The Bioeconomy: An Opportunity for the Spanish Economy

The objective of this chapter will be to show the possibilities of the bioeconomy in Spain and how it can help to create new productive models that favor the sustainable economic development, taking into consideration the circular economy framework that the EU Commission has launched. For this, we will collect the current socioeconomic weight of the sectors that integrate the bioeconomy in Spain. We will then review the current policies and those that are predictably a short and medium term, at European level, and are going to affect the use of biological resources, as well as the evolution of the behavior of European Consumers. This will give us the chance to demonstrate the need and the opportunity to move forward different economic activities through the interaction between science, society, and companies, in order to increase efficiency and sustainability in the traditional value chains and, at the same time, to create new ones. Then we will briefly describe the Spanish strategy of bioeconomy: the process of elaboration, its essential elements, and observatory of bioeconomy, as the instrument that promotes its development. We will describe the Spanish Bioeconomy Observatory as a tool to move forward towards an ecosystem where science and technology, society, and the economy work together to overcome the challenges of our society.