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bases for strategic decisions of emerging industrial sectors73. By reducing technical bottlenecks in this area, the whole sector shall become more attractive to investors. It shall also help EU industry to move from the developmental stage to the commercialisation of innovative products. A European approach would raise awareness among policy makers, the private sector and the general public of the potential of marine aquatic products. The most important change is expected to arise from the fact that “Blue Growth” is a focus theme as such in Horizon2020. Therefore marine biotechnology issues will be part of a variety of actions. So far the “Blue Growth” theme has started very promising with respect to the Blue Biotechnology sector: four calls were published with the start of the work programme (11th Dec 2013) with direct focus to Blue Biotechnology comprising classical research topics, as early discovery of molecules and enzymes as well as societal science related topics and outreach activities, e.g. ocean literacy. The allocated EC contribution for research projects shall be in the range of EUR 82 million in 2014. Having built Horizon2020 around the main societal challenges like an ageing population, food security, energy efficiency, the EU attaches high importance to embed socio-economic sciences and humanities into the work programme74. The main scope of the research issues target the technological development rather than supporting discovery or basic research. The European Commission expects that all projects should have a strong impact to the business development of the Blue Biotechnology sector. The total funding for marine biotechnology under Horizon2020 may well increase compared to FP7. There will be a share of the EUR 500 for research into marine living resources, probably amounting to around EUR 160million and also a share of a further EUR 500million for biotechnology. Projects under Horizon 2020, however, are to be led by the demands of industry so there may be more opportunities for support to SMEs. This support to Blue Biotechnology may actually be increasing. Figure 3.5 Number of projects relating to marine biotechnology under FP6 and FP7 73 http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/documentation/publications/documents/blue-growth_en.pdf, 74 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/index.html Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 43

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