On the 4th and 5th of June, 2019, the 2019 Symposium of the French Rural Economy Society (SFER) was held at NEOMA Business School. Organised by the Chair in Industrial Bioeconomy at NEOMA BS and the SFER, and in close collaboration with the URCA and the IRSTEA, it was the first French social sciences symposium devoted to the bioeconomy. Its aim was to establish and express the relevant scientific knowledge for reflecting on the bioeconomy, setting up a discussion with professionals and orientating the French and European public debates.

Opened by Ms Catherine Vautrin, President of the Grand Reims metropolitan area, this symposium also received numerous financial grants (IRSTEA, URCA, SFR Condorcet, CURAPP). More than 70 professors and researchers working in the social sciences and professionals attended this first symposium, which hosted Piergiuseppe Morone from Unitelma Sapienza University and Massimiliano Mazzanti from the University of Ferrara as special guests and celebrated the event with a gala dinner.

The different sessions, in French and in English, allowed the community of researchers working on the bioeconomy to meet and talk together. It was also an opportunity for the members of the Chair in Bioeconomy at NEOMA BS to present some of their work:
•    Stéphane Lhuillery presented an article co-written with Samih Atmane and Nicolas Béfort on the bioeconomy’s technological demarcation beginning with patents. He showed the difficulty of a sectorial statistic of a bioeconomy in which the innovations are made more in laboratories or start-ups within R&D departments.
•    Nicolas Béfort exhibited his work, which was done in cooperation with the Regards laboratory at the URCA, relating to the connection between biotechnologies and bioeconomy that highlighted several options for public policies based on objectives assigned to the bioeconomy.
•    Lastly, Manuel Morales offered the first systematic modelling of the industrial symbiosis centred on the Pomacle-Bazancourt platform, which shows the flow developments between players according to different prospect scenarios, such as a reduction in production due to climate change.

>programme available here