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The only series of reports attempting to regularly define a value for the Blue Biotechnology sector is published by Global Industry Analysts, a market research agency, which forecasts that the marine biotechnology sector is to reach USD 4.1 billion (EUR 3 billion) by the year 2015 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4%-5%.14. This is expected to rise further, reaching USD 4.8 billion (EUR 3.5 billion) by 201815. Given these figures the study calculated that Blue Biotechnology contributes (at the moment) to about 2%-5% of the total Biotechnology industry16. Additionally, this means that in 2012 the size of the European Blue Biotech sector can be estimated to be between EUR 302 million - 754 million (in terms of revenues). The OECD has recently released its first publication on marine biotechnology with a very cautious approach concerning market value estimates, as no global figures has been produced, but only topical examples of the potential global market value of specific products17. 2.2.2 Structure An analysis of a representative set of marine biotechnology stakeholders (see Annex 3) identifies nine institutions and/or organisation types with which stakeholders affiliated themselves. Of these, academic institutions i.e. universities or research institutes (conducting research in the field of marine biotechnology), companies with less than 250 employees i.e. SMEs and marine biotechnology networks or clusters are the key stakeholder categories. Companies with more than 500 personnel and infrastructure related institutions are also important stakeholder categories. The remaining stakeholders are categorised as policy makers, funding agencies, companies with between 250 and 500 personnel and outreach professionals. France, Netherlands, Germany and the UK have a larger proportion of stakeholders which can be attributed to the variety of stakeholders present in these countries. Academic institutions Universities and research institutions are integral to the discovery, bioprospecting and R&D stage of the value chain, and they are at the core of the fundamental research on identifying new species and molecules from various marine environments. In recent years academic stakeholders were the main drivers for demanding development for the Blue Biotechnology pipeline18. SMEs As highlighted by the Blue Growth Marine Sub-Function Profile Report19, a diversity of start-up and small companies are concentrating their development on niche markets: marine cosmetics, enzymes development, new bioplastics etc. SME stakeholders are not confined to only one area of activity or one position in the value chain, for example an SME may be active in research and development as well as production or services or marketing or all activities. As such, approximately 70% of SME stakeholders are active in R&D as well as being active in areas other than Blue Biotechnology. Most industrial contributions to marine biotechnology in Europe are generated through specialised SMEs20. Through their high contribution in research and development, SMEs assume a high risk within the development phase. Additionally – within the field of Blue 14 Global Industry Analysts Inc. “Marine Biotechnology: A Global Strategic Business Report” 2011 15 Global Industry Analysts Inc. “Marine Biotechnology: A Global Strategic Business Report” 2013 16 Ecorys calculation based on triangulation of ratio of Marine biotech compared to the whole biotech industry in terms of revenue using table Ernst & Young; Biotechnology Industry report 2013 17 OECD, 2013, Marine Biotechnology: Enabling Solutions for Ocean Productivity and Sustainability, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264194243-en 18 European Science Foundation (ESF) Marine Board, 2010, Position Paper 15 Marine Biotechnology: A new Vision and Strategy for Europe, http://www.marine.ie/NR/rdonlyres/C076682C-2B32-437C-A781B2EACBAA6B62/0/ESFMBmarine_biotechnology_paper15LR.pdf 20 European Science Foundation (ESF) Marine Board, 2010, Position Paper 15 Marine Biotechnology: A new Vision and Strategy for Europe, http://www.marine.ie/NR/rdonlyres/C076682C-2B32-437C-A781B2EACBAA6B62/0/ESFMBmarine_biotechnology_paper15LR.pdf 19https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/system/files/Subfunction%203.6%20Marine%20mineral%20resource_Final%20v 120813.pdf 8 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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