From Policy to Practice Actionable Recommendations for a Commercial Bioeconomy 2025

1 Regulation plays a critical role in driving commercialization by reducing uncertainty, mitigating risk and establishing clear standards for scaling emerging technologies. Regulatory frameworks set technical and safety standards, ensuring interoperability, product reliability and consumer trust. As a result, industries that comply with standardized regulations tend to scale faster as both businesses and consumers adopt new products with greater confidence. Regulation also provides legal and safety clarity, helping to reduce financial and operational risks for companies and investors. With well-defined regulatory pathways in place, investors are more inclined to provide funding support for the commercialization of new technologies. When it comes to the bioeconomy, regulation shapes and sets the precedent for how bio-based industries develop and bring new products, services, processes and tools to market. While regulation is a vital tool for advancing innovation, investment and commercialization, the relationship between bio- innovation and regulation remains complex. Some of the more significant challenges include: –Lack of regulatory precedence, outdated or opaque regulations that aren’t fit for purpose –Scientific expertise is underrepresented across regulatory decision-makers –Scientific experts infrequently embedded and empowered throughout the regulation- making process –Disparate local and regional regulatory approaches create cross-border trade conflicts for bio-based products –Limited stakeholder exposure to regulators and the regulation-making process Due to the complexity and fragmented nature of current regulatory landscapes, there is no one- size-fits-all solution. As a result, many commercially valuable bio-innovations struggle to gain traction, limiting their potential to deliver meaningful societal and environmental benefits. In many cases, these innovations face unclear regulatory pathways, outdated frameworks or misaligned oversight – further constraining their impact. Without relevant and supportive guidance, their capacity to tackle urgent global challenges remains limited. To overcome these barriers, governments must develop flexible, adaptive regulatory frameworks that protect public interests while enabling innovation. This includes empowering experts to provide timely oversight, ensuring safety and progress go hand-in-hand. Furthermore, regulation must be transparent, innovation- friendly and tailored to the unique characteristics of each advancement while also offering clear, predictable pathways for businesses to scale. To support this effort, the framework proposes four practical recommendations to help accelerate the creation of fit-for-purpose regulatory mechanisms (Figure 3).Regulation Accessible, expert-informed regulation is key to accelerating commercialization and scaling bio-innovations responsibly. 9 From Policy to Practice: Actionable Recommendations for a Commercial Bioeconomy