SECTOR DEFINITION

Blue bioeconomy covers activities in ocean bio-based sectors. This refers to the exploration and exploitation of marine life for the production of knowledge and the development of new goods and services.

Value Chain:

Marine environment exploration• Exploration of environments and selected areas previously assessed;• Promote the development of new, future oriented, methodologies for

sampling activities;• Improve the assessment of marine species as sources of bioactive com-

pounds through new taxonomy, chemistry and biochemistry methods.

Production and processing of biomass• Define an integrated approach that combines processing mixed feed-

stocks with the improvement of species culture for food use;• Guarantee the sustainability and health of the cultured species.

Enabling technologies and infrastructure• Create and enlarge European and international research network and

collaborative projects;• Consolidate research in this field through the creation of new methods

and tools to locate environmental and biological exploration hotspots;• Develop repositories for materials and datasets, as well as pilot facilities.

Innovation and differentiation of products• Create new therapeutic and biocompatible materials, through marine

organisms;• Conceptualise innovative approaches for bioremediation and new pro-

cesses centred on marine organisms and compounds.

Policy assistance and promotion• Establish agreements on a global scale regarding the access to resour-

ces - including outside the national jurisdictions – as well as commonlicensing systems regarding this aspect;

• Promote Venture Capital funds designed for research on blue biotech-nology research, as well as PPPs.

EU LONG TERM PRIORITY ACTIONS:(2020-2030)

INVESTMENTLANDSCAPE

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FORBLUE ECONOMY?

The European Bioeconomy is one of the EU’s largest and most important sec-tors, accounting for over €2 trillion in annual turnover and employing over 18 million people. Within this area, Blue Bioeconomy presents immense potential that has not yet been realised.

Investment supporting the development and commercialisation of new innov-ations in Blue Bioeconomy can accelerate the transition to a sustainable and circular bioeconomy. This fits closely with wider EU priorities and policies on climate change, innovation, food, energy, trade, industries, etc, and can enable government and business to fulfill their global commitments (SDGs).

Discovery & Bioprospecting

Research & Development

Product Development

Up-Scalling & Commercialisation

Marketing & Selling

Investigation of the environments and collection of the living organisms.

Recognition of molecular compounds by extracts from organisms. Other R&D activities are also part of this stage such as isolation of specific genes and gene products and structural identification.

Development of sustainable strategies, chemical synthesis, isolation of genes and transfer to useful organisms.

Production of the chosen organisms or molecules in an economically viable industrial-scale, followed by validation and purification.

Market launch of end product.

• Technologies to better understand the molecular and physiological aspects of reproduction,development and growth of fish to improve aquaculture productivity

• Solutions for overfishing

Aquaculture

• Bimolecular technologies to reverse technological degradation• Marine based solutions to breakdown toxic substances. Applications include: water treatment.

Environment

• Marine based development of natural preservatives, pigments, stabilisers and gelling agentsin functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and prebiotics.

Food Industry

• Applications for cosmetics and personal care industry• Discovery of new enzymes, biomaterials, biopolymers, biopharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals.

Health and well-being

• Big data applications to better understand marine organisms and ecosystems.Marine Research Infrastructures

• Technologies that predict ecological impact of introducing modified marine organisms into themarine environment

• Assessment of long-term effects of genetically engineered organisms (GEOs)

Other areas of innovation

• A new promising sector as it aligns with the cur-rent business trends including: circular economy and sustainability.

• High return on investments. It remains as one of the few sectors that has x10 - x100 return on in-vestment

• Governments are providing positive incentives,e.g. tax incentives and favourable regulative frame-work.

Deals Share by Country (2008-2018) (%)

Projects by Country (2008-2023) (budgets, in €)

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES& AREAS OF INNOVATION

WHY BLUEINVEST?The BlueInvest platform supports investment readiness and ac-cess to finance for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups in the blue economy.

Platform features:• BlueInvest Readiness Assistance• BlueInvest Community• BlueInvest Fund• BlueInvest Grants• BlueInvest Events• BlueInvest Project Pipeline

JOIN THE BLUEINVEST COMMUNITY

€ 2.000.000.000

€ 70.000.000

€ 70.000

€ 70.000

Source: European Commission | Blue Economy - Situation Reports & Perspective Merger Markets