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Cost of MRIs A prominent feature of marine biotechnology is the cost of prospecting for and capturing novel genetic resources, as the vessels and platforms used can be extremely expensive to operate. This is particularly true in respect to deeper water exploration which is often required when extreme environments, such as thermal or sulphur vents and hypersaline intrusions, need to be sampled. These environments are considered to be of great value for Blue Biotechnology as they often have very specialised micro-floral communities that have evolved enzymes that can work at extreme temperatures/salinities and/or metabolisms adapted to deal with unusual substrates. There are a number of such extreme environments on the bed of the Mediterranean, for example, albeit in 2,000 metres of water or more. Private sector ocean going vessels cost approximately EUR 27,000 per day. The average daily cost of the Member State’s ocean going research vessels was EUR 11,800 per day and that the EU research fleet spent some 14,350 days at sea in 2009; resulting in an annual spend of EUR 218 million a year, out of a total public sector marine data collection cost of just under EUR 1 billion per year33. The vessels are typically run by EU marine research laboratories. Because they are used for a number of different tasks simultaneously34 there is no data available on the proportional use of these vessels for the acquisition of genetic resources. The cost of bioprospecting is related to the accessibility of the environment within which with the marine organisms exist, however the relative importance of each type of environment to biotechnology is not known yet. While the targeting of deep-sea resources and the costs of accessing resources is such extreme environments are high and may represent an important constraint on development, there are also companies are using what appear to be relatively mundane materials, such as the company Glycomar which is investigating the properties of mucus from the surface of invertebrates, such as sea urchins that are more readily available in coastal waters. 3.1.4 Socio-economic performance Socio-economic indicators As of yet no common set of indicators have been agreed for the Blue Biotechnology sector, largely as a result of the current lack of a common definition of marine biotechnology and its sector; this is needed for statistical data collection. The marine biotechnology sector is also considered to be too young to be assessed by purely economic output indicators. Instead it is possible to assess the sector in terms of input indicators and more general indicators such as those listed below. In Table 3.2, the biotechnology indicators used by the OECD are listed and allocated plus and minus signs (+/-) to indicate their potential to reflect the current socio-economic data (as opposed to future development and progress) of the sector, which can include sector Gross Value Added (GVA), number of companies, number of employees etc. Looking at the OECD indicators we have identified a handful that could be directly related to establishing market value, employment and investment potential. A number of other indicators were better fit to describe complementary factors that could impact on sector development, such as policy environment, education focus, RDI trends. A brief explanation is provided on the indicators and a more detailed analysis on the actual applicability can be found in Socio-economic data section. 33 European Union (2010). Marine data infrastructure. DG Mare, Brussels. 34 Their tasks include fulfilment of the data collection responsibilities of member states under the Data Collection Framework of the Common Fisheries Policy, and environmental data under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. 16 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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