Catalyzing Across Sectors to Advance the Bioeconomy
Catalyzing Across Sectors to Advance the Bioeconomy (CASA-Bio) was launched in response to the Executive Order (EO) on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy, released in September 2022 by the Biden administration. One of the aims of the EO was to advance the bioeconomy in five key areas (EO Bioeconomy Themes): climate change solutions, food and agriculture innovation, supply chain resilience, human health, and cross-cutting innovations—through collaboration across government, industry, non-profits, and academia, i.e., stakeholders.
In consultation with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, NSF assumed the lead role to foster this collaboration by hosting a two-day meeting in December 2023 to bring together stakeholders to identify shared research and development (R&D) priorities with strong potential to be advanced through synergistic cooperation. Two dozen bioeconomy-relevant subthemes were identified and shared with the broad R&D community to seek input through direct feedback and Town Hall events held in February 2024. See our synthesis of the Town Hall data.
Between February and April, the NSF team reviewed and shared over 100 bioeconomy roadmaps and planning documents to provide the stakeholders with additional insights in preparation for a Synthesis meeting in April. Armed with this expanded knowledge, stakeholders from government, industry, and non-profits met again to refine the subthemes and to identify six R&D priority areas with strong opportunities for synergy and impact for the bioeconomy.
In August and September, six workshops were held, each led by multiple experts from academia, industry, and non-profit organizations. These leaders developed draft proposals for innovative R&D initiatives with high potential to produce meaningful outcomes for the bioeconomy, and their proposals formed the basis for workshop discussions. Workshop participants with a broad spectrum of interests and expertise engaged in robust discussions at each workshop, and their feedback helped inform final versions of the bioeconomy initiatives. See the full CASA-Bio Action Plan and learn more about how the bioeconomy initiatives are synergistic by reading Synergies and Broader Impact.
Overview of the Bioeconomy Initiatives
Acknowledgements
We extend our sincere thanks to the many planning committee members from government and private sectors, who enthusiastically shared ideas and insights on their organizations’ priorities, which provided, and continues to provide, a breadth of collaborative opportunities to explore. A list of these organizations can be found here.
We also wish to thank all participants of the Town Hall and Workshop events who gave generously of their time to share their scientific ideas and visions for the future, which immensely enriched the discussions and helped influence the scientific directions of the initiatives.
We are especially grateful for the Workshop Chairs who played a pivotal role in developing the workshop topics and representing their R&D communities, while envisioning and authoring the six CASA-Bio initiatives. Their leadership and expertise were essential in shaping six actionable and impactful paths to a future bioeconomy. The ideas represented in the initiatives belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of government agencies.
All CASA-Bio events and subsequent discussions were facilitated by an outstanding team at Knowinnovation; we thank them for their professional guidance on designing and implementing productive and enjoyable work environments.