René Wijffels is professor in bioprocess engineering at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. We teach and do research in the field of biobased economy. Our activities include biobased research projects under the umbrella of public private partnership programs such as BE-Basic (http://www.be-basic.org/) and AlgaePARC (www.AlgaePARC.com), a large program in the field of microalgae as a feedstock for biobased products. The AlgaePARC program has been developed by our group and consists out of large public private partnership programs such as AlgaePARC pilot facilities for the production of algae, AlgaePARC biorefinery and 5 EU projects in which the complete production chain is developed. We developed an R&D in a roadmap for 15 years to bridge the gap between basic research and commercial applications of algal products in a biobased economy.