The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is focusing on the bio-economy in the Science Year 2020. On the occasion of the start of the Year of Science, the newspaper "wissen.leben" of the WWU Münster dedicates a major article to this topic in its current issue for February/March, which also introduces the BIOCIVIS project.
ZIN member Prof. Bodo Philipp, who is leading the interdisciplinary research project together with ZIN spokesperson Prof. Doris Fuchs, vividly explains the potentials of bio-economic processes, pointing out among other things their contribution to a sustainable recycling economy. At the same time, as the article also makes clear, the role of the bio-economy is by no means uncontroversial, which is due not least to the use of genetic engineering in individual bio-economic processes. Against the background of this controversial discussion of the bio-economy, the BIOCIVIS project has set itself the goal of enabling an equal dialogue on this topic between citizens* and actors from politics, society and the economy. Prof'in Doris Fuchs makes it clear that these dialogues do not necessarily aim to create acceptance or consensus: "Our concern is to accept and include people's values so that in the end we can come to different positions. All in all, as the author of the article puts it in a nutshell, the findings from the project could help "to facilitate the path to a bio-based economy, but also to [point out] its social limits".
You can read the full article here. Further information about the BIOCIVIS project can be found on the project website.

source: Wedlich, Susanne (2019): "Bio-economy has many facets". Science Year 2020: Major challenges for politics, society and research, IN: wissen.leben 14 (1), p. 4, available online at: https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/wwu/muz/pdf-ausgaben/wl_01_2020.pdf . (published in German)