The European ROBIN project brought together representatives from five Spanish autonomous communities at the Transfiere Forum 2025, held in Málaga from March 12th to 14th, to share and exchange experiences, as well as seek collaboration opportunities in public policies supporting the deployment of Circular Bioeconomy at the regional level: Andalusia, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Madrid, and Murcia.

The Andalusian partners of the ROBIN project, responsible for organizing the project’s events within the framework of the Transfiere Forum, are the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development (CAPADR) of the Andalusian Government, the Andalusian Institute of Agricultural, Fisheries, Food, and Ecological Production Research and Training (IFAPA), and CTA (Technological Corporation of Andalusia).

Best practices and collaboration opportunities

The Andalusian partners of the ROBIN project organized a panel on March 12th as part of the official agenda of the Transfiere Forum on “The Deployment of Circular Bioeconomy at the Regional Scale with a Territorial Approach,” with a special emphasis on the lessons learned from the ROBIN project itself. The panel, moderated by María García, an innovation consultant at CTA, in the Science Room of Transfiere and attended by dozens of participants, featured the participation of Mar Cátedra, Technical Advisor at the General Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock, and Food of the Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture; Jesús Díez, Program Director at the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León; Víctor Falguera, General Coordinator of the Bioeconomy Hub of Catalonia; José Luis Cruz, from the Madrid Institute for Rural, Agricultural, and Food Research and Development (IMIDRA); and José García, Bioeconomy Research Coordinator at IMIDA (Murcian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research and Development).

Representatives from the different regions analyzed the situation of each region in terms of existing governance models and shared best practices learned, which may be useful for other regions. They also presented potential short-term action plans in circular bioeconomy to promote collaboration and coordination between regions, as a mechanism to enable faster progress at the territorial level.

Exchange of experiences and public-private collaboration

On the other hand, the ROBIN project also organized a workshop on March 13th titled “Exchange of Experiences in Circular Bioeconomy” as part of the parallel activities to the official agenda of the Transfiere Forum, with the participation of the previously mentioned representatives from Andalusia, Castilla y León, Catalonia, and Madrid.

Moderated by Samir Sayadi, a researcher at IFAPA, the representatives from the different Spanish regions shared practical cases of public-private collaboration in circular bioeconomy and, with the participation of the event attendees, applied the “canvas” tool from the Toolbox (a set of tools developed within the ROBIN project) to design a potential structure for public-private collaboration.

The attendees of this workshop represented the quadruple helix of the regional innovation ecosystem: government, businesses, academia, and society. As such, representatives from agri-food and bioeconomy entities, consumers, universities, and public organizations participated, most of whom are members of the Andalusian MARC (Multi-Actor Regional Constellation) of the ROBIN project.

ROBIN, a project to accelerate the green transition

The European ROBIN project, funded by the Horizon Europe program, aims to promote innovative governance models in circular bioeconomy to help regional authorities accelerate the green transition. Andalusia is one of the five EU pilot regions using the ROBIN project to promote these new innovative governance models that will help drive circular bioeconomy.

Led by the Greek partner Q-PLAN, the full title of the ROBIN project is “Deploying Circular Bioeconomies at the Regional Level with a Territorial Approach” and it seeks to support European regional authorities in using social innovation techniques to shape their governance structures in order to boost circular bioeconomy.

Andalusia has a clear commitment to circular bioeconomy, being one of the first European regions to adopt a circular bioeconomy governance model, specifically the Andalusian Circular Bioeconomy Strategy (EABC). Furthermore, the Andalusian Circular Economy Law (LECA) establishes the necessary mechanisms for implementing policies and regulations related to circular economy and circular bioeconomy.