A secure future for our planet requires equitable, inclusive and sustainable approaches to society’s most pressing problems. Nature provides us with an immense bio-based toolbox to create a truly sustainable, circular bioeconomy by: Improving the sustainability of biological processes Discovering natural products of high value that have medicinal propertiesImprove the nutritional content of foodProvide renewable alternatives to current energy sources Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and BiotechnologyCentre for Engineering BiologyInstitute of Molecular Plant Sciences This article was published on Monday 17 June 2024