOST4BIOEAST, and BIO-INSPIRE.

With the publication of the ten National Bioeconomy Hub Sheets and the Cross-Country Analysis, the CSCP invites policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to explore practical lessons from Central and Eastern Europe and draw inspiration for advancing the EU’s circular bioeconomy transition through participatory approaches.

Download the 10 national Bioeconomy Sheets—Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia—and check out the cross-country analysis for a comparative perspective.

For a comprehensive read on the impact evaluation of the CEE2ACT project, please read the impact report.

The CEE2ACT project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme and will run for three years (2022-2025), led by a consortium of 17 European partners.

For further questions, please contact Kartika Anggraeni.