BureauX: 
Rethinking Bureaucracy for the Bioeconomy

Outline 

How can public administration enable a circular bioeconomy while safeguarding environmental, health and social standards?

Anyone who wants to use waste wood, recycled textile fibres or recovered phosphorus may run into lengthy approval procedures, unclear responsibilities or conflicting requirements under the EU chemicals regulation REACH and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). At the same time, calls to cut red tape are growing louder. Simplification can ease procedures, but it can also put environmental protection and democratic oversight at risk.

BureauX (German: BüroX) examines where and why the implementation of REACH and the EUDR clashes with circular bioeconomy practices, and how procedures can be streamlined without weakening protective standards. We ask:

•     How do administrative procedures work in practice?

•     Which conflicts arise in day-to-day implementation?

•     And how could they be better coordinated?

About 

Background

Across the political spectrum, cutting red tape is seen as key to speeding up innovation and transformation. What is easily overlooked is that administration also safeguards protection and steering. BureauX takes both sides seriously: bureaucracy can hinder innovation, but it can also be what makes standards and innovation possible in the first place.

Why REACH and the EUDR?

Both regulations sit at the interface of environmental and economic policy, affect many bioeconomy sectors and are widely perceived as administratively demanding. Yet they differ markedly. REACH has been an established regime since 2007, with consolidated administrative routines and a long-running reform debate. The EUDR, by contrast, is at the start of its implementation, and its administrative structures are still taking shape. Comparing the two shows how bureaucracy emerges and is reduced at different stages of the regulatory cycle.

Our approach

Political narratives such as “cutting red tape”, “over-regulation” or the “precautionary principle” do more than shape public debate. They also influence which procedures are considered efficient or necessary and how authorities use their discretion. BureauX therefore combines the analysis of political narratives with public administration research and examines how the two interact.

What we mean by bureaucracy

BureauX distinguishes two sides of bureaucracy: bureaucracy as process, meaning how authorities review applications, request evidence and cooperate, and bureaucracy as substance, meaning the obligations a regulation itself imposes. The two are linked: procedures can be designed, but they are shaped by regulation at different levels of implementation. Whether a problem counts as procedural or regulatory is often contested in itself, and it determines which solution seems obvious: making procedures more efficient or removing rules. This is where BureauX comes in, asking for instance why one exemption is seen as simplification and the next as deregulation.

Methods

BureauX addresses its research questions in a transdisciplinary, comparative mixed-methods design over 36 months. At its core, it combines discourse-analytical environmental governance research (narrative and discourse analysis) with public administration research (implementation research, law in action, Better Regulation). The entire process is designed as co-production with an Advisory Board of public authorities, businesses and NGOs.

Research questions

The tension between regulatory complexity (REACH and the EUDR), political pressure to cut red tape and practical implementation gives rise to four central research questions:

1.   Where exactly do bureaucratic hurdles for a circular bioeconomy arise?

2.   To what extent do administrative routines, informal practices and interactions between authorities support or hinder the implementation of REACH and the EUDR?

3.   How far do political narratives and actors shape these routines, practices and interactions, the willingness to change, and the perception of the resulting opportunities and risks?

4.   Which approaches to administrative innovation and cross-sectoral learning can be derived from the findings?

What BureauX delivers

BureauX is the first systematic analysis of how administrative practices, bureaucratic costs and political narratives shape the implementation of REACH and the EUDR, and with it circular bioeconomy innovation. Outputs include evidence-based recommendations for reducing bureaucratic hurdles, validated with practitioners, four to five peer-reviewed articles and two policy briefs (REACH and EUDR).

For whom

•     Policymakers: policy-narrative briefings and two parliamentary evenings (REACH, EUDR)

•     Public administration: proposals for process innovation, a presentation to the National Regulatory Control Council (Normenkontrollrat) and a practitioner publication

•     Business: strategies for reducing compliance costs, workshop materials and social media

Approach

BureauX combines two research perspectives. Public administration research examines how authorities implement REACH and the EUDR in practice, which routines and informal practices emerge and which burdens arise. Narrative and discourse analysis examines how political narratives about bureaucracy and regulation shape this practice. The research draws on interviews, document analysis and participant observation.

The project is organised in five work packages:

1.   Mapping and selecting cases (UFZ and University of Potsdam)

2.   Administrative practices and patterns of interaction (University of Potsdam)

3.   Political narratives and negotiation processes (UFZ)

4.   Integrating and interpreting findings from both perspectives

5.   Synthesis and stakeholder workshops, with recommendations for policy, administration and business

Transdisciplinary from the start: An Advisory Board with members from business, public authorities and civil society accompanies the project. It contributes to the selection of cases, discusses interim findings in a feedback workshop and co-develops proposals for administrative innovation with us in two final workshops (REACH and EUDR).

News & Events

BureauX at the BMFTR status seminar TransZirB in Berlin

17 September 2026

On 17 September 2026, the joint projects of the BMFTR funding measure “TransZirB: Challenges and Success Factors of the Transformation to a Circular Bioeconomy” (Module II) met in Berlin at the invitation of Projektträger Jülich. Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuhlmann and Dr. Justine Marienfeldt (University of Potsdam) represented BureauX. The project presentation covered the research questions and design as well as first results from the mapping: tensions between regulation and the circular economy recur across sectors, for example in mixed material streams, uniform rules and uniform costs. Alongside presentations from the seven projects, the programme included an exchange on research practice and networking.

BureauX at the ECPR General Conference in Kraków

September 2026

At the ECPR General Conference in Kraków, Henry Hempel presented the design and first results of BureauX. The focus was on the case mapping for REACH and the EUDR and on three tensions that recur across both regulations: mixed streams, uniform rules despite unequal risks, and uniform costs despite unequal scales. The panel discussion with scholars of regulation and public administration provided important input for the next steps, for instance on case selection and the concept of bureaucracy.

BureauX at the SGEU conference in Catania

July 2026

At the conference of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union (SGEU) in Catania, Henry Hempel presented BureauX to an international academic audience for the first time. The talk focused on the dual perspective on bureaucracy: as an obstacle and as an enabler of environmental, health and social standards as well as innovation.

Publications

The first articles and policy briefs from the project are in preparation and will be added here once published.

Funding

BureauX (BüroX) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under the funding measure “Bioeconomy as Societal Change”, Module II: Challenges and Success Factors of the Circular Bioeconomy (grant no. 031B1703A [and grant no. of the Potsdam subproject]).