Blue economy: EU lists targets to promote more investment in marine research

09 May 2014 | News
Digital seabed mapping and skills gap analysis are among the main initiatives that the Commission hopes will boost innovation in the maritime economy

The Commission has published targets it believes will help kindle further investment and innovation in European waters and boost the EU’s blue economy.

These include comprehensive mapping of Europe’s seabeds, a skills-gap analysis to help predict future skills shortages and initiatives to help the marine research community come together and discuss ideas.

The Commissioner for maritime affairs, Maria Damanaki described the rationale for an EU action plan in the area of seabed mapping.

“Our initiative to create a digital map of the entire seabed of European waters will increase the predictability for businesses to invest, lowering costs and stimulating further innovation for sustainable blue growth,” she said.

The Commission hopes the list will help address a number of hurdles, including gaps in knowledge of the sea and the disconnect between the marine research efforts of member states.

“We probably know more about the surface of the moon and even Mars than we do about the deep sea floor,” said Commissioner for research, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

Specialisation and sustainability

Speaking to Science|Business last month, Maria do Céu Patrão Neves MEP called for a greater emphasis on seabed mapping technology to help foresee areas where European scientists and fishermen could specialise. The technology can also promote sustainably.

“Mapping technology could tell us about the distribution and frequency of fishing fleets, fishing intensity, composition and volume of catches,” she said. “We could see areas that are subject to greater fishing intensity and keep an eye on the volume of species being caught.”

Around 30 per cent of the seafloor surrounding Europe has not yet been surveyed. This varies from 5 per cent of the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast to more than 40 per cent of the North Sea and the Ionian and central Mediterranean.

Funding

Activities in Europe’s seas today translate into 5.4 million jobs and a gross added-value of roughly €500 billion per year.

Looking forward to 2020, figures predict this will rise to seven million jobs and some €600 billion per year in revenue.

Blue growth has its own budget line in the EU’s main research programme, Horizon 2020, with a €145 million budget for 2014-2015 alone.

Between 2007 and 2013, the European Commission contributed an average of €350 million a year to marine and maritime research through its seventh Framework Programme.

For a look at some of the EU funded projects in the marine sphere, see here.

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