Before EUREMAP, there was no single Research Infrastructure (RI) dedicated to marine bioprospecting- biotechnology—an emerging pillar of the blue economy. This makes EUREMAP particularly timely, as it directly addresses this critical gap. EUREMAP unites three complementary RIs—EU-OPENSCREEN, EMBRC, and ELIXIR—and, through structuring, integrating, customizing, and developing services, creates a technical pipeline that links genomics, culturomics, green chemistry, marine natural compounds, and data management to industry valorization, training, and capacity building.
The initial phase of the project has made significant progress and impact by transforming fragmented expertise along the bioprospecting pipeline for new marine natural products into an organized service pipeline with greater visibility for potential users in both science and industry. The data management and service models developed have improved data sharing, ensuring better translation to industry applications. The barrier that will continue to need emphasis is to remove the technology limitations to support full exploitation of the biotech applications for Blue bioeconomy industry. The training catalog and gap analysis are expected to address the lack of training in this interdisciplinary field. Additionally, our social media engagement and face-to-face meetings have helped promote the intentions and scope of Research Infrastructures (RIs). These efforts aim to increase awareness within the broader scientific community, thereby enhancing the impact of EUREMAP. EUREMAP has also achieved increased synergies between research infrastructures, contributing to informed decision-making and broadening the scope of the RI landscape.
