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and feed additive company, which has not yet announced its intentions for their further development. The company Nereus Pharmaceuticals, a leading US start-up for NMPs and marine biotechnology, was founded by researchers from the University of California San Diego, with far greater investment than Aquapharm, It had raised over EUR 125 million since 2000, with a long list of investors. In October 2012 it was acquired by Triphase R&D I Corp, a Canadian organisation part-funded by MaRS Innovation, the technology transfer and development arm of the National Research Council’s Networks of Centres of Excellence. No further information on the fate of Nereus’s assets, including plinabulin, an anti-cancer agent in Phase II trials is available. As the company had undergone a liquidation sale of its physical assets in late 2011, it is likely that only the intellectual assets were acquired. Start-ups, spin-outs and mid-size companies need to find a mix of funds. As with other biotechnology and high-tech companies at micro and SME level, Blue Biotechnology SMEs acquire funding through five main routes:  Start-up, utilising own reserves, university funds if a spin-out;  Public funding using local economic development agencies and local early-stage funds;  Strategic links with end-users in collaborations and contract work;  Public funding from national or European RTDI programmes; and  Funding from investment organisations. There are currently no specialised funds available for activities in marine biotechnology in Europe, although there are some that focus on environmental companies, and so include bioremediation, or on alternative energy and so could potentially include marine bioenergy companies as their targets. Private funding of SMEs is dependent more on the attractiveness of the main aim of the SME rather than the source of its innovation. Thus an SME claiming to focus on new products for medicine would approach healthcare-orientated funds and companies. One looking at new materials for cosmetics might seek investors with existing activity in consumer products. Typically, an investment company will have only one marine-orientated or –involved company in its portfolio. In the absence of easy access to investment funding, many SMEs are reliant on public funding for supporting their development projects. This mainly takes place through two routes:  National, regional or local economic development funding; and  Organised research, development and innovation support programmes, at the national level and international level. National economic support can come from commercialisation-focused public-funded innovation programmes such as the UK Technology Strategy Board’s or Norway’s Innovasjons Norge (Innovation Norway) or private funding initiatives such as SINTEF’s64 seed-fund for new SMEs developing technology from SINTEF’s institutes or NTNU Trondheim, of NOK 209 million (EUR 25 million) established in 2014 and co-funded by the EIB (European Investment Bank) and SpareBank1. In the European context public funding means programmes such as Framework Programme 7 and Horizon 2020 and related activities, including COST, ERA-NETs and Technology Platforms; and or Inter-Reg activities. SMEs are favoured by public support programmes and there is scope for Blue Biotechnology SMEs to take advantage of the EU programme EuroTransBio, which is similar to a Joint Programming Initiative in that it is supported by individual countries pooling their resources in calls of interest. So 64 http://www.sintef.com/home/About-us/ 26 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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