Policy innovation labs

Policy Innovation Labs in CARINA – Final Results

As part of the CARINA project, 10 Policy Innovation Labs (PILs) were organised across partner countries Italy, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany, Serbia, Poland, Tunisia, Greece and Morocco to co-design policies that support more sustainable and diversified bio-based value chains in Europe.

These Labs brought together experts from different sectors such as policymakers, researchers, farmers, industry representatives, NGOs and public authorities to discuss the opportunities and challenges related to introducing innovative oilseed crops in bio-based value chains.

The PILs followed a creative, design-thinking approach, encouraging collaboration, open dialogue and experimentation. By involving stakeholders directly in the policy design process, they ensured that new policies were practical, user-centred and grounded in real-world needs.

French Policy Innovation Lab, 12th March 2024

Tunisian Policy Innovation Lab, 10th October 2024

From Country Labs to a European Policy Foresight Exercise

Building on the barriers, opportunities and country policy factsheets identified through the 10 national PILs, CARINA organised a workshop series grounded in participatory policy foresight and systems thinking. Two workshops brought together stakeholders from different countries and sectors to explore how the EU policy landscape could best support the sustainable deployment of camelina and carinata value chains.

The first workshop focused on scenario building, mapping the technical, economic, cultural, organisational and environmental drivers, barriers and enabling factors shaping the future of carinata and camelina in the EU. The second workshop focused on scenario exploration, using the scenarios developed in the first workshop to examine possible policy pathways and enabling conditions for the uptake of these crops, including the role of relevant EU policy instruments such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), ReFuelEU Aviation and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The exercise was complemented by a dedicated survey among farmers, providing additional insights into adoption challenges, innovation needs and market opportunities from the perspective of primary producers.

Workshop, 6th November 2025

Key Insights From the Policy Foresight Process

Across the country labs, the EU-level workshops and the farmer survey, a consistent picture emerged:

Market security and profitability are the decisive factors for adoption. Policy instruments such as CAP support or RED III are most effective when combined with real, stable market demand, rather than production support alone.
Innovation must be demand-driven and field-tested. Improved seed varieties were identified by farmers as the single most important innovation need, but genetic progress only builds trust when validated through demonstration fields and farmer-led trials.
Value-chain infrastructure remains a bottleneck. Processing capacity, logistics and coordination between actors need to expand in step with feedstock availability to avoid fragmented supply chains.
Policy coherence and simplified, credible certification are as important as financial incentives: stakeholders called for clearer, better-aligned rules across agricultural, energy and bioeconomy policy.
Advanced biofuels remain the strongest near-term market driver, but stakeholders also see growing potential in animal feed, bio-based materials and other industrial uses that can diversify demand over time.
Trust is built through practice, not awareness alone. Cooperatives, industry partnerships and farmer networks were repeatedly highlighted as the most effective way to turn interest in camelina and carinata into real adoption.

Looking Ahead

The Policy Innovation Labs proved to be an effective platform to co-design policy that promotes the adoption of sustainable oilseed crops, strengthens farm resilience, reinforces Europe’s bio-based value chains and provide an opportunity to broader exchange e.g. through organisation of events, workshops etc. Building on this foundation, the CARINA policy foresight exercise translated country-level insights into a set of forward-looking policy recommendations addressed to EU, national and regional policymakers, industry actors, farmers’ organisations and researchers. Together, these results support the development of a coordinated EU policy framework for certified low-iLUC feedstocks one that pairs regulatory clarity and market incentives with the practical, trust-based knowledge exchange that farmers said matters most.