Implementing the Knowledge and Innovation System for Bioeconomy (KISB): a new vision from the BIObec project

The bioeconomy (BE) represents a convergence of traditional and innovative sectors and industries toward a new bio-based paradigm. However, to date, the convergence is still incomplete in several domains, like Bioeconomy Education and Training (BET). The issue is strictly connected with a missed development of a coherent and holistic Knowledge and Innovation System (KIS). In this vein, the traditional KIS, like the Agricultural one (AKIS), can be seen as a starting point to switch from a strictly sectorial perspective to a system open to all the other sectors involved in BE: the Knowledge and Innovation System for Bioeconomy (KISB).The BIObec project aims, through its various activities, to contribute to boosting the KISB, and developing a holistic framework for multi-level Bio-Based Education Centres (BBECs) that can act as a knowledge hub for all the stakeholders interested in bioeconomy. The convergence of these different actors from different KIS toward one educational entity can help to develop one unified KISB. Anyhow, it needs a guided integration process, rather than a "forced coexistence". Only in this way, do the generated synergies allow tha "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".