Blue-Green Bio Lab across the BSR
Blue-Green Bio Lab
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Blue-Green Bio Lab

PROGRAMME 2021-2027
priority
3 Climate-neutral societies
objective
3.1 Circular economy
Project type
Small Project
Implementation
October 2022 - March 2024

Blue-Green Bio Lab

The project Blue-Green Bio Lab helps local authorities intiate bio-industrial symbioses among aquaculture, agriculture and industry to reduce emissions while producing more consumer goods.
Project summary

The story behind the Blue Green Bio Lab project starts with the urgent need in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) to promote regenerative approaches in agriculture, end nutrient leaching to the Baltic Sea and inland waters and reduce nutrient loads to the marine environment. These urgent and multi-sector needs coincide with the focus of many countries in the region to develop greater self-sufficiency for goods such as food and energy.
The Blue Green Bio Lab partners see opportunities for addressing urgent environmental and climate needs and improving self-sufficiency through development of new circular bio-industrial symbioses based on blue and green biomasses.
As such the project contributes to the aims of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Regional Strategy for Nutrient Recycling with respect to closing nutrient cycles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil quality and enhancing carbon sequestration. Furthermore, the biomasses at focus in the project support the EU Circular Economy Action Plan’s aims for making circularity work for people, regions and cities and making sustainable products the norm in the EU.

On land current cropping systems in the region are characterized by excessive use of nutrients and pesticides that deteriorate soil quality and biodiversity. In our seas and inland waters marine ecosystems are also under pressure due to among other things high nutrient loads and eutrophication. In the future, agricultural and aquatic production must be based on biomasses that produce positive ecosystem services such as carbon storage, nutrient recycling, prevention of erosion, sediment retention, etc. At the same time, agriculture and aquaculture need to secure a national self-supply with food/feed/biomaterials and carbon-containing biofuels.

This important sustainable transition of agricultural and aquatic production requires stakeholders across multiple sectors to collaborate in accelerating the development of circular bio-industrial symbioses. With circular bio-industrial symbiosis one company's residuals (previously referred to as waste products) serve as input for another company's production. Right now, the cross-sectoral capacity for developing industrial symbioses is lacking within the BSR.
The project aims therefore to accelerate the development of circular bio-industrial symbiosis by developing a toolkit for how to plan and proceed in these complex processes. As experience has shown local authorities to be crucial to industrial symbiosis development, they are the primary target group for the project.

The project is a transnational cooperation between partners in Denmark, Sweden and Latvia interested in developing circular bio-industrial symbiosis around blue and green biomasses. During the project the partners cooperate on the following activities:

1. Analysis of biomasses with symbiosis potential and positive ecosystem services. These analyses are currently available in the form of 5 climate and environmental policy briefs on the project website.

2. Local workshops using a transnational design for initiating discussions around circular bio-industrial symbiosis using the Art of Participatory Leadership methodology. National and transnational learning from the workshops will be presented in a series of bio-industrial symbiosis briefs.

3. Discussions between partners, experts and policy-level actors regarding ideas gathered from stakeholder workshops about barriers, regulatory and otherwise, to circular bio-industrial symbiosis. The partners aim to identify solutions and next steps shared via a series of policy briefs.

4. The partners collaborate to create the Blue Green Bio Lab Toolkit for developing circular bio-industrial symbioses across the Baltic Sea Region. The toolkit will contain briefs developed in the project and a step-by-step guide for starting discussions and tackling barriers to circular bio-industrial symbiosis development. The toolkit will be shared with public authorities and others to support these actors in addressing the complex challenges of facilitating the first steps on the road to circular bio-industrial symbiosis.

5. A final project conference will be arranged as a webinar on the 5.th of March 2024

This project has been made possible thanks to the support of Interreg Baltic Sea Region. The partners’ primary goal is that municipalities and other interested actors can use the knowledge developed in the project to start meaningful conversations and collaborations on circular bio-industrial symbiosis based on blue and green biomasses.

 

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Budgets

Blue-Green Bio Lab
in numbers.
  • 0.50
    Million
    Total
  • 0.40
    Million
    Erdf
  • 0.00
    Million
    Norway

Top news

News

Partners in Blue Green Bio Lab meet at Blue Mission BANOS 1st Mission Arena in Gothenburg
Partners from Sweden, Denmark and Latvia in the Blue Green Bio Lab project participated to gain more ...

News

Co-creative workshop held in Skive!
Over 40 participants gather to discuss how the production and use of blue biomasses can contribute ...
86 Benefitting organisations 1 Solution(s) plannedfor use / upscale 11 Organisationsin the project

Blue-Green Bio Lab
in numbers.

Lead partnerSkive Municipality
  • Town
    Skive
  • Region
  • Country
    Denmark
  • Region
    Østjylland
Total partner budget
90,785.80
Lysekil Municipality
  • Town
    Lysekil
  • Region
  • Country
    Sweden
  • Region
    Västra Götalands län
Total partner budget
102,092.20
Climate Foundation Skive
  • Town
    Spøttrup
  • Region
  • Country
    Denmark
  • Region
    Østjylland
Total partner budget
151,309.20
Zemgale Planning Region
  • Town
    Jelgava
  • Region
  • Country
    Latvia
  • Region
    Zemgale
Total partner budget
46,366.60
Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Agency of Daugavpils University
  • Town
    Riga
  • Region
  • Country
    Latvia
  • Region
    Rīga
Total partner budget
40,213.60
LEVA in Lysekil
  • Town
    Lysekil
  • Region
  • Country
    Sweden
  • Region
    Västra Götalands län
Total partner budget
68,632.20

Contacts

News

News

Partners in Blue Green Bio Lab meet at Blue Mission BANOS 1st Mission Arena in Gothenburg
Partners from Sweden, Denmark and Latvia in the Blue Green Bio Lab project participated to gain more ...

News

Co-creative workshop held in Skive!
Over 40 participants gather to discuss how the production and use of blue biomasses can contribute ...

News

Blue Green Bio-Lab contributes to EU Mission: Restore Our Ocean and Waters
The Blue-Green Bio Lab project was presented at an event in Palermo, that focuses on ocean and water ...

News

Blue Green Bio Lab participates in the launch of Mission Ocean Baltic and North Sea (BANOS)
Ehe European Commission has recently focused on political measures for a cleaner sea around the ...

News

Interview with Project leader Cathy Brown Stumman (DK)
Read more about the Blue Green Bio Lab project in Inter-Reg Baltic Sea Region’s recent interview ...

News

Partners meet to coordinate and be inspired in Lysekil
In Lysekil the Blue-Green Bio Lab partners had three particularly inspiring experiences.

News

New project “Blue Green Bio Lab Across the Baltic Sea Region” examines the potential for the use of green and blue biomasses in bio-industrial symbioses in the Region.
What is the potential for bio-industrial symbiosis systems to create triple win scenarios for water ...

Events

Co-creative workshop in Skive
Project: Blue-Green Bio Lab
Virtual Meeting
    No past events

      Images

      Partner photos
      11/2022

      Partner photos 11/2022 (1 image)

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      Photo from Kick-off meeting in Skive, Denmark, 26th of October 2022.

      Publications

      • Mussels as a potential biomass for symbiosis
        Mussels are a group of marine and freshwater bivalve mollusks characterized by sedentary behavior and feeding by filtering the ambient water. In the Baltic Sea several species of mussels and clams are found inhabiting hard surfaces (rocks, reefs), soft sand and mud.
      • Common reed as a potential biomass for symbiosis
        The common reed (Phragmites australis) is a cosmopolitan, highly productive grass inhabiting the banks of rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes and also brackish waters like Baltic Sea. It is often the dominating species in the ecosystem it inhabits.
      • Seaweed as a potential biomass for symbiosis
        Seaweed or macroalgae is the visible underwater vegetation in the sea and freshwater, composed of several groups of species. The species composition, size of plants, abundance and biomass depends on the salinity, turbidity and bottom substrate in the location where the seaweed is growing.
      • Terrestrial cultivation of aquatic species as a potential biomass for symbioses
        The circular use of energy resources or sidelines of energy streams provide options for the terrestrial cultivation of various aquatic species. In this brief three examples are presented - Vannamei Shrimp, Asparagopsis and Clarias.
      • Grass as a potential biomass for symbiosis
        The species composition of grass is highly diverse and varies depending on the geographic location and environmental conditions. Grasslands are found in a wide range of habitats like meadows, pastures, heaths and other open areas.
      • Design of bio-industrial symbiosis based on blue biomasses - Danish workshop
        This brief contains the findings from the Danish workshop on designing bio-industrial symbiosis based on blue biomasses as part of the Blue Green Bio Lab Project. The purpose of the workshop was to identify challenges and barriers and how to move forward. The workshop was held by the Climate Foundation Skive and Skive Municipality in April 2023
      • Participatory Workshop Design for the Blue Green Bio Lab Project
        This brief provides a description of the methodological approach of the Blue Green Bio Lab Project to designing and conducting local stakeholder workshops with the aim of starting discussions about local bio-industrial symbiosis based on selected biomasses.
      • Design of bio-industrial symbiosis with blue biomasses – Sweden
        This brief contains the findings of the Swedish workshop on designing bio-industrial symbiosis with blue biomasses as part of the Blue Green Bio Lab Project. The purpose of the workshop was to identify challenges and barriers and how to move forward. The workshop was held by Lysekil Municipality together with Innovatum Science Park and Sotenas Municipality in February 2023.
      • Design of bio-industrial symbiosis with green biomasses – Latvia
        This brief contains the findings of the Latvian workshop on designing bio-industrial symbiosis with green biomasses as part of the Blue Green Bio Lab Project. The purpose of the workshop was to identify challenges and barriers and how to move forward. The workshop was held by Zemgale Plannnig Region and the Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology in April 2023.