The UK’s bioeconomy: a case for building growth, resilience and sustainability
The UK has one of Europe’s largest bioeconomies, generating around £325 billion in output and supporting 6.4 million jobs across sectors ranging from agriculture and food manufacturing to life sciences, industrial biotechnology and environmental services. Yet despite its scale, the bioeconomy remains fragmented and lacks a coherent strategy to realise its full potential.
The report argues that the bioeconomy provides a practical framework for connecting economic growth, regional development, resilience and nature recovery. It explores how advances in engineering biology, biomanufacturing, precision breeding and bio-based materials can strengthen existing industries, improve productivity, reduce dependence on fossil-derived inputs and create new sources of competitive advantage. At the same time, it highlights how a well-designed bioeconomy agenda can support the transition to a nature-positive and potentially carbon-negative economy.
The authors present a framework for understanding the UK bioeconomy as an integrated system linking natural capital, established bio-dependent industries and frontier innovation. They assess the current size, performance and geographical distribution of the bioeconomy, identify key barriers to growth, and set out a policy and financial architecture to unlock investment, strengthen regional clusters, accelerate innovation and improve coordination across government.
The UK’s upcoming G20 and G7 presidencies provide a rare opportunity to shape the global bioeconomy agenda and strengthen the country’s position as a leading centre for bioeconomy finance, innovation, services and international collaboration.
DOI: 10.21953/researchonline.lse.ac.uk.00140845
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