The EU Horizon-funded PRIMED project works through five territorial Living Labs (LLabs) that aim to construct and scale value chains capable of valorizing primary producer feedstocks and introducing bioeconomy products into mainstream markets. Research conducted by LUT University Business School examines how these value chains evolve commercially and how they are governed, tracing their progression from early problem-solving and technological concepts to pilot-scale applications and eventually to commercial products.
Governance matters as much as technology
A first insight is that each Living Lab develops a long-term business and value chain vision closely linked to regional bioeconomy targets and lead entrepreneurs, but mobilizing primary producers remains a challenge. This transformation involves not only building value chains but also establishing governance approaches that operate across business and value chain activities, as well as with feedstock suppliers (primary producers), innovators, entrepreneurs and end-users. Bioeconomy development with the primary sector thus extends beyond technological innovation. It requires an integrative approach that combines the local engagement of farmers, fisheries and forest owners, value chain development, collective governance and cross-sector collaboration.
Key governance activities include:
- defining ownership models for feedstocks and biowaste exchange
- setting up primary producer agreements
- securing public support through regulation and funding
- facilitating the transfer of scientific and commercial knowledge
- enabling successful piloting and experimentation for bioproduct development
- strengthening cooperation between primary producers, lead entrepreneurs and industrial partners.
At the same time, LLabs face persistent challenges, including capability gaps among primary producers, financial constraints, feedstock limitations, low recovery yields and costly logistics.
Building value chains through future-oriented strategies
A second finding concerns how actors collaboratively build these value chains. Lead entrepreneurs in the LLabs co-develop strategies with key value chain partners, including primary producers, by imagining plausible and feasible futures, engaging in iterative cycles that transform abstract visions into concrete action. These processes are grounded in past experience and in existing technological and market opportunities in the region, ensuring continuity while enabling innovation. Through interaction within local collaborative networks and partnerships, lead entrepreneurs and primary producers create opportunities for inclusion and co-design of future business models by building their value chains toward larger boundaries.
Lead entrepreneurs play a central role by mobilizing diverse forms of knowledge, including scientific, market and place-based insights, to identify new opportunities for bio-waste valorization. In doing so, they navigate conditions of eligibility, viability and exemplarity. For example, in the Spanish Living Lab, lead entrepreneurs representing a farmers’ association have selected alternative futures rooted in sustaining their farms, supporting local economies and securing livelihoods. Their long-term vision builds on collective efforts and place-based commitments, while also incorporating learning from external technological solutions such as anaerobic digestion to make it a viable option. This demonstrates how collective action among farmers and stakeholders supports the emergence of locally grounded yet forward-looking bioeconomy ecosystems.
Working through the tension between economy and ecology
A third insight highlights that actors mobilize these value chains amidst persistent tensions and complexities. A central tension lies between economic and ecological priorities. While value chains aim to generate economic value, ecological considerations are sometimes subordinated in the process of feedstock valorization and commercial development. At the same time, bioeconomy initiatives are inherently tied to ecological and climate objectives, particularly within the broader European agenda of building a circular, bio-based and decarbonized economy.
Addressing these tensions requires integrating ecological priorities more deeply into value chain design and engaging the primary producers who sustain the ecology, while maintaining economic viability. One key strategy to navigate these tensions has been the development of regional LLabs that mobilize the value of primary producers in sustaining marine ecosystems. Other LLabs aim to overcome a grand challenge, such as the future of food systems or the integration of novel bio-silica materials deeply grounded in the work of the region’s primary producers.
Primary producers as central actors
Primary producers occupy a critical yet often underrepresented position within these ecosystems. Their activities are deeply embedded in specific ecological and geographical contexts, allowing them to bridge biological systems and techno-economic processes. However, dominant bioeconomy approaches, often driven by techno-economic logics, tend to overlook or insufficiently integrate the place-based knowledge and practices developed by primary producers over time. Strengthening their role is therefore essential for building more inclusive, ecologically sound and context-sensitive bioeconomy value chains.
Progress so far
The PRIMED project demonstrates strong progress in establishing adaptive governance frameworks for bioeconomy value chains that clearly define future visions by embedding primary producers as central actors in bioeconomy development.