Collaborative Perspective in Bio-economy Development: A Mixed Method Approach

The hybrid Economic Input Output - Life Cycle Assessment (EIO- LCA) coupled with qualitative methods for consensus creation and participative policy building is a proposed methodology for dealing with complex and data- rich contexts that have to be connected in order to construct a robust regional bioeconomic profile that informs policy makers and other stakeholders about socio-economic and ecological impacts – and suggest at the same time strategies for its validation and implementation. An important result of this work is that the process of data collection and systematisation also provided ample opportunity to be in touch with a wide and diverse range of actors that characterize the different supply chains, ranging from the primary (farming, aquatic resources, forest sector) to manufacturing and services-related companies. These contacts encouraged the establishment of a network exchanging knowledge on crucial aspects for the further development of bioeconomy.