The interdependencies in the bioeconomy are very complex, therefore cross sectional research from the perspective of social- and political sciences, ecology, ethics and economics is necessary to understand and analyze these interdependencies.

The first step in implementing the Baden-Württemberg bioeconomy research strategy was a call for applications in the research areas "Biogas", "Lignocellulose" and "Microalgae". Various integrative projects were also selected for funding to complement the technological research projects oriented at certain materials and products.

A second call for projects explicitly dedicated to “Social-scientific and ecological accompanying research” was then launched to fund research on the underlying assumptions of bioeconomy concepts (goals, evaluation, and implementation steps), the interrelation between political measures and instruments in bioeconomy, or the analysis of consumer acceptance and innovation processes.

Funded as integrative projects:

• Evaluation of regionalized land use and biodiversity aspects in LCA for biobased products
  
• Effects of bioeconomy on the environment and water cycle - chances and risk minimization
  
• Key indicators for an integrated assessment of biomass value chains
  

Funded in call for social-scientific and ecological accompanying research:

• Bioeoconomy as a socio-technical challenge: Framework and requirements for "Good Governance"
  
• Evaluation and development of scenarios for the application of microalgae as food and feed
  
• Microalgae - potential for relaxing the global biomass balance through the provision of high quality nutritional proteins?
  
• Systems analysis on goals, vision, value chains and implementation steps of a bioeconomy in Baden-Wuerttemberg