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3 EU-level problem analysis 3.1 Sector review 3.1.1 Overview of sub-sectors The Blue Biotechnology sector is comprised of a number of sub-sectors. Key sub-sectors identified for review in this study are: health, cosmetics, food, energy, aquaculture, environmental services (i.e. environmental protection and depollution) and other industrial applications. An indication of the relevance or importance of marine biotechnology to the different sub-sectors can be derived by the proportion of stakeholders affiliated to each sub-sector. Stakeholder analysis27 stakeholders are often involved in more than one sub-sector, indicating a diversification of product portfolios as well as the multi-purpose activities of many academic groups that focus on biological diversity rather than on a specific application field (i.e. subsector). Figure 3.1 shows the distribution of representative stakeholders by sub-sector and that the health sector, environmental services, food and other industrial applications are the main sub-sectors in which marine biotechnology stakeholders are active. Figure 3.1 Distribution of stakeholders by sub-sector showed that Another indication of the relative importance of the marine biotechnology sub-sectors is the proportion of patents relating to each the different sub-sectors. Patent profiling (Annex 5) indicates that patents were filed in all sub-sectors of Blue Biotechnology with a strong focus on health topics covering 56% of all patents. The strong patenting activity – taking into consideration its high costs - may indicate that health is the thematic area where companies have the highest revenue expectation28. On the other hand it should be noted that patenting in general is only one of many 27 A blue biotechnology stakeholder database was compiled as part of this study to identify marine biotechnology actors in Europe. Further details are presented in Annex 3 28 We assume that companies invest in patenting in the field of health because they expect high revenues from their product or service innovation. Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 13

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