ISSN 2280-6180 (print) © Firenze University Press ISSN 2280-6172 (online) www.fupress.com/bae Bio-based and Applied Economics 3(1): 83-91, 2014 DOI: 10.13128/BAE-14189 Observing and analysing the Bioeconomy in the EU – Adapting data and tools to new questions and challenges ROBERT M’BAREK * , GEORGE PHILIPPIDIS, CORNELIA SUTA, CRISTINA VINYES, ARNALDO CAIVANO, EMANUELE FERRARI, TEVECIA RONZON, ANA SANJUAN LOPEZ, FABIEN SANTINI European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Prospective and Technological Studies (IPTS) 1 Abstract. he concept of ‘bioeconomy’ is receiving increased attention in policy and business circles. he European Commission (EC) has initiated the Bioeconomy Strat- egy which is a signal of intent that the EU seeks to meet the challenge of reconciling responsible-resource usage respecting sustainability criteria, with wealth-generation. To this aim, the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been entrusted to implement a Bioeconomy Information Systems Observatory within which the objective is to devel- op an ongoing coherent picture of the activities of this sector, whilst developing for- ward-looking tools of analysis to help respond to the aforementioned challenge. his paper provides a discussion on the research activities which are currently under devel- opment at the JRC. Whilst the scale of ambition of the Bioeconomy Observatory is signiicant, it is recognised that much of the research conducted so-far remains work- in-progress and is therefore only a starting point to fully capturing the nuances of this diverse and complex sector. Keywords. Bioeconomy, European Union, Social Accounting Matrix, CGE, databases. JEL Codes. Q1, Q2 1. Introduction As a relection of the importance of the ‘bioeconomy’ in European Union (EU) pol- icy circles, in late 2012 the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation led an initiative known as the ‘Bioeconomy Strategy’, co-signed by the Commissioners for Agriculture and Rural Development, Environment, Maritime Afairs, and Industry and Entrepreneurship. Within this strategy, the EC deines the bioeconomy as, “the produc- tion of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioen- ergy” (EC, 2012, p. 3). Indeed, as a potentially important source of sustainable growth within the EU, the European Commission (EC) deinition of ‘bioeconomy’ encompasses all kinds of biomass use whilst respecting three sustainability goals (economic, social, and environmental). * Corresponding author: Robert.M’barek@ec.europa.eu.