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Lack of access to marine genetic resources or sufficient amounts of marine organisms for downstream biotechnology research and development sampling, repositories, biobanks) 5.95% (e.g. Other 2.38% 4.76% Similarly to the previous results funding was identified as one of the major obstacles. Lack of collaboration, research infrastructure and capacity shortage have also been marked as key barriers by stakeholders. With regards to collaborations responses provided to the open responses identified a widening base for industry academia partnerships as key to the future development of the sector. The following list provides selected examples for the most frequently reoccurring responses:  Early collaboration between industry and academia: Industry-academic partnerships should be encouraged early in the process to support co-development of knowledge and innovations in the market place. This is to ensure that the products of marine biotechnology research are suitable for scaling up to industrial production. Collaboration is needed on an international level (ERA-net Marine Biotechnology) , including third countries;  Three factors influence research in the marine biotech space – the availability of research funds, underdeveloped links between public sector researchers and commercial industry and awareness of major successes delivered/enabled by marine biotech related activity;  …the biggest bottleneck is the shortage of qualified personnel. However, it would be useless to train people without supporting them with access to a research infrastructure…Progress in the field will come from empowering people through training and access to research infrastructure, as well as structures favouring networking. Conclusions A brief overview of the responses given indicates a clear need for a transparent and structured legislative background for the industry. While developing such a legislative background might take considerable resources in terms of both time and capacity from the policy makers the industry is expected to progress further. While it is clear that infrastructure and expertise are both present in Europe, the expected development of the Blue Biotechnology industry could be facing setbacks caused partially due to the lack of clear definitions and the fragmentations within the sector. Blue Biotechnology, a sector which in itself has a relatively low contribution to the European economy, has strong links to - and been partially developed through research with - the pharmaceutical, the cosmetic and the food industries. A large proportion of research and product development is linked to multinational companies operating in these industries whose overall prospects, future trends and investment potential can result in profoundly different future outlooks for the sub-sectors within Blue Biotechnology. Furthermore, access to finance and lack of collaborations between public and private actors have been identified as fundamental barriers by the stakeholders. In contrast to research centres and academia, where responses indicate that accessing research grants and other financial support is not seen as a challenge, private enterprises face difficulties to generate the necessary financial background. Moreover, the majority of research centres (57.14%) have identified private enterprises as one of their key partners in research and product development while this was not confirmed in the responses of the companies (with only 26.1% listing research centres as partners). One potential explanation could be that research centres and academia are working together with a 38.10% Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 175

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