Volker Sieber, Chair of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance (GBA) and Rector of the Straubing Campus at the Technical University of Munich, Dulce Siqueira Silva, President of the University Rankings Commission at the Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), and Gerhard Schenk, Secretary of the GBA and Coordinator of Bioeconomy Research at the University of Queensland, talk to Nature Sustainability about the mission, success and prospects of the GBA.