The transition towards a sustainable future is increasingly understood to rely on further development of the bioeconomy. In this, both public and private sectors play pivotal roles. Government agencies and public institutions are instrumental in shaping the trajectory of the bioeconomy through strategic frameworks, regulatory measures, and policies. These instruments may create a conducive environment by clearing away bureaucratic impediments and establishing favourable conditions. Concurrently, private sector entities, including industry interest groups and companies, have the important task of advocating for these favourable conditions and driving the bioeconomy’s growth through active involvement, strategic business decisions, capital investments, and bringing bio-based innovations to market. Throughout these processes, perceptions of the bioeconomy held by actors in both sectors shape the outcomes of their actions. Hence, this study delves into the perceptions of the bioeconomy among stakeholders from both the public and private sectors across nine European regions regarding barriers and supporting conditions impacting its development, particularly important bioeconomy value chains, and the willingness and perceived responsibility to advance the bioeconomy. Findings from 534 online survey responses (288 public sector and 246 private sector) reveal that key factors identified as propelling the development of the bioeconomy forward include access to investment and scientific knowledge, while obstacles such as limited cooperation among stakeholders and inadequate supportive policies and legislative environments were noted as primary hindrances. Among the value chains highlighted, bioenergy was frequently recognised as having high growth potential, while not necessarily being the one with the most significant environmental benefits. Both the public and the private sector demonstrated a high willingness to develop the bioeconomy, yet both also assigned more responsibility to the public sector in three main areas: enhancing societal awareness and communication about the bioeconomy, ensuring beneficial environmental and social impacts, and investing in the bioeconomy's growth. Graphical

Global trends influence the approaches and mindset for using natural resources and technological capacities. Participatory scenario methods have proven useful in long-term foresight. However, country-level foresight studies often ignore the broader trends affecting international markets and setting frames for economic development. This study envisions which global trends could occur and how the resulting European policies might affect the Finnish forest sector’s development in 2040. We applied a Futures Wheel approach, where stakeholder groups consisting of policy-, economic- and social sustainability-, technology-, and climate sustainability -experts in the field of forestry and interlinking industries created three future scenarios in a workshop: (1) biodiversity and regulated economy, (2) circular economy, and (3) era of social connection. The scenarios assumed growing resource scarcity as a result of climate change, as well as over-consumption and increasing inequality problems globally. Thus, European-level policies focused on the circular economy and resource-use restrictions. Finnish industries should invest in wood-based side stream and waste utilization to increase added value and decrease virgin wood uses to succeed in these scenarios. However, this would require investments in non-wood energy sources to release these secondary wood flows from energy uses.

Wooden construction has the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation, and it is being promoted by the EU and national governments. However, several market barriers to wood-frame multi-storey building (WMSB), have been recognized, including obstacles in national building codes, lack of expertise in wood construction, and material durability concerns among end-users as well as other technical aspects. Given that increased wood construction is a target, understanding consumer perceptions of WMSB is crucial. In this study, consumer attitudes on WMSB were studied through consumer segmentation relying on demographic attributes. Further, the effect of providing fire safety information was explored. To this end, an online survey was deployed in seven European countries, with 7007 responses. The results show that in general, the awareness and attractiveness of WMSB is low amongst European consumers. Out of all respondents, 46% had not heard of WMSB before and only 12% stated that they are interested in the subject and know something about it, showing a clear lack of information and awareness within the general public. Significant differences in the perceived attractiveness of wooden multi-storey construction between consumer segments exist, with younger consumers and urban consumers being more attracted to living in WMSB than older or rural consumers. Fire safety was an important attribute affecting overall attractiveness, yet updated information regarding fire safety and control in WMSBs had a small but statistically significant negative effect on the perceived attractiveness. The results indicate that targeted marketing efforts are needed to inform potential consumers of WMSB and aspects related to fire safety effectively.