On 17 September 2026, the projects funded under the BMFTR funding call “Challenges and Success Factors for the Transition to a Circular Bioeconomy” came together in Berlin for a one-day Statusseminar organised by Projektträger Jülich (PtJ). For FITFORWOOD, the seminar offered an opportunity to present the project, exchange perspectives and identify new connections with projects working on transformation towards a circular bioeconomy from a wide range of disciplinary and thematic perspectives.
Representatives of the funded projects met in Berlin to present their research plans and current progress, share perspectives on the next steps of their projects, and discuss common challenges and opportunities in scientific project management. At the same time, the seminar provided an opportunity to explore the diverse approaches to transformation towards a circular bioeconomy represented across the funding call — and to gain a broader picture of how the individual projects connect and complement one another.
Different perspectives on a shared transformation
The participating projects approach the transformation towards a circular bioeconomy from very different starting points.
The research fields represented included, among others, waste management and material flow management, agricultural landscape transformation, plant-based raw materials, administrative science, governance, participatory design processes and the integration of different forms of knowledge.
FITFORWOOD contributes to this broader research landscape with its focus on circular timber construction in cities from a socio-political perspective. The project investigates the socio-cultural and institutional conditions that shape the transformation towards more circular timber construction and examines how different actors and governance contexts influence this process.
Other projects approach transformation from different angles. They investigate, for example, how administrative practices influence the implementation of policies with room for interpretation, how new value chains based on plant-based resources can emerge in regions undergoing structural change, how the waste management sector can transform towards circular value creation, or how different forms of knowledge can be brought together through participatory co-design processes.
Despite these differences, the projects complement one another in addressing a shared overarching question: What enables — and what hinders — the transformation towards a circular bioeconomy?
Bioeconomy as a cross-cutting topic
One of the key impressions from the seminar was the extent to which bioeconomy cuts across sectors, disciplines and levels of transformation.
The projects work with different resources, actors, institutional settings and research approaches. Yet, throughout the discussions, numerous interfaces became visible. Questions around governance, institutional structures, participation, knowledge, implementation and cooperation recur across very different transformation contexts.
This made the seminar particularly valuable for FITFORWOOD. Looking beyond our own research field of circular timber construction helped us identify parallels and complementary perspectives that can inform our understanding of socio-political transformation processes.
At the same time, the different projects demonstrated that there is no single perspective from which the transformation towards a circular bioeconomy can be understood. The specific characteristics of sectors, regions, institutions and actor constellations matter.
From exchange to collaboration
The seminar was therefore not only an opportunity to present the progress of the individual projects. It also created space for conversations across project boundaries.
The event made the breadth of research within the funding call visible — but also demonstrated how closely many of the projects are connected.
Different sectors and research perspectives may focus on different aspects of transformation, while still encountering related questions and challenges. Creating opportunities to connect these perspectives can therefore be an important part of advancing research on the transformation towards a circular bioeconomy.
We would like to thank Projektträger Jülich (PtJ) for organising the Statusseminar and all participating projects for the open, constructive and inspiring exchange.
We leave Berlin with new connections, new questions and plenty of ideas for continued collaboration.
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