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2 What Next? 105

This study of the Toulouse case reveals a logic that we have already seen in the
case of Bazancourt-Pomacle:

– The initiation of such an ecosystem is not easy to plan, but at the same time, it is
not a question of mere chance. There was no overall plan for Toulouse in 1900,
or for Bazancourt-Pomacle in 1946, but a succession of circumstances, stages
and escalations of scale.
– A high level of alignment between the actors is part of the explanation of this
development in both cases: for Toulouse, the city council and visionary univer-
sity scholars at the beginning of the century, then the state as federator and
catalyst, cementing the building blocks together. For Bazancourt-Pomacle, the
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consistent support of the farmers and of their two cooperatives, accompanied
since the 1990s by the local authorities and then academic researchers.
– A high level of alignment in the circumstances: the solutions that the industrial
ecosystem is likely to contribute must correspond to market conditions or
circumstances that are favourable, or at least not unfriendly enough (resistance
of established powers, hidden subsidies for established sectors, opponents) to
capsize the initiative.
– In both cases the gestation period lasted around 70 years (Toulouse: 1900–1970,
Bazancourt-Pomacle: 1948–2014), which makes one think about the possibility
of replicating such ecosystems rapidly, especially given that examples in the
United States (Route 128, Silicon Valley) or in other European regions
(Lombardy, Bavaria) were neither set up from scratch nor instant successes.

This comparison shows, if proof were necessary, to what extent studies of other
biorefineries would be useful to enhance understanding of their processes, models,
strategic advantage and the roles of different actors.

2 What Next?

In view of the readers for whom this work is intended, we will make three sets of
comments: proposals for future research; an invitation for the private sector to
continue its efforts in this area; and an analysis of the possible future role of public
policy in the field of industrial bioeconomy.

2.1 A Future Research Agenda

Insofar as industrial bioeconomy and its expression in the form of biorefineries are
new fields, there is an urgent need to create the statistical foundations without which
it will be impossible to identify the sector or analyse it geographically or

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VIVESCIA and CRISTAL UNION.