In Romania’s Centru Region and Sibiu County, circular bioeconomy development remains at an early stage, despite the presence of important local resources and clear regional needs. Challenges linked to residual biomass, organic waste, neglected marginal lands, landfill use, fossil energy dependence, and the social cost of waste management continue to affect the economy, the environment, and local communities. Within this context, the RIBES Multi-actor Transformative Forum in Sibiu provides a space to explore how circular bioeconomy solutions can be shaped through technological, social, and economic innovation.
Since the beginning of the project, the Sibiu MTF has grown as a dynamic group, bringing together members from agriculture, industry, administration, NGOs, education, research, and academia. It reflects two broad bioeconomy perspectives in the region: one more traditional and locally rooted, centred on the revival of customs, crafts, materials, and artisanship, and another more industrially oriented, focused on science-based circular bioeconomy, cascade processing of local biomass, and tools such as industrial biotechnology and biorefineries. Below, the Romanian MTF reflects on the journey so far, the main debates and lessons emerging from the process, and the difference the forum is beginning to make in the region.
1. In your view, what are the main bioeconomy-related challenges or needs in your region that the MTF is helping to address?
Circular bioeconomy is still underdeveloped in the Centru Region and Sibiu County. This has effects across the economy, the environment, and society, including weak management of residual biomass, organic waste, and neglected marginal lands, high quantities of waste being sent to landfill, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, strong reliance on fossil resources in the energy sector, and high waste management costs that are ultimately transferred to the local population.
2. Why is the work of the MTF important in your regional context?
The Sibiu MTF addresses these bioeconomy and societal challenges by aiming for transformative systemic change across the three pillars of innovation: technological, social, and economic. Its role is to support the co-creation of personalised business and governance models focused on circular bioeconomy development in the region.
3. How does your MTF contribute to RIBES’ wider ambition of supporting inclusive and sustainable bio-based entrepreneurship?
The Sibiu MTF contributes to the development of the circular bioeconomy, social innovation, and rural development. In doing so, it supports the shift from a linear to a circular economy in Sibiu and the wider Centru Region, as part of the broader RIBES effort to support regions lagging behind in innovation.
4. How has your MTF developed since the beginning of the project?
The Sibiu MTF is a dynamic group. Since 2024, it has gained more members, particularly from the agriculture and industry sectors. At the same time, local and regional administration has also gained stronger representation within the forum.
5. Which stakeholder groups have been involved, and why has their participation been important?
The MTF includes members connected to two main bioeconomy zones in the region, which are reflected in two different types of value chains. One is a rural, traditional, conservative, and nostalgic bioeconomy approach that seeks the revival of old customs, crafts, materials, and artisans based on local resources. The other is a more industrially oriented approach, based on science and knowledge, with a focus on cascade processing of local biomass to produce food, energy, and biomaterials, supported by industrial biotechnology and biorefinery approaches. The composition of the two groups is also different, with the more traditional zone drawing more from NGOs, education, and older members, and the industrially oriented group including younger members from industry, agriculture, administration, research, and academia.
6. Have you seen any changes in stakeholder awareness, dialogue, or willingness to collaborate through the MTF process so far?
The main changes became especially visible during the fifth MTF meeting, held in Sighişoara in mid-March 2026. During that meeting, the RIBES implementation team in Sibiu and the Centru Region worked together with all MTF members, regardless of their bioeconomy zone, on analysing local policy commitments related to waste reduction, circular value chains, sustainable local bioeconomy solutions, and governance improvement. At the same time, the MTF also experienced some withdrawal of members, including two NGO participants focused on wild-type landscape conservation, who most likely did not agree with circular bioeconomy as defined in the contemporary European context.
7. What have been the most important discussions, insights, or turning points within your MTF so far?
Important discussions have developed around the two main bioeconomy approaches in the region, the more traditionalist and the more progressive perspectives. Although personal views sometimes differ, there is still consensus around key issues such as environmental protection, waste reduction, smart use of local resources, the one-health approach, and sustainability in local development. This shared ground is an important trigger for innovative circular bioeconomy development in the region. One important turning point has been the growing awareness that economic development in the region is closely linked to circular bioeconomy industry, whereas a purely conservative and traditionalist approach could lead to stagnation or regression compared with other European regions.
8. Have any specific barriers or enabling factors emerged regarding social entrepreneurship, circular bioeconomy development, or regional value chain development?
In many of the cases discussed in relation to regional bioeconomy, economic sustainability has emerged as a major barrier. Environmental protection projects and bioenergy projects are often not competitive compared with fossil-based value chains. This creates a need for wider societal support through financing and subsidies. However, such support is only possible if society broadly agrees with this direction of development, including projects such as biofuels, biorefineries, and bioremediation. In this context, the MTF sees the social pillar of sustainable development, starting with the mentality of local stakeholders, as the main enabling factor for circular bioeconomy and regional value chain development.
9. What would you say are the most meaningful outcomes or lessons learned from your MTF up to this point?
One of the most important lessons learned so far is that people are the main drivers of sustainable development, including the building of a stronger regional bioeconomy. Technological innovation is easier to advance than social innovation, while mentalities are more difficult to address in a transformative process. For this reason, non-technical challenges linked to education, mindsets, administration, legislation, and governance require even more attention than the economic and environmental pillars in the region.
10. Has the MTF helped identify opportunities for better governance, stronger cooperation, or better informed decision-making in your region?
Yes. All members of the Sibiu MTF agreed on the need to develop a roadmap for a circular bioeconomy strategy in Sibiu County, in order to support better governance, stronger cooperation, and better informed decision-making in the region.
11. Have you seen any signs that the MTF is helping create momentum for more inclusive, socially driven, or locally relevant bio-based solutions?
Yes. Two relevant bio-based solutions have already been proposed by the MTF for local bioeconomy development. One focuses on finding a sustainable use for sheep wool, which currently ends up as waste in fields and pollutes the environment instead of being used as a resource. The other is the proposal for a biorefinery in a polluted area, designed to support soil remediation while also delivering energy, fertilisers, and jobs in a region that still lags behind in bioeconomy innovation. These kinds of initiatives can help create momentum for a more inclusive bioeconomy.
12. Is there one example, moment, or exchange that best illustrates the value of your MTF?
One meaningful sign of the MTF’s value is that the MTF managers, team manager, and team members of the RIBES project in Romania have been invited to bioeconomy events in Romania and recognised for building connections with other regions, projects, and clusters focused on bioeconomy development.
13. If you had to explain in two or three sentences what difference your MTF is making in your region, what would you say?
The Sibiu MTF has helped highlight the importance of the social pillar in sustainable development. It has brought attention to the hidden potential of residual biomass and organic materials that are currently wasted, presenting them instead as resources for developing a regional circular bioeconomy. It is also supporting the adoption of bio-based innovation through pioneering governance and business models in the region.