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Figure 3.6 European Commission financial contribution to FP7, FP6 and Horizon2020* *planned budget 3.2.2 National, regional and European clusters, initiatives and networks National, regional and Pan-European coordination is essential to provide a coherent framework for marine biotechnology activities. A range of initiatives, networks and clusters relating to marine biotechnology have been established at the national, regional and European level as shown in Annexes 11 and 12. These have implemented approaches to coordinate research and development activities, innovation and infrastructures. Europe wide initiatives and networks can be roughly categorised as those relating to science policy and research coordination and those relating to infrastructure coordination and support; Table 3.11 gives a summary of these. Table 3.11 European Union initiatives and networks relating to marine biotechnology Science, policy and research coordination EU Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI-OCEANS) CSA MarineBiotech European Research Area Network (ERA-NET), a marine biotechnology ERA-NET has been recently launched The Knowledge Based Bio-Economy Network (KBBE-NET) European Technology Platforms (ETPs) EuroMarine Marine Genomics for Users (MG4U) EUR-OCEANS Consortium (EOC) MarineKIC Initiative During the last ten years, an increase in efforts to develop more focused approaches to stimulate marine biotechnology research and development at the local level was observed. One way this is achieved is through putting in place regional ‘bio’ and ‘marine/maritime’ innovation clusters and networks (e.g. ScanBalt, CIESM) which are growing in importance (see Table 3.12). The foundation 44 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology Infrastructure coordination and support European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) ASSEMBLE (Association of European Marine Biological Laboratories) EUROFLEETS & EUROFLEETS2 (Towards an alliance of European Research fleets) EC Expert Group on Marine Research Infrastructure (MRI) ELIXIR The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)

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