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which presents a national agenda on science, research innovation and management with the aim of transforming the Irish maritime economy. The strategy is being implemented through five programmes, one of which is the Discovery Research Measure Programme whose focus is on marine biodiscovery/biotechnology, marine technology, marine functional foods and renewable ocean energy76. In order to deliver on the objectives of the Sea Change a national marine biotechnology programme called Marine Biotechnology Ireland (MBI)77 was established in order to create and sustain national opportunities for research, development and innovation in marine biotechnology with the goal of becoming an internationally recognised research performer. Norway published a national whitepaper entitled ‘Marine Bioprospecting – a source of new and sustainable wealth growth’78 in 2009. Norway’s strategy is built on marine bioprospecting and the FUGE (functional genomics) programme of 2002-2011 (EUR 190 million), which established a number of important centres with infrastructure and collaborations. The Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway (focused on industry) and SIVA (the Industrial Development Corporation) work together on the marine biotechnology strategy, so there is always a drive towards embedding research innovation in industry. Denmark published a report in 2010, ‘The Sea – an unexploited resource’79, which presented all the opportunities in marine biotechnology in Denmark and focused on the use of marine bioresources for biomass, bioprospecting for new biological principles and compounds, and biofilm research. Other countries do recognise that marine biotechnology is a legitimate topic for research and innovation activity, even if there is no specific national strategy in place. One example is that Norway and the UK have put in place a collaboration on industrial biotechnology and biorefining in 2011, enabled through Innovation Norway and the UK Technology Strategy Board, with support from relevant research councils, to support transnational collaborative projects between companies and researchers equivalent to GBP 2.5 million (EUR 3 million) from each side). Overall with respect to European countries, four categories80 of support for marine biotechnology research have been defined as: 1) Countries with a clearly identifiable marine biotechnology focus as developed in dedicated marine biotechnology RTDI plans, strategies and/or funding programmes; 2) Countries with strong marine biotechnology activities in one or more areas, but without dedicated marine biotechnology science and technology plan(s), strategies and/or programmes; 3) Countries with some interest and activities in certain marine biotechnology application areas, but without dedicated marine biotechnology science and technology plan(s), strategies and/or programmes; 4) Countries without dedicated marine biotechnology science and technology plan(s), strategies and/or programmes and where there is only limited marine biotech focus and activities. Table 3.14 presents an overview of European countries with regards to their support of marine biotechnology activities and illustrates the different ways in which marine biotechnology is being promoted across Europe and the fragmented nature of effort. 76 http://www.marine.ie/home/research/SeaChange/AboutSeaChange/Discovery.htm 77 http://www.marine.ie/home/research/SeaChange/NationalMarineBiotechnology/ 78 http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/FKD/Vedlegg/Diverse/2009/Marin_bioprospektering_080909_lavoppl.pdf 79http://fvm.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/FVM.dk/Dokumenter/Servicemenu/Publikationer/Havet_-_en_uudnyttet_ressource.pdf 80 ‘Report on strategic analysis of marine biotechnology RTDI in Europe’, Marine Board-ESF, 2013: http://www.marinebiotech.eu/images/Public_reports/Marine%20Biotechnology%20RTDI%20in%20Europe.pdf Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 47

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