Blue biotechnology for sustainable innovations

The marine environment has great potential for providing us with food, industrial raw materials and energy, but this potential remains largely unused. In the light of this situation and taking into account today’s climate change problems in the marine environment, especially the decline of phytoplankton over the past century, the University of Gothenburg in Sweden (lead partner) has in collaboration with (among others) Mare Life in Norway developed a cross-border project in order to establish a strong research and innovation area for blue (marine) biotechnology in the Kattegat-Skagerrak region. The project, called 'Blue biotechnology for sustainable innovations', focuses on commercialization of research, enterprise integration and micro algae. "Blue Biotechnology for sustainable innovations" is a project part-financed by the Interreg IVA-program (Kattegat-Skagerrak sub-program) of the European Union. The project runs over a three-year period, from January 2011 to December 2013. The vision of the project is that the region around Skagerrak and Kattegat in ten years will be one of the most dynamic research and innovation locations for blue biotechnology. The region will have attracted internationally renowned scientists and the national and international research funding will have increased by a factor of 20. Furthermore, open innovation and other characteristics of the chosen strategy will have led to a prosperous industrial centre for blue biotechnology. To help to achieve this, the project will for example establish strong academic-industrial networks and collaborations; create an attractive research environment in the 'KASK region'; enhance the knowledge of the climate effects on phytoplankton and try to find new sustainable ways of exploiting the resources that the oceans offer.- A created network between schools, companies, competence centers and universities.