FOEBE+ - FOstering Entrepreneurship for a sustainable and innovative BioEconomy
March 27 2025The FOEBE+ project (FOstering Entrepreneurship for a sustainable and innovative BioEconomy) is co-funded by Erasmus+ for a period of 3 years, and aim to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills in the bioeconomy in order to accelerate the deployment of this sector within the European Union.
FOEBE+ is coordinated by AgroParisTech, and includes among its academic partners the University of Hohenheim (UHOH - Germany), Wageningen University (WUR - Netherlands), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU - Austria), University of Eastern Finland (UEF - Finland), University of Bologna (UNIBO - Italy) and Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW - Poland).
The bioeconomy sector is a priority for the European Union. This systemic approach, encompassing various economic sectors, is based on circularity and sustainable development principles, requiring a paradigm shift in both educational pathways and teaching practices to equip young professionals with appropriate entrepreneurial skills. Indeed, innovative, sustainable, and economically viable solutions must be found to fully deploy the bioeconomy.
Currently, entrepreneurship training programs do not meet the sector’s needs, hindering its development potential. Furthermore, there is no harmonized European approach on this topic, even though bioeconomy is recognized as a key sector. However, developing innovative training content at the European level would allow students, the future entrepreneurs, to gain a comprehensive view of all dimensions of bioeconomy.
The FOEBE+ project therefore aims to achieve this objective by playing a key role in implementing the change needed for educational programs in the field of the bioeconomy. Seven higher education institutions (see list below), members of the European Bioeconomy University (EBU) Alliance, have decided to join forces to provide students with the best possible educational offering. This partnership draws on their expertise, resources, and knowledge, as well as that of their industrial partners, to offer additional modules that are directly relevant to future entrepreneurs in the field.
The project focuses on a blended learning format, combining e-learning with in-person sessions, emphasizing innovative teaching practices. FOEBE+ will thus allow master’s students, engineering students, PhD candidates, and Lifelong Learners to follow modules that will enrich their educational pathways.
The project’s activities and expected outcomes include:
- Surveying bioeconomy stakeholders to precisely define the required qualifications and skill profiles;
- Sharing innovative practices (hackathons, competitions, non-formal education, contextual learning);
- Creating a digital platform (courses and training materials);
- Developing a guide on innovative training to encourage entrepreneurship through education;
- Creating new educational resources, additional courses, and innovative training practices, which will be developed, disseminated, and shared;
- Developing guidelines for universities to become key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
With its flexible and optimized approach to entrepreneurial training in bioeconomy, FOEBE+ will strengthen students’ potential to innovate and facilitate the transfer of their ideas to market realization.
The program is based on a mixed learning approach, both synchronous and asynchronous, combining online and in-person sessions. With approximately three hours of personal workload per week, the FOEBE+ curriculum integrates into students’ schedules and consists of eight modules, all taught in English:
- Introduction to Bioeconomy;
- Accelerated Sustainable Entrepreneurship;
- Creative Design, Idea Generation;
- Intellectual Property;
- Business Management and Corporate Finance;
- Leadership and Execution;
- Marketing;
- Digitalization in Bioeconomy.
These eight modules are followed by a mandatory in-person week between April and May, co-funded by Erasmus+.
In April 2024, 35 students from the seven partner universities gathered at Wageningen University, where they received support for developing entrepreneurial projects in small groups, putting into practice the concepts learned during the online courses. They also had the opportunity to present their projects to a panel of faculty members.
FOEBE project results
FOEBE+ builds on a first project, FOEBE (FOstering Entrepreneurship for BioEconomy), co-funded by Erasmus+ and completed in August 2023. The results of this project are available on the Erasmus+ platform. A publication has also been produced, available in the “Useful links” section of this page.