SAT-BBE

One of the biggest challenges facing global society today is the provision of food, water, energy, healthcare and other resources and services in light of a growing world population and mounting environmental stresses. SAT-BBE studies the contribution of a bio-economy in many of these areas to ensure long-term economic and environmental sustainability. The objective of the SAT-BBE project is to describe, monitor and model the bio-economy part of the economic system and to develop a Systems Analysis Framework for the Bioeconomy.

SAT-BBE brings together a consortium of internationally recognised and respected researchers at the European and global levels. The consortium will design a systems analysis tools framework to help understand the functional requirements of a bio-based economy. Systems analysis implies the capacity to understand relations between parts, and the nature of both the parts and their relationships. In SAT-BBE, the concepts of bio-economy and non-bioeconomy sectors will be defined, the major interactions and feedback effects between the bio-economy and other parts of the system will be identified and analysed, and the likely impacts and trade-offs of the bioeconomy drivers will be studied.

SAT-BBE will demonstrate how the existing data and quantitative models and their future extensions and improvements, as well as qualitative analyses (e.g. foresight analyses), can be used to describe the bio-economy development, its interactions with the rest of the economy, and its impacts on environmental resources and their quality. The SAT-BBE "Toolkit" will show, explain and monitor how the bio-economy in the European Union is, will or can be evolving.