2007: Landmark European publication behind ‘Knowledge Based Bioeconomy’ in Europe
Nominated by: BIO Deutschland 
Under the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union, 42 experts from academia and industry across 13 countries were invited to contribute towards an expert paper which outlines the perspectives of a Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) within the next 20 years.
The resulting paper ‘En Route to the Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE)’, the so-called “Cologne Paper”, was published in May 2007 in Cologne. The paper was the first document which assisted policy makers in identifying priorities and adopting measures to establish a “bioeconomy”.
The document identified biotechnology as an important pillar of the future European economy, essential for sustainable economic growth, employment, energy supply and the maintenance of living standards.
The paper included language now very familiar within European policy, including targets for 2030, such as driving forces, bioproducts and bioprocessing, bioenergy, food and nutrition, biomedicine and emerging technologies.
The paper was the first to clearly state that biotechnology is an important pillar of Europe ́s economy by 2030, indispensable to sustainable economic growth, employment, energy supply and to maintaining the standard of living.
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