Robert M'barek

Observing and analysing the Bioeconomy in the EU – Adapting data and tools to new questions and challenges

The concept of ‘bioeconomy’ is receiving increased attention in policy and business circles. The European Commission (EC) has initiated the Bioeconomy Strategy which is a signal of intent that the EU seeks to meet the challenge of reconciling responsible-resource usage respecting sustainability criteria, with wealth-generation. To this aim, the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been entrusted to implement a Bioeconomy Information Systems Observatory within which the objective is to develop an ongoing coherent picture of the activities of this sector, whilst developing forward- looking tools of analysis to help respond to the aforementioned challenge. This paper provides a discussion on the research activities which are currently under development at the JRC. Whilst the scale of ambition of the Bioeconomy Observatory is significant, it is recognised that much of the research conducted so-far remains workin- progress and is therefore only a starting point to fully capturing the nuances of this diverse and complex sector.

DataM - Data on Agriculture, Trade and Models; a tool for flexible management, extension and integration of (model) databases

In 2007, JRC-IPTS started to develop concepts for data consolidation, harmonisation and management together with external partners. Building on the experience of this project, JRC-IPTS began a second initiative in 2009, together with the PROGNOZ software company to design and implement a software platform for data harmonisation and management. The resulting product, DataM, is a database management tool intended to simplify the daily data work of analysts and modellers. DataM helpsfacilitates them feeding economic models with data, checking statistical information or analysing results.

An approach to describe the agri-food and other bio-based sectors in the European Union: Focus on Spain

This study stresses the capacity of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) with a highly disaggregated agricultural sector (AgroSAM) to provide a descriptive analysis of the agri-food and other bio-based sectors. It focuses on Spain but also performs a review for every European Union Member State to detect potential agri-food and other bio-based key sectors. It uses the software SIMSIPSAM to detect backward and forward structural linkages as well as key sectors with the aim of revealing potential growth, a key element in the design of public and private policies. Finally, it presents the Spanish employment multiplier, in order to stress which sectors are the most significant in term of job creation.

Cumulative economic impact of future trade agreements on EU agriculture

This report presents potential effects of twelve free trade agreements (FTAs) under the current EU FTA agenda. It sheds some light on relatively balanced cumulated impacts in terms of trade, production and price for the EU agricultural sector as a whole, while quantifying also the market development for specific agricultural sectors. Different from a forecast exercise, it compares a conservative and an ambitious FTA scenario with a business as usual (reference) scenario.

Biomass flows in the European Union: The Sankey biomass diagram - towards a cross-set integration of biomass

The Sankey biomass diagram is a representation of harmonised data from the various Joint Research Centre (JRC) units contributing to the BIOMASS project. It represents the flows of biomass for each sector of the bioeconomy, from supply to uses including trade. This diagram enables deeper analysis and comparison of the different countries and sectors across a defined time series. Annex 6 provides illustrations for the 28 EU Member States and the EU-28 aggregation. Multiple data sources have been used to quantify biomass for each category and Member State. All relevant data from the different sources have been integrated into a single database. The Sankey biomass diagram represents the categories and flows of this database. The diagram is hosted in the JRC DataM Portal, in the Bioeconomy visualization area . It can be accessed directly in the following link: https://datam.jrc.ec.europa.eu/datam/mashup/BIOMASS_FLOWS/index.html# As a pioneer work, the diagram suffers from existing data gaps that hampered the complete estimation of the biomass. Due to the conversions and transformations performed on the original data to enable categorization and comparison across sectors, data quality checks are also difficult to perform in the absence of other data of reference with which to compare our numbers. The current version of the diagram only represents the dry matter content of biomass, not the economic, nutritional or other values of the bioeconomy. Further research will be done in the future to include these aspects in the diagram so a broader view of the bioeconomy can be presented. In this document, we will explain where the data used for the diagram was sourced, as well as the main data gaps and challenges encountered. We will also briefly discuss the main features and functionalities of the Sankey biomass diagram. Finally, well will present some insights based on the represented data and potential future research opportunities.