Inscripta, Inc.

Building a Robust Bioeconomy The opportunity to build a robust bioeconomy has never been greater nor more urgently needed. The convergence of technologies, and market pull coupled with political support and government funding is a powerful foundation on which to address some of the most important challenges facing the world today: food security, energy security, climate change, sustainability, and national security. However todate the bio industry has been unable to deliver on its full potential. What must change? Supported by the Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition (AFCC), I had the privilege of leading a group of industry veterans to consider: “What is needed to reduce the timeline to develop and commercialize products by at least half?”  The members were all passionate about the potential positive impact of biobased companies but concerned about the lack of financial success stories and the extended timelines to significant impact. The Concern and Call to Action Currently the time from discovery to significant market impact is 15 – 25 years. Too long to meet climate mitigation goals in the 2030 to 2050 timeframe; too long to sustain political support; too long to meet the ROI of investors. The conclusion of the study was that major changes will be needed to build a new globally optimized, massively scaled, highly efficient bio-based supply chain quickly enough to meet the challenges of climate change, food security, national security, and sustainability. The industry has had strong leadership and great technologies over the past 20 – 30 years but few successful companies. Missing is a conducive ecosystem that increases the probably of success. The development of the new ecosystem must be industry led. It will require adopting bold new ways of working along the entire value chain. Success will require a strong co-equal public-private partnership between industry and governments. Bold changes by industry must be matched by sustained supportive actions by government and vice versa. The report entitled “Building a Robust Bioeconomy: A Statement of Concern & Call to Action” was released at the AFCC conference last week to very positive reviews. A summary of the report follows and includes a link to the full report. We welcome your comments.