What is the course about?
Welcome to the MOOC "Concepts of Sustainable Bioeconomy", developed by the University of Hohenheim. This course belongs to the strategic partnership ABBEE (Accelerating the transition towards the Bio-Based Economy via Education) and is one of four courses offered by leading European universities in the field of Bioeconomy. |> ABBEE trailer video MOOC "Concepts of Sustainable Bioeconomy"Bioeconomy or biobased economy is a relatively new concept that builds on the visions of a sustainable societal transformation. This course will describe bioeconomy and its underlying concepts from a meta-level. It focuses on explaining the potential contribution of bioeconomy to sustainability, the role of innovation, governance and multi-stakeholder collaboration as well as the importance of life-cycle tools to guide decision-making. For this, the concepts of biobased value chain and web is used as a framework that combines biophysical, social, technological and economic elements. Special attention will be givensystems thinking and inter- and transdisciplinarity as principles of bioeconomy. |> Course trailer video Why is this course important for you?The relevance of the bioeconomy and the underlying notions need to be explained in a comprehensive manner. Only then, the biobased economy professionals of the future will be able to adopt holistic approaches that foster systems thinking. The intention of this course is, among others, to provide fundamental and applied concepts related with the bioeconomy to prospective professionals working in manifold bioeconomy areas.The course offers a space for reflection on the role of professionals in the bioeconomy. It serves as a baseline to enrich the bioeconomy dialogue integrating different perspectives and dimensions. Given the plurality of bioeconomy perspectives, it is important to acknowledge that there is no one-fits-all definition, and each interpretation is dependent on specific contexts. On this background the course will explain different bioeconomy perspectives and the role of biobased resources as well as biological knowledge for shaping a sustainable bioeconomy. What will you learn?
Who is this course intended for?As an open online course, it will become available for Master-level students as well as practitioners, facilitating knowledge transfer and reaching a large learning community. In addition, the course can be adopted by other HEIs (Higher Educations Institutions) and integrated in their curriculum which makes the impact even higher. This course targets the following groups: StructureThis course integrates 5 main sections and 12 chapters in which various experts from different fields explain at theoretical and practical level the underpinnings of bioeconomy. The course concludes with a short wrap-up section to invite participants to continue the learning journey. Instructors
Learning materials
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Course instructors
Iris Lewandowski
Iris Lewandowski holds the chair of "Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy" at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. Here she is Chief Bioeconomy Officer (CBO) and director of the international master programme "Bioeconomy". She is also Co-chair of the German national and Baden-Württemberg's federal Bioeconomy Council and Scientific Speaker of the European Bioeconomy University (EBU).
Bastian Winkler
Research associate at the Department of 'Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy' at the University of Hohenheim. My research focuses on integrated agricultural systems in rural and urban areas for the sustainability transition towards the Bioeconomy.
Ricardo Vargas Carpintero
Researcher at the Department of Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy, University of Hohenheim. I study the design and development of biobased value chains/webs with a system and regional perspective.
Jan Lask
I am a doctoral student at the University of Hohenheim's Department of Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy. My research focuses on the sustainability assessment of biobased value chains.
Lina Mayorga
University of Hohenheim
I coordinate and am involved in projects related to bioeconomy education
Andreas Kuckertz
Andreas Kuckertz is a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. Moreover, he serves as the president of FGF e.V., the largest academic association for entrepreneurship, innovation, and SMEs in German-speaking countries.
Andrea Knierim
Hello to everyone interested in inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to bioeconomy research. My area of expertise is the social perspective in this context and especially the challenge of how to support voluntary behaviour change. Exchanging with and teaching students on the conceptual and methodological approaches is enriching, with always new questions and surprises.
Claudia Bieling
Claudia Bieling holds the Chair of Societal Transition and Agriculture at University of Hohenheim, Germany. Her work is rooted in transdisciplinary sustainability research and focuses on the interface of ecological and social dimensions in land-use and food systems. She works with the concepts of cultural landscapes and social-ecological resilience.
Michael Schramm
Rudolf Hausmann
Sebastian Weickert
Nirvana Marting
Hans W. Griepentrog
Michael Keller
Michael Keller is a senior academic associate at the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (affiliated to the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland), where he is responsible for cross-regional innovation cooperation and currently leads international ventures on innovation funding, value chains, smart specialisation strategies and industrial transformation. As project leader of the Interreg Alpine Space projects S3-4AlpClusters and AlpLinkBioEco he has tackled innovation from a practical and international perspective for the last four years, contributing to entrepreneurial discovery processes in fields such as circular economy, bioeconomy and digitalisation.
Kristina Bogner
As a senior researcher and as the outreach manager of the Hohenheim Innovation Greenhouse, I am enthusiastic about possible ways of fostering transitions towards sustainability. My research interests are the role of education, knowledge and innovation for sustainability (e.g. for the transformation towards a sustainable bioeconomy), the role of knowledge networks and different forms of cooperation for fostering sustainability as well as applying new methods (as ABM or ML) for sustainability research.