Blue Bio Open Innovation (BBOI): Norway and Sweden Collaborate on Joint Marine Biotech Development

BBOI is a strategic approach to consolidate the Swedish and Norwegian expertise in marine biotech, a kind of strategic dialogue bridge between sister organisation ”MareNovum’ from Sweden and ‘MareLife’ from Norway.

MareLife has managed to establish itself as a suitable vehicle for expressing the opinions of the Norwegian bio marine sector as well as defining the major challenges and opportunities to be addressed through R&D and innovation. This has been communicated to the authorities and official recognition has resulted implications for budgeting and the priorities of the grant programs. Among such major issues are: forecasting aquaculture productivity and yields (disease control, biomass measurements etc), mapping and monitoring marine resources and environments to optimize management regimes, sustainable bio marine production systems (feed resources, energy and environmental friendly systems etc), quality assurance, transparency and traceability in the seafood value chain to build consumer confidence, building trust and strong brands and strenthening the blue biotech sector, targeting ingredients and other marine bio active molecules for a wide variety of purposes.

Mare Novum, a collaboration between the region, the University of Gothenburg and the holding company at the University, acts as a gateway between industry and academia and has an extensive network both within Sweden and abroad. The Cluster mediates collaborations between industry and others, e.g. in joint R&D programs, by arranging discussions forums and seminars in relevant topics, and supporting the commercialisation of innovative ideas.

“MARINN” is the working title working title of a Swedish- Norwegian plan aimed at defining and managing a Scandinavian marine biotechnology competence platform, building on the strong research and entrepreneurial spirit within this area. MedCoast Scandinavia and the MareLife counterpart in Sweden, Mare Novum, have been instrumental in these efforts. The MARINN initiative will be linked with the recently Interreg IVA granted project COINCO with the aim to define and develop the Skagerrak/Kattegat region as world leading in selected knowledge based industry fields, where life science targeting the bio marine sector is one of the prioritized areas.

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