Abstract:

Nowadays, sustainability is a subject in vogue due to environmental disasters. Bioeconomy is considered as a means to achieve sustainability through the development of clean and innovative technologies that generate financial returns and social well-being. However, to be incorporated into concrete actions, Bioeconomy must have social acceptance and the factors that explain their attitudes towards it. For this, an analytical, cross-sectional and quantitative research was carried out through the application of a questionnaire to a non-probabilistic sample for convenience of 220 Brazilian university students. Data was processed using IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 28.0. In this context, a linear regression model was developed. The results show that students are familiar with the Bioeconomy term (53.2%), having a very good or good knowledge level about it (47.2%). Furthermore, an association was observed between the residence area and study field with the knowledge level. Furthermore, the results show the existence of different motivations for supporting Bioeconomy, being the economic motivations more important than the environmental ones. Thus, the better the knowledge about Bioeconomy, the greater is its support but, even those who do not recognize it, students support it due to the expected benefits that associate Bioeconomy with sustainability and green economy. Moreover, even with the country's investments in science and technology, there is a need to incorporate the subject in the curricula of universities degrees.