A follow-up on the conference “Blue biotechnology in the Baltic Sea Region: from science to business”

Last week more than 90 delegates met in Greifswald at the conference “Blue Biotechnology in the Baltic Sea Region: From Science to Business”.

The conference that took place on 22-24 August '18 drew upon a good mix of scientific presentations, successful developments from the Blue Biotechnology world as well discussions on the transition from science to business. A fair representation by business support organisations and marine networks triggered discussions focusing on the needs of the Blue Biotechnology R&D in the Baltic Sea Region for creating a critical mass of actors and initiatives in the area.

More than 90 scientists, entrepreneurs and stakeholders from the public and private sector from 13 countries from the Baltic Sea Region and beyond attended the event.

The conference started with a well-visited evening lecture on how to fast track innovation by Donnie Lygonis (Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, KTH).

The second day was packed with talks on the industrial application of marine organisms, marine biomass production, bioactive compounds and business development as well as sessions on the legal aspects. The discussion was hovering between scientific discovery and spin-off innovation, while established blue biotech companies like oceanBASIS GmbH, Roquette Klötze GmbH & Co. KG  and Furcella OÜ also presented their journey.

Finally, the third day was dedicated to the power of intermediaries, as major representatives of European networks and alliances engaged in the marine biology and blue biotech participated: EMBRC, Marine Bio Alliance, and Nordic Council of Ministers (for Aquaculture and Fisheries) were all present.

Central to the conference were the partners from the Baltic Blue Biotechnology Alliance, a 3-year project funded by the INTERREG BSR. The project is coming to an end in spring next year and the partners are currently taking holistic steps towards converting the project’s products and developed know-how into a sustainable permanent service offer that will be organised under the SUBMARINER Network hub. The final session aimed to bring together different strong European networks (of companies, ministers and researchers) active in marine biology sectors to create a better understanding of the sector and to create a good starting point for future collaboration covering true needs from the R&D as well as the innovation-side of blue bioeconomy.

More about the programme and the actors can be found here