Investing in nature-positive futures: innovation and place-based finance for bioeconomy and systems change

The transition to a nature-positive economy cannot be driven by technological innovation and capital alone. It also depends on the social fabric that enables communities, institutions and regions to innovate together. This workshop, proposed by Climate KIC, brings together three interdependent themes to explore how widely understood innovation becomes a catalyst for systemic change and mutually reinforcing transformation dynamics.

First, bioeconomy is a systemic opportunity and emerging industry with high potential to boost EU competitiveness. Moving beyond siloed sectors, we examine how bio-based value chains can be redesigned at regional and landscape level, integrating ecological regeneration with economic viability. Drawing on systems innovation experience as a form of social institution-building, participants will explore how multi-actor coalitions shift the rules, relationships and mental models that currently lock in unsustainable resource use, forming the foundational layer for building new financial and innovation approaches.

Second, Place-Based Finance Labs are an innovation instrument to deliver on topics such as the bioeconomy. We showcase how tailor-made financial mechanisms - co-designed with local governments, communities and investors - unlock capital for nature-positive projects. These labs embody multilevel governance, aligning EU policy frameworks with national programmes and sub-regional realities so that investments can flow where transformation is actually happening.

Third, innovation in its widest sense, and as an expression of social capital. Through concrete impact stories, we illustrate the full spectrum of innovation: technological, business model, social and policy - already benefiting nature, people and the economy. Framed through multi-level perspectives on socio-technical transitions, the stories demonstrate how place-based experiments, supported by the right social networks and institutional conditions, can challenge and reshape current systems, thereby closing the loop between systemic opportunity (bioeconomy) and enabling mechanisms (finance and innovation), delivering real-world transformation.

The workshop will combine practitioner presentations with facilitated dialogue, inviting participants to map the connections between finance, bioeconomy and social innovation in their own contexts, showcasing what is already possible and helping identify governance, investment and policy conditions to scale nature-positive innovation.