BioBeo

BioBeo.eu has organised a festival to invite a young audience from all over Europe to celebrate and learn about the bioeconomy. For this, the project joined with project GenB and the Bioeconomy Youth Ambassadors appointed by the EC in participating in a Bioeconomy Festival under the auspices of the European Commission in Brussels in March 2024.

On March 15, the BioBeo bioeconomy festival took place on the Brussels campus of Odisee University of Applied Sciences. It was organised by the partners Maynooth, STICHTING HOGESCHOOL ROTTERDAM and ODISEE. The festival aimed to bring bioeconomy closer to education and was created with the support of the European Commission. The Five BioBeo themes provided a structure for this input to the Festival from BioBeo. University Maynooth developed educational resources based on the BioBeo themes relevant to preschool and primary level while STICHTING HOGESCHOOL ROTTERDAM and ODISEE did the same for secondary level.

An event in light of the EU Bioeconomy Changemakers Festival

The ‘Bioeconomy Changemakers Festival’ was organised by the European Commissionin cooperation with the Bioeconomy Youth Ambassadors, and was be accompanied by independent satellite events all over Europe – BioBeo was one of them. The Festival aimed to engage youth as drivers of the transformative change required in view of the multiple challenges that Europe faces today, and to unlock the potential of the bioeconomy to make the transformation happen. In addition, the Festival aimed to help the European Commission to gather views on an update of the Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan.

A day full of activities and excitement

Various workshops and lectures took place at the bioeconomy festival. Secondary school students learned, among other things, how to grow mushrooms on coffee grounds or were immersed in the beauty of forests through an art installation, in collaboration with the organisations as PermaFungi and BOS+ respectively.

A number of officials from the European Commission attended aswell.

The BioBeo festival marks an innovative step in bioeconomy education. Bart Hempen, BioBeo project coordinator for Odisee University of Applied Sciences, emphasizes: “The aim of this project and festival is to bring the bioeconomy closer to education and thus involve young people in sustainable initiatives.” Horizon Europe” – which finances BioBeo – helps to develop and implement European partnerships.

Led by Maynooth University, it was decided to advertise the BioBeo festival as a ‘circular sustainable fashion festival’ whereby the participants and facilitators would be invited to wear old clothes, clothes purchased in their local charity shops, or clothes made specifically using sustainable materials. Dr Máire Nic an Bhaird and Dr Laoise Ní Chléirigh were tasked with interviewing attendees regarding their sartorial choices and they were posted on the BioBeo Instagram page to draw attention to this novel and innovative idea.

If you are interested in details, you can read all about the festival here: https://www.biobeo.eu/festival/

Keywords

Bioeconomy, Youth, Teenager, Children, Future, Development, Sustainability, Challenge, Competition, Citizen Engagement, Forestry, Water, Interconnectedness, Outdoor Learning