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Transform2Bio - Integrated Transformation Processes and Their Regional Implementations: Structural Change from Fossil Economy to Bioeconomy
Overview:
Ensuring the well-being of current and future generations without transgressing environmental limits is an overarching objective of the concept of sustainable bioeconomy. Achieving this objective will require major transformations of existing resource systems, value networks, business models, infrastructures and governance systems. The recent decision of the German government to phase-out coal mining will initiate major transition processes in the lignite mining region, the Rheinische Revier, creating a unique opportunity for understanding the socio-technical dynamics and implementation options towards an entire sustainable bioeconomy region. Against this background, Transform2Bio aims to systematically identify transformation trajectories for the implementation of a strong and sustainable bioeconomy in the Rheinische Revier.
Pooling expertise from (agricultural) economics, operations and innovation management, entrepreneurship, political science, economic development, consumer psychology, and socio-technical systems analysis, the research approach of Transform2Bio follows the inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research agenda integrating orientation, system, and transformation knowledge. As part of this multi-dimensional approach, Transform2Bio will establish an interactive stakeholder network, the Stakes2Bio Lab. It will provide the room for both continuous stakeholder dialogue (‘society to science’) and the establishment of regional 'science to society' networks. These will provide bioeconomy implementation options based on cutting-edge scientific research, which can be readily tested against 'real world' stakeholder settings.
Contribution
Our contribution to Transform2Bio is part of work package 3 on "Transformation Trajectories and Assessment". Specifically, our group contributes to WP 3.1c “regional impact assessment of bioeconomy pathways” by
Developing a regional CGE model, based on CGEBox, that allows connection to the global shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) and simulation of alternative bioeconomy scenarios.
Linking CGEBox to FarmDyn which provides farm scale economic simulation for the Rheinische Revier
Related publications (preparatory and directly from project)
- Heckelei, T. (2016). Conclusions: The State-Of-The-Art Of Farm Modelling And Promising Directions, In: Shresta, S., Barnes, A., & Ahmadi, B.V. (Eds.), Farm-Level Modelling: Techniques, Applications And Policy. 206-213, Cabi International, Boston (USA).
- Neuenfeldt, S., Gocht, A., Heckelei, T, & Ciaian, P. (2018). Explaining Farm Structural Change In The European Agriculture: A Novel Analytical Framework. European Review Of Agricultural Economics, Jby037, 1-56.
- Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Dudu, H., Roson, R., Sartori, M. (2020). Can Food Waste Reduction In Europe Help To Increase Food Availability And Reduce Pressure On Natural Resources Globally? German Journal of Agricultural Economics (Forthcoming). https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ubfred/301858.html
- Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Beckman. J. (2019) The Impacts To Food Consumers Of A Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership, Bio-Based and Applied Economics 7(2):139-160

Staff working at ILR on the project
Yaghoob Jafari, Modelling implementation and application
Helena Engemann, Supporting research
Thomas Heckelei, Principle Investigator
Last updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
News
Winner of the 2019 Outstanding ERAE journal article:
Neuenfeldt, S., Gocht, A., Heckelei, T., Ciaian, P. (2019): Explaining farm structural change in the European agriculture: a novel analytical framework, European Review of Agricultural Economics 46(5): 713-768.
Contribution to DFG Excellence cluster PhenoRob, 2020-2024
Petition „Cercedilla manifesto: Research meetings must be more sustainable“
Recent publications
- Research meetings must be more sustainable Sanz-Cobena, A., Alessandrini, R., Bodirsky, B. L., Springmann, M., Aguilera, E., Amon, B., Bartolini, F., Geupel, M., Grizzetti, B., Kugelberg, S., Latka, C., Liang, X., Milford, A. B., Musinguzi, P., Ng, E. L., Suter, H., Leip, A. (2020): Nature Food 1: 187-189.Paying the price for environmentally sustainable and healthy EU diets Latka, C., Kuiper, M., Frank, S., Heckelei, T., Havlik, P., Witzke, H.-P., Leip, A., Cui, H. D., Kuijsten, A., Geleijnse, J. M., van Dijk, M. (2021): Global Food Security 28: 10 pages.Long-Term Scenarios for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Agro-Food Markets with varying Population, Income and Crop Productivity Trends Kuhn, A., Britz, W. (2021): Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 46(1): 20-36.Integration of various dimensions in food-based dietary guidelines via mathematical approaches Report of a DGE/FENS Workshop in Bonn, Germany Schäfer, A. C., Schmidt, A., Bechthold, A., Boeing, H. ., Watzl, B., Darmon, N., Devleesschauwer, B., Heckelei, T., Pires, S. M., Nadaud, P., van Dooren, C., Vieux, F. (2020): British Journal of Nutrition: 1-18.Mitigating the impacts of floods using adaptive and resilient coping strategies: The role of the emergency Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program (LEAP) in Ghana Tabe-Ojong, M. P. J., Boakye, J. A., Muliro, M. (2020): Journal of Environmental Management 270: 8 pages.Production and supply of tomato in Cameroon: Examination of the comparative effect of price and non-price factors Tabe-Ojong, M. P. J., Molua, E. L., Nzie, J. R. M., Fuh, G. L. (2020): Scientific African 10: 13 pages.Production, consumption and market diversification of grain legumes in the humid forest agroecology of cameroon Tabe-Ojong, M. P. J., Molua, E. L., Ngoh, S. B., Beteck, S. E. (2021): Sustainable Production and Consumption 27: 193–202.(Dynamic) willingness to pay and e-commerce: Insights from sparkling wine sector in Russia Fedoseeva, S. (2020): Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 57: 12 pagesCharacterizing Farmers and Farming System in Kilombero Valley Floodplain, Tanzania Gebrekidan, B. H., Heckelei, T., Rasch, S. (2020): Sustainability 12(7114): 1-21.Market and Welfare Impact Assessment of the Target Price-Based Subsidy Program in the Chinese Cotton Market Shang, L., Jafari, Y., Heckelei, T. (2020): Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) 17.1: 53-70.Can Food Waste Reduction in Europe Help to Increase Food Availability and Reduce Pressure on Natural Resources Globally? Jafari, Y., Britz, W., Dudu, H., Roson, R., Sartori, M. (2020): German Journal of Agricultural Economics 69(2): 143-168.Modelling food security: Bridging the gap between the micro and the macro scale Müller, B., Hoffmann, F., Heckelei, T., Müller, C., Hertel, T. W., Polhill, J. G., van Wijk, M., Achterbosch, T., Alexander, P., Brown, C., Kreuer, D., Ewert, F., Ge, J., Millington, J. D. A., Seppelt, R., Verburg, P. H., Webber, H. (2020): Global Environmental Change 63: 16 pages.Forecasting International Sugar Prices: A Bayesian Model Average Analysis Amrouk, E. M., Heckelei, T. (2020): Sugar Tech: 11 pages.Brexit: an economy-wide impact assessment on trade, immigration, and foreign direct investment Jafari, Y., Britz, W. (2020): Empirica 47(1): 17-52.Efficiency differentials in resource-use among smallholder cassava farmers in southwestern Cameroon Molua, E. L., Tabe-Ojong, M. P., Meliko, M. O., Nkenglefac, M. F., Akamin, A. (2019): Development in Practice: 11 pages.New insights on efficiency and productivity analysis: Evidence from vegetable-poultry integration in rural Tanzania Habiyaremye, N., Tabe-Ojong, M. P., Ochieng, J., Chagomoka, T. (2019): Scientific African 6(e00190): 11 pages.Explaining farm structural change in the European agriculture: a novel analytical framework Neuenfeldt, S., Gocht, A., Heckelei, T., Ciaian, P. (2019): European Review of Agricultural Economics 46(5): 713-768.Machine learning in agricultural and applied economics Storm, H., Baylis, K., Heckelei, T. (2019): European Review of Agricultural Economics, jbz033: 44 pages