Sustainability TRade-offs And Pathways (STRAP) is a novel approach that supports the development of sustainable transition criteria towards low-carbon society (LCS). It applies hybrid analytical tools that allows systematic investigation of trade-offs and pathways in the development of 1st and 2nd generation bioenergy. Among others, LCS envisions the use of low-carbon energy sources and production technologies as well as adoption of low-energy consumption behaviour. Renewable energy resources and technologies are important to achieving LCS vision. Among the renewable energy sources, bioenergy presents an enormous policy challenge for sustainable transition to LCS due to inevitable trade-offs at different levels including land use competition (i.e. food vs. fuel, 1st and 2nd generation feedstock), market competition (i.e. domestic vs. foreign trade) and conversion technologies competition. The trade-offs result in diverging social perception on and policy strategies for bioenergy sustainability due to contextual differences across countries. A better understanding of human perception on the sustainability issues confronting bioenergy system will help develop appropriate policy for complex but promising renewable energy sources. STRAP projects will contribute to this challenging task through application of integrated and trans-disciplinary approach, highlighting social perception and policy preferences that affects transition to low carbon and sustainable societies. The STRAP is guided by the hypothesis that trade-off decisions on achieving a balance among economic, social and ecological goals are necessary conditions for assessing development pathways in bioenergy. STRAP’s integrated assessment will be conducted in a stakeholder participatory framework to increase the policy relevance of sustainable transition criteria. It is based on interdisciplinary regional global change research that facilitates transfer of knowledge to society and reinforcement of Science-Policy interface. Moreover, the integrated assessments focus on land-use change and energy use and on regional comparative research encompassing behavioural/societal patterns to develop low-carbon development paths and scenarios, which are supportive of generating knowledge on low-carbon green growth. The STRAP approach will be implemented in different case study areas through various projects.