The potential roles of bio-economy in the transition to equitable, sustainable, post fossil-carbon societies: Findings from this virtual special issue

This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) was designed to highlight the importance of academic research in documenting the multiple greening effects that bio-economy has in multiple societal sectors. Therefore, the editors are confident that it will help to create the platform to exchange and to enhance knowledge on the evolving bio-economy. In this context, this editorial was designed to provide an overview of the papers contained in this special issue and to highlight their contributions to the bio-economy within five main research themes: biomass, biomaterials and bioenergy; agriculture; forestry; production and packaging of foods and feeds; and miscellaneous applications. Based upon the analysis of this VSI's papers, the authors found that there is an urgent need for research on: meta-studies of cross-country/regional interventions, to assess which interventions are more effective; more effective harmonisation solutions of methodological approaches for bio-economy assessments; and finally more interdisciplinary collaboration among technical and social scientists to identify and address the relevant questions for the bio-economy and to exchange and involve academics with all actors of the “innovation pipeline” of the bio-economy.