The goal of the societal debate around the bio-based society is to allow society to participate in the making of decisions about the possible future scientific implementations. This can happen on different levels, depending on the stakeholders. Assessing the success of the debate can be a difficult task since there is not one debate around the bio-based economy, or bio-based society. Instead, different stakeholders hold different discourses in several, intertwined debates. The economic stakeholders will focus on profit maximization, while environmental groups may want to abandon profits and push to a maximization of wildlife and the minimizing of global warming. The different stakeholders will most likely not agree eventually, but might come closer to understanding and respecting each other. To qualify as a debate, the goals and issues at stake should first be described. These goals can be depolarization, policy formation, public awareness, finding a commonly desired direction in technical progress, or others. After one of the debates the stakeholders must be questioned about their participation. It might be difficult to define the end of the debate as debates might take years or decades, especially the polarized ones (e.g.: GMO for food, abortions). In this respect, it would make sense to look at a particular time frame, e.g. five years, and ask the stakeholders about certain issues throughout the course of the debate. In a research report ordered by Commisie Genetische Modificatie (COGEM), the qualification of an open platform for different stakeholders was done by interviewing selected participants, which gave valuable results. [2]