Another group of young people from Świętokrzyskie found out why it is so important to pay respect to the region’s legacy - both historical and natural. It is the result of the second lesson of ecology and local patriotism, organized by the Marshal Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in cooperation with the project RDI2CluB on 18 February 2020.
This time it has been organized for 5th grade students from the Primary School in Bilcza. They were told about the mission of the regional government and the meaning of Polish patriotic symbols, met the Marshal of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Andrzej Bętkowski and saw that they can be building bioeconomy of the region through nature friendly habits. All these domains have been once again gathered together under the common definition of patriotism. In a part devoted to ecological patriotism, the PP8 team presented the idea of the project #R043 RDi2CluB and encouraged to taking care of the surrounding environment. The student were particularly interested in the practical examples of bioeconomical solutions, i.e. biodegradable plates from bran or straws form flour and apple juice, which they could use instead of plastic dishes while having a snack during the meeting. We hope, we were able to inspire another group of young people to be the future bioeconomy enthusiasts!
The youth “feels the wibe” of bioeconomy better than we assume. We only need to give them opportunities to develop their ideas. We know this, because we were so warmly received during the recent session of the Youth Regional Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship on 4 February 2020. The team of the Marshal Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship presented the #043 RDI2CluB project there and encouraged young people to support and promote bioeconomy.
The Youth Regional Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship is a counseling body, founded by young citizens of the Świętokrzyskie region, functioning within the Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Regional Assembly. It has got informal character and is entirely devoted to the matters of young, mostly teenage, people – during the sessions they discuss current initiatives of the regional institutions, as well as organize and conduct various social activities important for their age group, like competitions, conferences or social consultations.
We were able to be present on the session thanks to the openness of the Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Regional Assembly. The bioeconomy part was entitled “Bioeconomy – it’s simpler than you think”. While presenting the ideas we tried to encourage the youth to shape the habit of caring for nature, as it is an important for their future and the future of their region. They audience seemed very keen and interested in the subject.
To launch them in the activities of the RDI2CluB project we invited them to participate in the upcoming Agrotravel&Active Life Fair, where there will be a stand, devoted to bioeconomy and our project. We also wanted them to accompany us during the bioeconomy conference which is also a part of this event. By observing and helping the project team during this event, they will get to broaden their knowledge about bioeconomy and the project itself.
Their enthusiasm in the subject surpassed the team’s expectations! As soon as the meeting had ended we had a complete list of participants, willing to accompany us on the fair. The participants decided also to promote bioeconomy further during their own conference, which is being organized in March by the Youth Regional Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Of course we offer our full support in this matter as that what it was all about - to convey the idea of supporting bioeconomy to the youth of our region!
We would like to thank the Youth Regional Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship for warm receiving, and we hope our mission of promoting the bioeconomy among teenagers has only started and the idea should develop in the future.
In November 2019, we collected feedback from Biobord users and carried out focus group discussions with Biobord network members to improve the user experience and services of Biobord. Feedback was applied directly to the technical development and upgrading of the Biobord Operating Model. Now, the changes have been implemented and an updated Biobord launched.
The improvements entail several small technical adjustments, visual outlook update as well as integration of totally new features. For registered users, Biobord now offers a document management system under the ‘Resources’ headline. A document management system connected to the Biobord Forum is for sharing, storing and managing the resources of projects, teams and networks.
Furthermore, matchmaking and networking services of the Biobord Forum were upgraded, and the service experience developed based on the feedback from pilot users. In the next phase of the piloting, a dedicated Biobord staff will guide the new users in usage of the ‘Open Biobord Forum’ matchmaking forum, ‘Biobord On Stage’ web-events and ‘Biobord Network Actions’ information sharing forum. Help is available also via the new ‘Helpdesk’ ticketing system as well as ‘Biobord User Support’ forum.
The upgraded Biobord Operating Model with several user manuals and guides is now available at Biobord User Support.The report and connected guides provide updated information of Biobord services for network members and users as applied in the second round of piloting started on January 15, 2020.
In a region of long distances, the seminars and workshops are always tricky to organise. Especially when we are working on topics that require the presence of business and public sector together. This was the case when we started to develop the workshop to boost the local food usage in public catering in RDI2CluB. Our initial idea was to create a workshop that is easy to access, without very much time required to travel. Also, we wanted the people to meet face-to-face, so webinar was out of question.
We created a multi-spot workshop, that was organized simultaneously in three different locations in Central Finland (Jyväskylä, Saarijärvi and Viitasaari). Participants singed in to one of these spots and each location had their own hosts present live. First part of the seminar was for all the participants, and presentations were followed online on the screens. Live connection between the spots was established, and this allowed real live discussions during the presentations.
Second part was for the three different spots, a workshop facilitated by the local hosts on local food promotion needs in Central Finland. This part was off-line and only the results were then afterwards presented to all the participants.
This kind of methodology worked very well, especially since we had a host by the organizer present in all three locations. They acted as facilitators on the spots. One person was a chairperson, and he was in responsible for normal workshop arrangements – while the hosts could concentrate on facilitation on spots. It was also very important, that there were presentations from all the participating locations. This made the feeling of live workshops to all locations. Total number of participants was 80+. of which 21 was following on-line streaming. As such, we felt that we succeeded, and we will for sure use this kind of methodology also in the future. It would also be interesting to hear from Biobord community, if you have similar kind of setups?
Technical requirements:
We used Microsoft Teams to create the seminar. This enabled the local hosts to show presentations from their spots. Microphones and loudspeakers were standard external microphones and no additional connections was required for this. Additionally, we also offered a possibility to follow streaming on-line. The stream was sent to Regional Councils YouTube channel and this link was distributed via various channels to potential attendees. This required an additional WLAN.
You can respect your fatherland in many ways – also by not throwing around litter and by saving natural resources like water or energy. This is what the RDI2CluB team from the Świętokrzyskie Voivodship wanted to teach the young citizens during a special lesson of patriotism, conducted in the Marshal Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodship in Kielce. It was organized on the 7 November 2019, just before the National Independence Day in Poland (11 November) for 2nd grade students of the Primary School No. 28 in Kielce. They were told about different forms of showing their respect for the fatherland, like knowing their country’s history, paying respect to national symbols, as well as caring for their region and its natural heritage. The latter perfectly reflect the ideas of bioeconomy! The children found out how important their daily habits are and how by sorting the waste, saving water and energy, not wasting food they help the planet. They took part in a lively discussion, ate treats on edible, biodegradable dishes made of wheat bran and received a set of gifts promoting the region and the bioeconomy. One of them was a book entitled “Nature is an adventure. Experiments for a young scientist. On the track of laws of nature” by J. Hecker – bought within the RDI2CluB project in order to promote bioeconomy among the youngest citizens. Similar lessons, joining patriotic and environmental education, are being planned in the Marshal Office of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodship as a cyclical event aimed at young citizens interested in the subject.
By 2030, the world will need 50% more food, 45% more energy, and 30% more water. The solution is bioeconomy that is based on the sustainable use of renewable resources as well as circular economy models. Bioeconomy utilizes clean technologies that enable the efficient use of natural resources and nutrients, while ensuring biodiversity and supporting climate change mitigation.
Our mission is to bring together bioeconomy developers to a joint table to solve global and local challenges with bioeconomy innovations. Biobord connects bioeconomy innovation networks around the Baltic Sea Region to share ideas, find partners and work together to create business opportunities in bioeconomy. Together we build knowledge and raise awareness on sustainable and viable bioeconomy business potential in Baltic Sea Region.
Biobord is a place for you, if you are interested in viable and sustainable biobased business and networking with bioeconomy developers around the Baltic Sea Region. Find people with shared interests, team up and get support from our network of bioeconomy experts to build your business or launch your innovation to the markets.
Our growing network has been initiated by the following regions around Baltic Sea that specialize in bioeconomy:
Together we are piloting Biobord.eu as a meeting, co-working and innovation forum for bioeconomy developers with a passion for rural viability and sustainability.
Join our journey and share your experiences with us to help us develop the Biobord.eu platform. We are piloting the platform as a part of RDI2CluB project in 2019-2020 to improve our service based on the user experiences.
Our journey towards smart specialization in bioeconomy started with the creation of Regional Bioeconomy Profiles.
Data is key for evidence-based decision making in regional strategy work. Still, reliable statistics to show the development of bioeconomy do not exist in regional level. Therefore, we compiled it! Not just for ourselves, but also for the other regions in Finland, Norway, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.
The updated web-toolkit for regional bioeconomy strategy work enables assessment of regional bioeconomy potential, strengths and weaknesses in comparison to national averages – as well as other regions in Baltic Sea Region and EU.
Statistics are not perfect when it comes to bioeconomy and regional expertise is key for interpreting the results. Still, the visual tools for bioeconomy readiness give an excellent start for the regional discussions and commitment to joint actions.
With data and regional dialogue on the potential for bioeconomy in our regions, we identified and established Joint Action Plans for supporting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in bioeconomy in the rural regions of our network.
The Joint Action Plans were developed in cooperation with regional triple helix actors –regional authorities, business and academy. The planning involved also authorities working with design and implementation of national smart specialization strategies in bioeconomy. Furthermore, Joint Action Plans connect the existing EU, EUSBSR, national and regional policies and strategies to a roadmap for the development of bioeconomy innovation ecosystem around the Baltic Sea Region.
Joint Actions have been identified for regional level and for co-operation across the regions in the Baltic Sea. The international Joint Action for Boosting Bioeconomy focus on three areas:
We have identified actions that we can start right way and implement with our existing resources. Moreover, we have found action areas were we share an interest to plan jointly future actions.
Download the plans and read more from rdi2club.eu website.
The co-working has started and you can follow and join our discussions at our Forum under ‘Biobord Network Actions’!
To help our Network to work together on the Joint Action Plans and to connect our regional bioeconomy innovation ecosystems, we created Biobord. Biobord is an open virtual innovation hub for bioeconomy developers. On Biobord, we offer our network members tools for managing the project lifecycle, network building and management, interactive online capacity building, matchmaking and connecting with innovation support services.
Biobord has been developed in an iterative service design process. Now, we are in piloting phase, where we test and scale up platform functionalities and operations together with different user groups - researchers, regional development agents, students, entrepreneurs, inventors and innovation brokers.
The Biobord Operating Model describes the potential of our network, the functionalities of the platform as well as the user profiles and service paths. Furthermore, the Operating Model provides practical guidance and tools for the uptake of the Biobord, creation of the service paths as well as continuous improvement of the forum community building.
Read more on the Biobord Operating Model, joint the activities at Biobord and share your feedback to help us develop the platform into an attractive virtual co-working, networking, learning and innovation environment.
