Community BioFutures

The EBRC Community BioFutures initiative aims to build bioliteracy and engagement in the U.S. bioeconomy by empowering stakeholders and strengthening local bioeconomies through a national networking and resources infrastructure.

About

As the bioeconomy continues to grow and diversify, public engagement, and the development of a robust, inclusive workforce becomes a high priority. To increase engagement and educate the next-generation of bioeconomy participants, we need to raise awareness of its potential, from foundational engineering biology to scalable technologies and consumer-ready products, goods, and services. EBRC will contribute to this initiative by establishing a national infrastructure that supports and connects local bioeconomy stakeholders to increase engineering biology engagement and education, workforce development, and industry/economic growth, promoting nation-wide bioliteracy.

Want to engage with us or get involved? Please reach out to education@ebrc.org

Project Goals, Milestones, and Benchmarks

Project Goals and Milestones

  • To meet with educators, researchers, industry members, policymakers, and other stakeholders to identify the strengths of local bioeconomies, their challenges, and the resources necessary for robust networks;
  • To facilitate discussions and collaboration between stakeholders by holding national and regional workshops. These workshops will help us to develop tools, platforms, and connections that foster visibility, growth, and sustainability of local bioeconomy networks and national bioliteracy; and
  • To gather “Success Stories” about how local bioeconomies serve their communities to build bioliteracy.

Current Benchmarks

  • Gathering information (strengths, weaknesses, resources) on local bioeconomy networks through surveys and interviews with EBRC members and near-network community members;
  • Engaging with existing engineering biology and bioeconomy-related organizations throughout the U.S. to identify how to best support different bioeconomies (i.e., by exploring organization types, funding sources, participants and target audience, and programs’ goals).

Upcoming Events

EBRC Sci Comm Workshop Series: “Communicating Science Effectively” 

EBRC is excited to host “Communicating Science Effectively”, an interactive, virtual training series open to all EBRC members! Over the course of three 60-minute sessions, participants will learn research-based theories underlying effective science communication and have the opportunity to apply these principles through hands-on instruction, practice, and feedback. The series will culminate with an in-person session during the EBRC Annual Meeting. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in leveling up their communication and engagement skills!

Workshop Series Schedule

  • Session 1: Sci Comm 101 (virtual) | Friday, March 20, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)
  • Session 2: Applying Sci Comm in Practice (virtual) | Thursday, April 16, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)
  • Session 3: Crafting your message (virtual) | Friday, May 15, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)
  • Session 4: Final presentations (in-person) | Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (At the EBRC Annual Meeting)

Learn more and register here!

Past Events

Community BioFutures Virtual Workshop #1

This workshop was held as three identical sessions on the following dates:

  • Wednesday, July 2 | 12:00-2:30pm ET / 9:00-11:30am PT
  • Tuesday, July 8 | 11:00am-1:30pm ET / 8:00-10:30am PT
  • Thursday, July 10 | 2:00-4:30pm ET / 11:00am-1:30pm PT

Objectives of Workshop #1:

  1. Discuss shared interests in advancing bioliteracy and the bioeconomy among stakeholders to align goals;
  2. Discuss current efforts and challenges to sustain and develop programs to improve bioliteracy;
  3. Share success stories of activities or program implementation towards bioliteracy; and,
  4. Discuss challenges of networking and communication within local bionetworks to create and sustain communication channels.

This virtual workshop is intended for those who are already familiar with the Community Biofutures initiative through our interviews and other conversations. However, if you are new to this initiative and would like to attend the workshop, please email us at education@ebrc.org to let us know you are interested in participating and contributing to the future of a more connected, bioliterate community.

Resources

Please join us on the Community BioFutures LinkedIn Group!

More coming soon!

Resources we expect to highlight:

  • Publications
  • Success Stories!
  • Discussion Forum

Advisory Committee

The Community BioFutures Advisory Committee is composed of key stakeholders from industry, education, government, and other relevant sectors to provide strategic guidance and expertise on EBRC’s role in advancing nationwide bioliteracy by:

  • Shaping networking workshops to foster collaboration between local bioeconomies;
  • Planning regional or local community events (in partnership with museums, zoos, libraries, or similar entities) to increase public engagement; and
  • Offer general input to enhance the success of the EBRC Community BioFutures initiative.

Support

This work is currently supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Award Number 2341279. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Interested in helping us sustain this work? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at education@ebrc.org or donate directly here.