Environment: Sea, Italy in 1.5 million euro 'blue biotechnology' hub

Italy is at the forefront of the European project comprising 10 members from eight Mediterranean countries to create the first 'Blue Biotechnology Community', a large blue biotechnology hub for sustainable growth in the Mediterranean. Coordinated by ENEA, the initiative, denominated B-Blue, is funded with 1.5 million euro aims at creating a governance mechanism to tackle the fragmentation of marine resources biotechnology in the Mediterranean area and promote access to sustainable innovation.

Over the course of 22 months, B-Blue will set up multi-stakeholder laboratories and a digital platform, to progressively involve over 300 organizations, including universities, research centers, national and local institutions and sector companies, in five coastal areas: the Gulf of Manfredonia in Italy, the Mar Menor in Murcia in Spain, the Toulon area in France, the Gulf of Thessaloniki in Greece and Portoroz in Slovenia.

Each of the five pilot labS will be engaged in the development of innovative solutions to obtain useful or high added value substances from shredded sponges, algae and mollusc shells, for example to increase the resistance of eggs (and therefore productivity in the poultry industry). Another promising development concerns the use of microalgae for the remediation of contaminated marine sites and energy production.

The Manfredonia Lab will study shells of molluscs, sponges and macroalgae in a circular economy perspective, the Spain Lab biotechnologies for decontamination,  the Greece Lab the protection of intellectual property in the sectors of the blue bioeconomy, the France Lab new approaches to aquaculture and the Slovenia Lab the use of microalgae and marine microorganisms for production of bioactive compounds.

"The European Commission estimates [1] that the blue economy in Europe employs almost 4.5 million people, generating about 650 billion euro in turnover and 176 billion euro in gross added value", Cristian Chiavetta, researcher at the ENEA Laboratory of Valorisation of Productive and Territorial Systems pointed out. “In Italy  the blue economy has contributed with 2.3% to national jobs and with 1.5% to national gross value added,  with 530,000 employees and over 23.7 billion euro of GVA. Hence the importance of defining a governance in order to promote shared strategies and synergistic activities for the transition to a sustainable blue growth ".

“Biotechnologies are a formidable tool for closing production cycles  and enhancing waste in products with high added value in several areas”, Chiavetta said. "Today we are focusing on the Mediterranean, but we hope that B-Blue will be a model to be replicated in other coastal areas. In this respect, some areas of the Black Sea basin or overlooking the Indian Ocean have already shown interest in a more sustainable exploitation of marine resources that would preserve their natural capital and protect their biodiversity ", he concluded.

In addition to ENEA, the project includes the CNR and the Puglia Region, Hamag-Bicro (Croatia), Hellenic Center for Marine Research (Greece), National Innovation Agency (Portugal), National Institute of Biology (Slovenia), Pole Mer Méditerranée (France), Science & Technology Park (Montenegro) and University of Murcia (Spain).

For more information please contact:

Cristian Chiavetta, ENEA – Laboratory of Valorisation of Productive and Territorial Systems - email: cristian.chiavetta@enea.it

https://b-blue.interreg-med.eu/

https://twitter.com/bblue_med

Microalgae for marine biotechnology - teaser

[1] European Commission (2021). The EU Blue Economy Report. 2021. Publications Office of the European Union. Luxembourg.https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/0b0c5bfd-c737-11eb-a925-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-search