Biotechnology, Synthetic Biology, and ICT Define the Emerging Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy

Researchers, policy-makers, and industry practitioners alike herald the Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) as the “Next Big Thing” in societal progress. The story, which receives a lot of attention, goes like this: Over the last decades, economies around the globe have transformed into a Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE). Knowledge became the Economy-Defining Resource (EDR) of the KBE and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has served as its Economy-Defining Technology (EDT). Now modern biotechnology becomes another EDT – leading to the KBBE. Bio-resources jointly with knowledge take on the role of the KBBE EDRs. At the heart of this story lies the relationship between resources, technologies and economies, which, under distinct circumstances, may give rise to a major economic transformation. This raises a number of important questions: What constitutes the implied primacy of economics? Why is the KBBE the next big thing? What is the role of resources, namely knowledge and bio-resources, in the context of economic transformations? Why are ICT and biotechnology the EDTs for these economic transformations? With respect to the KBBE, what are the enabling technologies? Last but not least, given the overall ICTERI conference theme and given that ICT remains an EDT for the KBBE, what are the high-level and long-term KBBE ICT challenges? The paper discusses these challenges and attempts to answer these questions at a conceptual level.