CommBeBiz Project Co-ordinator and Minerva Director, Rhonda Smith, presented a landmark report – the BeBizBlueprint – at a high level bioeconomy conference in Dublin, Ireland, attended by researchers, funders and innovation agencies.

The key messages of the BeBizBlueprint, designed to better support the bioeconomy researcher on their  journey to innovation, were shared  at  ‘Ensuring the Continued Success of the Bioeconomy in Ireland: Progressing & Translating Research’, held at the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Dublin, Ireland.

The BeBizBlueprint directs messages to academia and funders to consider how they should change in order to motivate and reward researchers to help the drive to effective innovation.Keynote speakers at the conference included bioeconomy spokesperson from the Department of An Taoiseach George Burke, Director of Teagasc Gerry Boyle, and Professor Kevin O’Connor of the BEACON project, University College, Dublin.

“While researchers can help themselves to an extent, the ‘Ecosystem’ around them needs to embed skills training and implement reward mechanisms to deliver the research innovation that is not only expected but demanded by funders and society,” said Rhonda Smith. “The aim of the BeBizBlueprint is to stimulate debate, share experiences and learnings to change the ‘Ecosystem’ to make it easy for researchers to say ‘yes’ to communications and outreach.

“If the bioeconomy and a more sustainable world is to be delivered it needs an army of researchers willing and able to speak out and be heard.”

Access the BeBizBlueprint here https://commbebiz.eu/?page=3469

Find out more about the event ‘Ensuring the Continued Success of the Bioeconomy in Ireland: Progressing & Translating Research’ here https://www.teagasc.ie/news–events/news/2018/bioeconomy-in-ireland.php

For more information about CommBeBiz visit www.commbebiz.eu