Rural Development 2017
The 8th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development 2017: Bioeconomy Challenges” took place in Akademija, Kaunas district, Lithuania at the Aleksandras Stulginskis University, November 23-24, 2017.
The 8th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development 2017” was the most effective bi-annual platform for the interdisciplinary scientific discussions and the presentations of new ideas for sustainable rural development in the context of Bioeconomy. The Conference brought together scientists, practitioners, policy makers and actors from private sector around the world to share their experience helping countries to provide their citizens with a more competitive economy, more and better jobs and a better quality of life.
The existing and rising challenges of bioeconomy were discussed in different Conference sections:
- Agro-innovations and Food Technologies;
- Biosystems Engineering and Environment Integrity;
- Multifunctional Approach for Sustainable Use of Bio-Resources;
- Social Innovations for Rural Development.
The topic “Bioeconomy Challenges” chosen for the 8th International Scientific Conference sparked strong interest among the professional and scientific community and elicited great response to the call for papers. The Proceedings include 255 peer-reviewed papers and contributions from 739 authors. In total we received 276 submissions for the Conference.
We want to thank authors for the contributors and the reviewers who made this issue possible. We also thank the Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture, Lithuanian Rural Development Network and Research Council of Lithuania for the generous financial support that made the Conference possible.