Adrian Leip
European Commission, Head of the Bioeconomy Sector in DG RTD
Keynote lecture Monday, 1 June 2026
Dual talk withThomas Alexander, EU’s Bioeconomy Youth Ambassador
Title
Bioeconomic Futures: Enabling Tomorrow Today
Bio
Adrian Leip is Head of Sector for Bioeconomy, DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission. He leads the coordination and implementation of the 2018 EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its Action and was co-drafting the Strategy for European Life Sciences and the EU Bioeconomy Strategy 2025. Before joining DG RTD, he worked for almost 20 years at the EC-Joint Research Centre in Ispra (Italy). Adrian has authored more than 100 scientific papers on environmental and economic modelling, nutrient cycling, GHG emissions, LCA etc. He was Lead Author of the IPCC, such as the IPCC 6th Assessment Report on a ‘food system’ section (2022, Chapter 12) and co-chair the Expert Panel on Nitrogen and Food (EPNF | CLRTAP) under the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (UN-ECE LRTAP Convention). Adrian is particularly interested in solutions that satisfy environmental, economic and social sustainability objectives simultaneously. He has a PhD in Geo-ecology, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
