The aim of BIOLOC is to advance the role and impact of circular bioeconomy (CBE) and social innovation to revitalise European local communities and accelerate the all-inclusive transition to resource-efficient and circular biobased production and consumption systems. BIOLOC will deploy comprehensive research and mobilization activities within and among participating regions, and beyond.

BIOLOC will explore the destination of innovative governance within its methodological and geographical boundaries, elaborating on coordinated and collaborative quadruple helix decision-making approaches to determine a change in the strategic outlook and CBE planning capacities in thirteen participating European countries regions (BG - region of Plodiv, CZ - region BIOEAST, DE - region Baden-Württenberg, ES - region of Aragon, GR - region of Western Macedonia, HR - region Adriatic, HU - region of North Hungary, IT - region Puglia, NL - region Apeldoorn, RO - West region, SK - the Nitra self-governing region, SL - whole country).

BIOLOC will develop specific recommendations and tailored measures to foster a cascading socio-economic impact of the CBE to broader strata of the population, thus increasing the resilience of communities and systems that are now on the periphery of global, continental, and national trends in economic growth, innovation, and transition. Building on extensive interactions with representatives of the policy, the industry, and the civil society, BIOLOC will prompt and drive the establishment of permanent public-private multi-stakeholder working tables (BIOLOC Hubs) that will pioneer social trialogue on an innovative and inclusive CBE as a leveraging factor for sustainable and resilient local development in the broader context of the New Green Deal.

The awareness-raising and outreach activities that, besides the decision-making instances and third sector organisations, will also address the wider population, focussing on the socially disadvantaged/marginalised groups or other individuals that could benefit from the consolidation of innovative and inclusive local CBE value chains, will allow bringing an ancillary contribution to the expected impact of more informed and engaged stakeholders and end-users, including primary producers and consumers. 

In BIOLOC, ZSI leads WP5 which aims to set up a structure for the 13 BIOLOC hubs, engage different stakeholders from a deep understanding of the needs, drivers and barriers of each stakeholder group and design roadmaps for improvement of each of the hubs through awareness raising, education and network extension.