ERA-NET Cofund on Blue Bioeconomy - Unlocking the potential of aquatic bioresources

Project Information

BlueBio

Grant agreement ID: 817992

DOI

10.3030/817992

Project closed

EC signature date 16 October 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 25 547 940,22

EU contribution

€ 8 014 646,64

Coordinated by

NORGES FORSKNINGSRAD
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BlueBio (ERA-NET Cofund on Blue Bioeconomy - Unlocking the potential of aquatic bioresources)

Reporting period: 2020-06-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BlueBio will act to unlock the potential of aquatic bioresources to create jobs, economic growth and provide food, valuable nutrients and bio-based products and services to promote a sustainable and competitive blue bioeconomy. The goal is to identify new and improve existing ways of bringing bio-based products and services to the market and find new ways to create value by addressing needs and gaps along the value chain. The objective is to establish a R&I funding scheme that will strengthen Europe's global position in this complex economic domain. This was primarily achieved by engaging funding organisations in implementing one cofunded call focusing on blue knowledge and technology to respond to needs and gaps for R&I applying a value chain aspect. The funding organisations, together with the European Commission (EC), funded 19 projects with more than € 25 million. Three additional calls were launched, funding another 30 projects. A range of activities were organised to add value to the funded projects and enhance their impacts. BlueBio contributes to the objective of the European Research Area by enhancing cooperation and coordination of national R&I investments.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The coordinator established a management structure for the overall legal, contractual, financial and administrative issues, and internal communication. For operational issues, it involves the Executive Team that is comprised of all work package leaders and the VCS, and the coordinator supported by a team at the Research Council of Norway. Monthly online partner meetings have been held in addition to the formal consortium meetings.
Value Chain Supervisors were appointed and were central to ensuring focus on cross-cutting issues and value chain perspective. Stakeholder engagement was made by giving presentations to different stakeholders (policy makers, industry and researchers). The advisory board appointment was postponed to focus their support on stakeholder involvement and impact.
The cofunded call was well launched, well applied for, the 19 projects kicked-off, mid-term evaluated, end-term evaluated and final reports submitted. The mid-term evaluation gave important input and helped adjust the activities planned for the end of the cofund.
KPIs were developed at the beginning of BlueBio and used for monitoring and to analyse potential impact of projects funded in the cofunded call. KPIs like "Number of functional foods/ ingredients, nutraceuticals […]" and "Number of new products/ services" worked well, while "Number of stakeholders informed/ involved" and "Number of new jobs created" were more difficult to capture. The short time frame of both the funded projects and the ERA-NET limits the opportunity to measure impact. The analysis was presented at the BlueBio Final meeting.
A BlueBio communication plan, a visual identity and a website, including a partners-only website have been developed and social media accounts have been established. A newsletter and social media channels were established and regularly update to disseminate activities and results.
Three additional calls were launched, evaluated and monitored. Having the same partners responsible for the same tasks in all four calls ensured high quality and precision in all calls. The call scope of the 1st and 2nd Additional Calls was developed after deep analysis, identifying underfunded areas, and enabled funding of projects along the whole blue bioeconomy value chain. The 1st Additional Call funded 10 projects requesting € 11.3 million. The 2nd Additional Call funded 7 projects requesting € 7.6 million. The 3rd Additional Call was re-designed after exploring novel funding arrangements for projects, funding activities that would increase the impact of already funded BlueBio projects. The 3rd Additional Call funded 13 projects requesting € 259 000. JPI Oceans will take over the monitoring and dissemination of the remaining BlueBio projects, to ensure maximal impact and to create synergies with projects funded in related instruments. The analysis was presented at the BlueBio Final meeting.
BlueBio partners have updated and expanded the project database of cooperation in fisheries, aquaculture, seafood processing and marine biotech, originally developed within the COFASP ERA-NET. The database is merged with the Mission Ocean Implementation Platform.
In total, 12 meetings were organized to create project connectivity and synergy, both thematic ones for each call cohort, and topical ones covering everything from capacity building and commercialisation, to microbiome analysis and life cycle assessment. The meetings lead to knowledge exchange, collaboration and better monitoring and support. The learnings were published as a brief on the BlueBio website and the analysis was presented at the BlueBio Final meeting.
All projects funded in the three first calls have implemented Human Capacity Building activities, with monitoring ensuring high quality and support. Three advanced training courses were organised, one in collaboration with BlueMed CSA, to fill the knowledge gaps in the blue bioeconomy.
A foresight was organised with external facilitators, involving stakeholders from the quadruple helix, to create a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for the European blue bioeconomy. A synthesis of all findings from BlueBio has been published on the BlueBio website and was presented at the BlueBio Final meeting.
Ethics compliance has been evaluated for all BlueBio calls.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By bringing together two successful ERA-NETs and JPI Oceans with their respective roadmaps, strategies and agendas, BlueBio has demonstrated commitment to strengthen R&I investments and to build a blue bioeconomy community that contributes to the great challenges of today. European added value is strengthened by requesting that consortiums must consist of at least three independent eligible entities from at least three partner countries. At least one industry partner is requested to ensure an applied perspective and industry relevance and, in the end, new knowledge-intensive products and services from aquatic biomass.
The funded projects have explored new aquatic bio-resources and found improvements in fisheries and aquaculture. The bioresources addressed vary and include macroalgae, microalgae, and novel use of aquatic waste and other underutilised or novel aquatic bio-resources. Projects looked into synergies with land-based industries, often with biotechnology or ICT as an integrated part. BlueBio addressed bottlenecks in the value chain with the three additional calls, to ensure a holistic improvement.
Communication of results and developments from R&I activities to key decision-makers, the industry and the public is of particular importance for well-informed dialogue and an obligatory part of the projects. RRI, human capacity building, training and mobility exchange as project activities will also ensure a wider impact than just the results.
BlueBio activities to create connectivity and synergy among ongoing R&I projects added value to the projects and strengthened the blue bioeconomy community, together with the three integrated training course on blue biotechnologies and bioeconomy.
The strategic research and innovation agenda accommodates the changing blue bioeconomy landscape and informs the new Partnerships and other activities under Horizon Europe and the upcoming Framework Programme 10.

The BlueBio Cofund logo - dark blue version

The BlueBio Cofund logo - white background

The value chain concept for BlueBio Cofund R&I

The project structure of BlueBio Cofund, how workpackages inter-relate and contribute to the output