IFP Launches Bioeconomy Policy Agenda

The International Futures Programme (IFP) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has launched a two-year project on “The Bioeconomy to 2030: Designing a Policy Agenda”. Bioeconomy is the set of economic activities relating to the invention, development, production and use of biological products and processes. Policies ranging from long-term investment to appropriate regulatory frameworks must be set in place to nurture the promise of biotechnology and bioeconomy.

Through collaborative work involving several sectors, the project will, among others:

• Assess the long-term prospects of the bioeconomy over the next 30 years and its economic and social implications.
• Improve the indicators and metrics that are needed to monitor the development of the bioeconomy.
• Identify the most critical issues that may affect the medium- and longer-term prospects for the bioeconomy (e.g. technical, financial, human capital, and regulatory bottlenecks).
• Identify where policies and regulations are increasingly out of step with biotechnology development and propose options for a more dynamic policy framework.