Page 131 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

6 Does the IEB Need a More Formal Governance Structure? 99

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function locally, by creating not necessarily an agency or its equivalent, but rather
a mechanism:
– The lack of a tradition on the platform of assessing the technical-economic
potential of its discoveries.
– The need to assist start-up companies before they apply to established venture
capitalists.
– The great concern for confidentiality in initial development phases (a file that
circulates too widely loses a large part of its value).
– The need to examine strategic decisions locally (specifications, right of first
refusal, tours de table preferential funding rounds, risk compensation, selection
of partners...)
– Respect of internal regulations (framework agreements) and of a local ethics
charter.

Conclusion
The Bazancourt-Pomacle biorefinery and its counterpart the IEB have quite clear
prospects for the future. It needs to capitalise on favourable upstream conditions;
attract industry, young entrepreneurs, and upstream and downstream services
companies; strengthen its innovation capacity and its different ways of capitalising
on innovation; and maintain or renew its virtues and values that remain extremely
appropriate. All these opportunities for expansion and development are open to the
platform.
This discussion of future prospects does not aim to predict the future, but to offer
an overview of the opportunities and challenges that the biorefinery faces in the
relatively near future (2030).
All these topics have been discussed with representatives of the different layers
of stakeholders we have identified: industrial firms, researchers, senior manage-
ment, civil servants and elected representatives of local authorities or the State. If
some of our positions appear to reflect poorly or insufficiently the views of certain
actors, the authors are responsible for this and we propose in our general conclusion
that this study should serve as a starting point more than as a conclusion.
We hope that by reviewing systematically a number of issues that are often
discussed in isolation, we help to offer an overall view of the biorefinery. This may
prepare the ground for the actors to become more aware of the challenges they face,
and to take advantage of the window of opportunity that is opening, and finally to
take appropriate decisions.

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Such an entity, exclusively devoted to the platform might be supported by a financial market
type local organisation, which would be set up to serve local economic players.