ICONS innovation stories channel launches

Press Release -

As part of the AllThings.bioPRO activities, ICONS has produced the first episode of the AllThings.bio podcast series. The aim is to reach a wider and more varied audience.   ICONS innovation stories will host all future series and episodes recorded both by EU-projects and by ICONS itself with music by Theresia Orchestra.

According to eMarketer, podcast listening is gaining popularity in Europe. Predictions confirm almost 70 million people in the pre-Brexit EU-5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) will listen to podcasts in 2022. However, the combined number of listeners in these countries is still much lower than the total number in the US (117.8 million).

Looking at the individual countries in the former EU-5, podcast listening is significantly more popular in Spain than in the other countries in the group, with 30.0% of internet users listening to podcasts this year. The US leads the world in podcast listenership across every category. In 2021, 117.8 million people in the country listened to podcasts every month, representing 40.0% of all internet users.

According to global forecasts, monthly podcast listeners will reach 424.2 million in 2022, 464,7 million in 2023 and 504,9 million in 2024.

In this growth scenario, ICONS aims to increase the communication formats of the projects in its portfolio, producing the first episode of the AllThings.bio podcast series. The new podcast series seeks to explore the real meaning of bioeconomy and how it affects people’s everyday lives.

The series aims to answer questions about the bioeconomy industry and its future by helping listeners to navigate the different and conflicting information available.

Thanks to interviews with experts and project partners, the podcast series investigates the role and the future of the bioeconomy in the international scenario, both for policy makers and citizens. The project consists of eight episodes exploring different angles: from the actual concept of the bioeconomy and its influence on society to the environmental impact of food packaging; from tips to help consumers to buy consciously to the sectors involved in this bio-based revolution. The first four episodes will be on air each month until May. The other four will be launched later in the year.

The host of the podcasts is Stephen Jones, Multimedia business journalist. In every episode he will interview experts in different topics connected with bioeconomy. 

The first episode – Allthing.bio: What’s the bioeconomy? – is now available on the project website, social media and on the main platforms such as Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast. It explores the purpose of the bioeconomy, its drivers and the role of consumers. In this episode, Stephen Jones interviews Michael Carus, chief executive of the Nova Institute, and Martin Behrens, one of the architects of Allthings.bioPRO.