Industry and academics need to work together to enable Europe to become a global leader in marine biotechnology. Marine biotech currently represents a €2.8 billion market globally, with potential to grow up to 12 per cent per annum, according to a new report by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
Europe’s four seas and two oceans provide a huge variety of conditions of temperature, pressure, light and chemistry, from shallow coastal waters to the deep ocean. As a result of adapting to thrive in these conditions, marine organisms are able to generate a huge diversity of compounds, which are largely unexplored and underexploited.
Marine biotechnologists can develop new products and services based on these resources, helping to address critical challenges such as ensuring a sustainable supply of food and energy, development of new drugs and health treatments, and providing new industrial materials and processes.
“Marine biotechnology not only creates jobs and wealth, it can also contribute to the development of greener, smarter economies,” said Lars Horn of the Research Council of Norway and Chair of the ESF’s Marine Board. “Japan, China and the US are already investing heavily in marine biotechnology. If we fail to act, Europe will lose out.”
Biofuels are just one example of how marine biotech can help deliver the Europe 2020 strategy: cultivating microalgae for fuel could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent. This technology is perhaps the most promising way of harnessing the ocean’s bioenergy, but needs more in-depth research to cut costs and increase production.
Europe’s waters also offer a potential source of drugs, biomaterials and industrial products such as biopolymers. More than 13 marine-derived treatments are already in clinical development, many targeting cancer. There is also scope for marine biotech to further improve the capacity of aquaculture to meet Europe’s growing demand for sustainable, healthy seafood.
A recently published Marine Board position paper “Marine Biotechnology: A New Vision and Strategy for Europe” provides a roadmap for European research in this field and sets out an ambitious but achievable science and policy agenda for the next decade. The Marine Board predicts that with the right actions taken now, Europe could be a world leader in the field of marine biotechnology by 2020.
The actions needed are:
- developing new research strategies and programmes for marine biotechnology, aligned across the national, regional and pan-European levels
- improving the technology transfer pathways to strengthen collaboration between academic research and industry
- securing a fair and equitable access to marine genetic resources to support European innovation in this growing area
- creating a stronger identity and communicating to raise awareness of European marine biotechnology research
The report is available at: http://www.esf.org/marineboard/publications
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