The purpose of Bio+ is to strengthen and increase understanding of the role of bioenergy in a sustainable, resilient, and robust energy system. Bio+ supports research, innovation, and business development to accelerate the development and commercialization of solutions within the bioenergy sector, as well as to provide a knowledge base for policy development.
Bio+ creates the conditions for developing both existing and new value chains of varying complexity. The program promotes both industrial collaborations that enhance the overall security of supply in the energy sector and reduce vulnerability, and cross-sectoral collaborations between different stakeholders to enable and foster new ideas and cross-boundary cooperation.
Bioenergy is a key component of the sustainable energy system.
Bio+ is divided into four areas
- Biomass and bioenergy solutions
- Societal perspective and system analysis
- Market and commercialization
- International cooperation
Accelerating activities (knowledge dissemination, utilization and collaboration) aim to speed up the implementation of project results and to create collaboration between actors for a sustainable transition.
The first phase of the program ran between March 2021 and December 2025. After that, the program has been extended and now runs until the end of 2030.
Bio+ has five goals
Five objectives have been defined to ensure that the program contributes to a long-term sustainable energy transition:
- Well-founded choices
- Sustainable value chains
- Resource-efficient solutions
- New player constellations
- High level of competence
Internationalization
The Swedish Energy Agency’s research and innovation efforts are also carried out with other countries to promote international cooperation, knowledge exchange, and global monitoring.
By encouraging Swedish stakeholders to apply for international funding, the Bio+ program enables greater investment in research and innovation within bioenergy. This strengthens the capacity of Swedish researchers to participate in and lead international research consortia.
The Bio+ program includes, for example, the following international collaborations:
- IEA Bioenergy – International cooperation for knowledge development in the bioenergy field.
- Clean Energy Transition Partnership – An initiative under the EU’s Horizon Europe framework program for research and innovation; replaces the previous collaborations within ERA-Net.
- Forests and Forestry for a Sustainable Future – A partnership starting in 2025. From the Swedish side, the work is led by Formas, with the Swedish Energy Agency and Vinnova participating.
