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Access to finance has been identified as the most challenging aspect within the sector, followed by legal framework and high risk. All three aspects are marked more significantly when taking into consideration responses placing them onto 2nd to 4th place. The increase in significance is especially pronounced for high risk which was marked by 7% of the respondent as the most important aspect but more than 40% placed it as being among the 4 most important challenges. Meaning over five times as many respondents. Lack of knowledge and lack of collaborations have also been prominent aspects of sector challenges and as pointed out above, might be interlinked. The open question has provided stakeholders to identify additional barriers, the following list summarises the most common responses:  As with any emerging sector, there are challenges in attracting funds to support early stage developments, particularly where there is a need for further basic research. It appears unlikely that a dedicated marine biotechnology value chain will result: rather existing value chains will absorb marine origin materials;  There is a lack of finance and also a lack of a "bigger" strategic picture;  Lack of collaboration, lack of knowledge by traditional players, lack of support mechanisms, legal frame work and financing are all major problems;  MBT, like modern biotechnologies, needs long product development time (average 10 years) and substantial capital, especially for the development of new drugs (e.g. antibiotics, anti cancer...);  Legal framework: also difficult for the human health sector as is financing of the projects. Risk: The notion of risk is present, especially in the human health sector but no more than in nonmarine biotechnology innovation areas;  The lack of framework beyond the national jurisdiction raises questions about ownership, access to the bioresources and the sharing of the benefits to be obtained… Bottlenecks in the marine pharmaceutical pipeline include insufficient funding for basic marine pharmacology and technical challenges for the characterisation of unknown taxa and gene functions (OECD, p.32). The following table summarises the responses of stakeholders with regards to challenges in research. Table 0.30 Research and Innovation: What are the greatest challenges encountered in research? Ranked as the most Barriers to market application Lack of funding Lack of collaboration including between academic and industrial partners / difficulty in finding partners for collaboration Research infrastructure Capacity shortage Legal framework (e.g. administrative hurdles related to product development, intellectual property rights and ownership barriers) significant barrier (1st place) 50.00% Ranked among as an important barrier (1st to 4th place) 72.62% 8.33% 63.10% 4.76% 59.52% 3.57% 40.48% 8.33% 39.29% 174 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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