1

The European Marine Biological Resource

Infrastructure Cluster, an alliance of European

research infrastructures to promote the blue

bio-economy

Mery Piñaa, Pierre Colasa, Ibon Canciob, Annie Audicc, Lucas

Bosserd, Adelino Canarioe, Philip Gribbonf, Ian A. Johnstong,

Anne Emmanuelle Kervellaa, Wiebe H.C.F. Kooistrai, Matthieu

Mercieccaj, Antonis Magoulask, Ilaria Nardellol, David Smithm,

Nicolas Paden, Douglas Robinsono, Antoine Schoeno, Fanny

Schultzh, Bernard Kloarega*

a Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ P06 et CNRS, Station Biologique de Roscoff, Roscoff, France b CBET Research Group, Dept. of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, Fac. Science and Technology and Research Centre for Experimental Marine Biology and Biotechnology (PiE-UPV/EHU), University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Basque Country, Spain cConseil régional de Bretagne, Rennes, France dConférence des Régions Périphériques, Brussels, Belgium eCentre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal f Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., Berlin, Germany g School of Biology, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK hSorbonne Université – DR&I - Bureau de développement de l'activité contractuelle et de transfert, Paris, France i Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy. j Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseigement Supérieur et de la Recherche, Paris, France k Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research Crete, Heraklion - Crete, Greece.

l Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, EMBRC, Paris, France mCentre for Biosciences and Agriculture International (CABI), Egham, UK nMarine Biological Association of the UK, The Laboratory, Plymouth, UK oUniversité Paris-Est, ESIEE – IFRIS, Noisy Le Grand, France

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Abstract Marine biotechnology is the key to harness the huge economic

potential of the unique biodiversity of marine organisms. This potential remains

largely underexploited due to three major issues: 1) lack of connectivity between

research services; 2) practical and cultural difficulties in connecting science with

industry, and 3) uneven regional development and innovation policies throughout

Europe. The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) is a

distributed Research Infrastructure with facilities located in renowned marine

biological stations and institutes across Europe. On its way to become a European

Research Infrastructure Consortium, EMBRC will be the reference Research

Infrastructure for marine biology and ecology research. Yet, EMBRC recognizes

the necessity to interface with other Research Infrastructures to enable specialized

workflow services in, e.g. chemical biology, bio-informatics and social sciences.

The European Marine Biological Research Infrastructure Cluster (EMBRIC,

INFRA DEV 4 2014-2015) was designed to connect EMBRC with cognate

Research Infrastructures, i.e. MIRRI, EU-OPENSCREEN, ELIXIR and

AQUAEXCEL. The cluster combines the Research Infrastructures services into

discovery pipelines through which academic and private research users can run

their projects. EMBRIC also relies on the Integrating Activity RISIS to analyze

regional innovation ecosystems in marine biology and ecology and to develop a

methodology to measure the impact of the project. The EMBRIC alliance provides

workflows on a variety of marine bioresources, a strategy that will boost EMBRC

expert centers into regional innovation clusters. This will reconcile the need for

marrying scientific and technological excellence with territorial development,

resulting in the promotion of the blue bio-economy.

Keywords: Research Infrastructures, marine biotechnology, bioeconomy, marine bioresources, scientific park, regions. *kloareg@sb-roscoff.fr

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1. Introduction - Marine biotechnology, an emerging field

The marine environment accounts for over 90% of the biosphere and harbours

immense biodiversity. Marine organisms have historically been difficult to access

and study, but through the foundation of marine laboratories and more recently

biological research infrastructures in Europe, a wider range of marine biodiversity

can now be examined in greater detail than ever before.

Biotechnology, i.e. the application of biological knowledge to develop novel

products and other benefits for the environment and mankind, is of growing

importance for Europe and will increasingly contribute to shape the future of our

society. Marine (blue) biotechnology, which involves the use of marine

bioresources either as the source or the target of applications, is increasingly an

important component of the global biotechnology sector (European Science

Foundation, 2010, European Marine Board, 2017). This development largely

stems from the need to meet growing demands for bioproducts and food that

cannot be satisfied from terrestrial sources alone.

Marine biotechnology is the key to unlocking the potential of the unique

diversity of marine organisms (Hurst et al., 2016). It is rooted in basic research

bringing together marine biology, microbiology, physiology, toxicology,

analytical chemistry, omics technologies, bioinformatics and systems biology. The

result is new applications and services in fields such as drug discovery,

diagnostics, nutrition and food ingredients, aquaculture and agriculture,

bioremediation, biomaterials, cosmetics and bioenergy. It also leads to unique

insights into the causative underpinnings of ecosystem functioning/services and an

unprecedented potential for monitoring global changes and instruct policies.

In its analysis of the potential, hindrances and opportunities in the field of

marine biotechnology, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development (OECD, 2013) states: Advances in genomics and computer science

have transformed earlier views of the ocean. It is no longer simply a source of

food, but a vast reservoir of genetic potential and a means of achieving a wide

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range of socio-economic benefits. Genome sequencing is no longer the barrier it

was a decade ago and our understanding of marine bioresources has improved

significantly. (However) new Infrastructures are needed, with new models, new

culture systems and new bioinformatics-based approaches to visualize genomics

and other types of data.

In its Blue Growth strategy, the European Commission states that seas and

oceans are drivers of the European economy and have great potential for

innovation and growth. In order to achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy

for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, five different sectors are envisaged,

two of which are related to the exploitation of marine biological resources:

aquaculture and marine biotechnology. The global ocean economy, measured in

terms of the contribution of ocean-based industries to economic output and

employment, is very significant. Preliminary calculations on the basis of the

OECD’s Ocean Economy Database value the ocean economy in 2010 at USD 1.5

trillion, or approximately 2.5% of world gross value added (GVA). The

projections suggest that, between 2010 and 2030 on a “business-as-usual” scenario

basis, the ocean economy could more than double its contribution to the world

global value added, reaching over USD 3 trillion (OECD, 2016). In this same

report, the OECD holds that marine biotechnology has the potential to address a

raft of major challenges (such as sustainable food, human health, energy, security

and environmental remediation) and to make a significant contribution to green

growth in many industrial sectors.

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2. The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC),

a pan-European Research Infrastructure in marine biology and

ecology

2.1 The genesis and scope of EMBRC

Europe led the way in the creation of marine stations, in the second half of the

19th century. These undertakings happened within a short period of ca. 30 years in

a number of European countries, prompted by the urge to study the evolution of

life on Earth, which originated and evolved in the oceans, and to better understand

the diversity of marine life.

With the onset of genomics and the related post-genomics approaches marine

biology and ecology are becoming as sophisticated as “terrestrial” biological and

ecological sciences. This fundamental shift, which brings marine life into the

forefront of biological research, widens the scientific scope of marine model

organisms, and, more than ever perhaps, marine biodiversity today is a major

target for fundamental science.

Marine biodiversity is also an increasingly important resource for industrial

applications in the health, food, energy and environment remediation sectors, and

therefore constitutes the focus of a diverse Research, Development and Innovation

(RD&I) community.

The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) originated from

the perception of the increased demand for marine biological resources to meet the

needs of this emerging community, as well as of the untamed challenges that such

a demand poses to a fragmented marine research. EMBRC is a distributed

Research Infrastructure (RI), which reunites the main marine biological

laboratories in Europe. In 2008 it was included on the Roadmap of the European

Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), supporting the view that

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marine biological stations are perceived again as strategic for European science

and industry.

A Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of EMBRC as a

European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) entered into force on

December 10th 2013. It has now been signed by seven EU member states

(Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and UK) and two associated

countries (Israel and Norway). France was chosen to host EMBRC-ERIC, and the

Core Office is established in Paris.

Based on the current configuration of EMBRC national nodes, the distribution

of EMBRC laboratories is shown in Figure 1. These marine laboratories feature

in-house developed research communities and infrastructure, with staff ranging

between ca. 50-300 full-time employees. They share similar typologies, notably:

(i) access to unique marine ecosystems and biological resources, including access

to wet labs and culture collections, and (ii) on-site support for a broad range of

biological and ecological research activities, including genomics, post-genomics,

bio-imaging and bioinformatics.

The services currently offered by EMBRC are the following:

- Access to marine ecosystems, including associated historical time-series

data;

- Access to marine model organisms for evolutionary and developmental

biology, physiology, ecosystem functioning, gene discovery, molecular

farming, biogeochemistry and biotechnology;

- Access to logistics for ex-situ maintenance and experiments, including wet

labs and up-to-date equipment for biological research (omics);

- Access to rare or unique specialist research capacity, e.g. bioreactors,

micro- or meso-cosms, marine mammal facilities;

- Access to biological and environmental data and bioinformatics;

- Access to teaching/training laboratory space and conference facilities;

- Access to logistics for hosting and catering visiting scientists and

conferences.

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A core mission of EMBRC is to acquire sufficient understanding of marine

ecosystems to allow for the sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources

(EMBRC Business Plan). The EMBRC user community covers a wide panel of

scientific fields. Application sectors range from gene and cell engineering

(molecular farming, cell factories), biorefineries, biostatistics, software

development and nutrition, to medicine and health care, aquaculture, crop disease

control and environmental remediation, bioenergy and the development of

biomaterials.

2.2 Links of EMBRC with maritime regions.

By their very nature, EMBRC laboratories are located in peripheral

maritime regions, often far from the major knowledge centers. A number of

maritime regions in Europe now fully recognize in their Smart Specialization

Strategies (S3) the potential of marine biotechnologies to help them reduce the gap

with socio-economic mainstream regions. These features have been fully endorsed

by the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR). CPMR operates

as both a think tank and a lobby group for maritime regions. It focuses mainly on

social, economic, and territorial cohesion, maritime policies and accessibility.

Maritime regions often lack major concentrations of industry. Yet, traditional

activities as fisheries or shipbuilding offer synergistic opportunities based on

bioresource availability. The capacity of EMBRC to support these developments

was highlighted in a brokerage event in 20121.

1 “The Potential Role of Regions in the Development of European Research

Infrastructures: The Example of the European Marine Biological Resources

Centre (EMBRC)”: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/en/node/2715.

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3. The rationale for the European Marine Biological Resource

Infrastructure Cluster (EMBRIC)

3.1 Contribution of other pan-European Research

Infrastructures to the development of the blue bio-economy.

Marine biology and ecology are experiencing a scientific revolution, notably in

relation to the implementation of new omics techniques. It follows that, as in

terrestrial research, marine biologists are becoming more and more specialized,

resulting in greater complexity for individual scientists to achieve highly

significant results. Marine biotechnology cannot therefore take full advantage of

the most recent advances in scientific knowledge, a significant weakness in the

fast moving, knowledge-based bio-economy. The need for interconnectivity

between a variety of disciplines, such as biology, ecology, genomics, bioanalysis,

and structural and analytical chemistry, supported by computational and

mathematical developments, is more critical than ever before.

Connectivity, however, is often lacking between EMBRC laboratories and the

other RI excellence centers located inland (Figure 2). A range of other factors also

hinders knowledge and technology transfer from science to industry including

cultural differences between the science and business communities, lack of

incentives for public researchers, legal barriers, and fragmented markets for

knowledge and technology (European Commission, 2007). In addition, the

emerging marine biotechnology sector mainly involves SMEs, which lack the

resources to engage in significant medium- and long-term R&D activities. For

example, 90% of the aquaculture companies in Europe have fewer than 10

employees (European Commission, 2009) and could benefit from the cutting-edge

technologies delivered by RIs.

Accelerating the development of the blue bioeconomy requires RI pipelines

through which workflows lead rapidly to marketable products. A number of other

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RIs provide the required complementarity to contribute to the development of

such marine biotechnological workflows.

The European Marine Biological Research Infrastructure Cluster (EMBRIC) is

a 4-year project funded by the European Commission through the Research

Infrastructures Work Programme of EU framework programme for Research and

Innovation, Horizon 2020. This European project is a consortium of 27

institutions, receiving a total funding €9,041,611.

The idea for EMBRIC originated as early as at the beginning of 2014. It was

initiated by EMBRC, which quickly enlisted the participation of the RIs referred

to as ELIXIR, EU-OPENSCREEN and MIRRI as well as the Infrastructure

Initiatives known as AQUAEXCEL and RISIS.

ELIXIR, the European infrastructure for biological information, manages data

for all of Europe biological sciences, including such fields as crop science and

forestry, human data, rare diseases as well as marine metagenomics. EU-

OPENSCREEN, the European infrastructure for chemical biology, also supports

life science research and its translation to medicine and agriculture. MIRRI, the

microbial resource research infrastructure, facilitates access to high-quality

microorganisms, associated data and expertise. AQUAEXCEL integrates key

aquaculture research facilities in Europe, covering all fish culture systems. RISIS,

the infrastructure for research and innovation policy, provides platforms and data

sets for researchers dealing with science and innovation studies. All of these RIs

recognized the need for more connectivity between RIs, between science and

industry, and between European regions.

3.2 Objectives and scope of EMBRIC

The overarching objective of EMBRIC (European Marine Biological Resource

Infrastructure Cluster) is to build interconnectivity along three dimensions:

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science, industry, and regional RD&I policies. The expected outcome is a

sustainable alliance of RIs that foster innovation in marine biotechnologies.

The specific objectives of EMBRIC are to:

1) Develop coherent chains of high quality services for access to biological,

analytical and data resources by connecting cognate ESFRI and other RIs

(EMBRC, MIRRI, EU-OPENSCREEN, ELIXIR, AQUAEXCEL, RISIS) and

deploying common underpinning technologies and practices;

2) Strengthen the connection between science and industry through company

forums and collaborative projects;

3) Geographically defragment public and private sector communities in the

domain of marine biotechnology by involving regional RD&I policymakers in the

construction of EMBRIC.

EMBRIC is designed to propose integrated multidisciplinary value chains of

services for the exploration and sustainable exploitation of marine bioresources as

sources of biomolecules and/or as whole organisms for food. The cluster

integrates RIs that provide access to the full spectrum of marine diversity

(EMBRC) or are specialized in the provision of specific groups of organisms

(MIRRI: prokaryotes and fungi; AQUAEXCEL: finfish). Using these biological

resources as raw materials, the cluster is developing service-oriented pipelines for

natural product discovery and genetic selection for aquaculture (Figure 3). EU-

OPENSCREEN contributes its services and expertise in the area of natural

product discovery, and AQUAEXCEL contributes in the aquaculture domain.

ELIXIR provides cross-cutting expertise on data services and management. RISIS,

specializes in the quantitative analysis of research and innovation through

organized data sources. Members of RISIS are developing indicators to estimate

socio-economic impact of EMBRC marine research centers on local innovation

ecosystems across Europe, to understand the socio-economic benefits stemming

from research projects and innovation activities.

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In practice, this amounts to: (i) enlisting the participation of relevant RIs and

organizing workflows that cover complete value chains, from the capture or

culture of marine organisms to technology transfer; (ii) building an Infrastructure

alliance which will be capable of fulfilling the needs of its users throughout

various dimensions and scales (science and technology, technology transfer,

subsidiarity across Europe); (iii) mobilizing regional, national, and EU

policymakers to develop and finance a sustainable alliance.

The main assumptions associated to this model are:

1) For the scientific dimension: The establishment of and provision of access

to integrated workflows will create synergies within the alliance and with its user

communities that will accelerate the development of key enabling technologies,

for the benefit of the scientific community as a whole.

2) For the technology transfer dimension: The fostering of synergies between

regional innovation ecosystems and the emergence of a community of practice for

technology transfer (Wenger 1998, Amin and Roberts 2008) in marine

biotechnology will lead to more effective and efficient development of innovative

products.

3) For the policy dimension: The demonstration of a positive incentive/risk

ratio in EMBRIC will convince a critical mass (>50%) of its participating legal

entities to commit to providing resources along with a regulatory framework to

grow and sustain the alliance.

The EMBRIC project focuses on two specific sectors of marine biotechnology,

namely (i) discovery and development of marine natural products, and (ii) genetic

selection of finfish and shellfish for aquaculture. Many opportunities, such as

those dealing with the utilization of macroalgae (seaweeds) or animal-algal

symbioses (corals and molluscs), are not covered by EMBRIC at present. As the

project develops, it will undertake to reach out to other sectors.

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3.3 Organization of workflows at EMBRC facilities

European RIs are seen as an indispensable hardware to fully exploit and ensure

long-lasting effects of research programming, i.e., RIs collectively mobilize the

necessary resources to drive integration at the scientific, technological and

geographical levels2.

EMBRC facilities are situated in locations with unique, yet complementary

assets, covering most of the marine biodiversity in Europe. These maritime

territories differ in ecological conditions and natural bioresources. At each facility,

different blends of research, higher education, and technology transfer are present,

somewhat depending on the socio-economic forces that make use of these

bioresources, e.g., seaweeds in Brittany, salmon in Scotland and Norway, seabass

and seabream in Crete, microalgae in Campania and Occitanie.

With a few exceptions, however, EMBRC facilities lack the critical mass in

key science areas or technologies such as bioinformatics, chemical biology or

microbiology. These weaknesses are overcome by the implementation of

EMBRIC workflows. Involving infrastructure elements from ELIXIR, EU-

OPENSCREEN and MIRRI, these pipelines are geared to fast-track bio-discovery

(bio-actives, bio-refineries) processes and to develop new production systems

(from cell factories to aquaculture). The EMBRIC vision is not only to foster an

alliance between several pan-European Research Infrastructures but also to partner

in the materialization of pipelines for research on specific bioresources at specific

locations, with each RI operating different parts of the pipelines (Figure 4).

2 cf. declarations at the 2nd International Conference on Research Infrastructures: http://www.icri2014.eu/

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4. EMBRIC, an instrument to promote the blue bio-economy.

4.1 Organization of innovation clusters at EMBRC facilities

The term “innovation ecosystem” best describes the matrix of interactions

between scientific, industrial, economic and political stakeholders which enable

technological development and innovation. Top scientific and technical talent, an

entrepreneurial drive, a profound sense of community, and strong cooperation and

coordination among stakeholders are the pillars of a successful innovation

ecosystem. Innovation ecosystems typically involve a number of elements,

ranging all the way from basic scientific discovery, knowledge and technology

transfer, technological and economic maturation, intellectual property (IP)

brokerage, prototyping and demonstration for the development of new products

and services, and receptive companies. These are key elements of innovation

chains.

The distance from the generation of knowledge to the delivery of products or

services to the market can be measured according to a Technology Readiness

Level (TRL) scale, spanning from the observation of basic principles in the

laboratory (TRL 1) to the actual system proven in industry (TRL 9)3.

As excellence foci, the EMBRC expert centers are able to attract private

research users. Since EMBRC contributes mainly to research, while companies

mainly undertake development, the pooling of resources and skills at EMBRC

facilities will potentially lead to more innovative products and services in reaching

the marketplace. Basically at EMBRC facilities, the private partners will have

access to research activities best performed by academia (TRL 1-3/4) which

complement private sector research (TRL 4/5-9), reducing unnecessary

duplication. In this process and with the input of other RIs, EMBRIC is 3https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annex

es/h2020-wp1415-annex-g-trl_en.pdf.

14

accelerating the maturation of technologies in EMBRC expert centers, thereby

accelerating knowledge and technology transfer to companies and potentiating

innovation.

Such innovation clusters can range from the implementation of good practices

to genuine science parks with the possibility of attaining TRL as high as 8-9

(Table 1). Stage 1 is achievable by all EMBRC laboratories. Stage 4 involves

integration of strategic research, initial and long-life training, and technology

transfer into a separate legal entity. Science parks allow the clustering of

companies that can mutualize services and facilities, but also engage in

collaborations and joint ventures that boost local development and favor the

circular economy.4

An example for such an initiative is provided by “Blue Valley”, a science park

under development next to the facilities of the Station Biologique de Roscoff

(SBR). Blue Valley will combine into a common governance local and regional

authorities, the science and higher education operators of SBR and a variety of

private companies. The objective of this science park is to promote territorial

economic development based on the sustainable exploitation of the marine

bioresources in Brittany. Blue Valley will involve a number of enterprises,

covering the whole value chain, from production systems to biotransformation as

well as monitoring the environment.

4.2 The need for public and private investments at various scales

The regional scale. The main drivers of the blue bio-economy in Europe are

the territories, for two reasons: i) technological production is anchored in regional 4 The circular economy describes the idea of “closing the loop" of product

lifecycles through increased recycling and re-use of resources that overall benefits the environment and the economy. See the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy : http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52015DC0614

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development; and ii) the production systems of marine bio-resources are

essentially located next to the sea, in maritime regions. Regions and local

authorities are hence relevant dimensions to organize and promote the knowledge-

based blue bio-economy.

Yet, the capacity to retain or attract human and financial capital for investment

in the development of the maritime economy is far from assured, even in those

regions where favourable pre-existing socio-economic forces are present.

Developing the emerging sector of marine biotechnologies will require significant

investments before returns can be expected. Based on arguments for technology

push and market pull combined with indicators of positive socio-economic impact

EMBRIC regional innovation clusters can showcase ground-breaking research and

technologies, to attract public and private funds.

The national scale. Science production is a global process, which requires

steady funding to reach and maintain excellence as well as competitiveness. Most

Member States and Associated Countries in Europe have recognized that progress

in research and innovation is based on three pillars: human capital, research

programming and research infrastructures. In coordination with ESFRI, they have

launched the establishment of national roadmaps for Research Infrastructures.

In France, this roadmap contains as many as ca. 100 entries, including 23

National Infrastructures in Biology and Health, among them the Centre National

de Ressources Biologiques Marines (EMBRC-France).

In Spain, the map of Spanish Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures is

composed of 29 RIs. This roadmap has been used to take decisions on the

investment priorities of the European Regional Development Funds in

coordination with the regional S3. The Spanish map aligns with the ESFRI plans

and Spain participates in more than 30 ESFRI infrastructures, among them

EMBRC.

The Portuguese national roadmap was adopted in 2013 after peer evaluation by

an international panel. It comprises 40 RIs aligned to 23 ESFRI RIs, including

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EMBRC-Portugal with 4 regional facilities. The Portuguese RIs will receive major

investments in personnel, buildings renovation and instrumentation between 2018

and 2021, totaling 100.5 million euros, financed (66%) by national and European

Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in alignment with the S3 of the regions

where the RIs are implanted.

In Greece, the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures was adopted

after international evaluation and released in December 2014. It includes a list of

26 RIs, most of them linked with ESFRI RIs. CMBR (Centre for the study and

sustainable exploitation of Marine Biological Resources), which is an EMBRC-

based RI, is included in the list. Recently 20 of the RIs, among them CMBR, were

evaluated and judged as aligned with the priorities of the S3 at the National and

Regional level and thus eligible for support through structural funds. The General

Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) released in 2016 a call for the

support of these RI’s totaling 73 M€ and the evaluation of the proposals is

currently in progress. A new call of approximately equal total financial support is

expected in 2018.

The European scale. Regional innovation clusters are expected to specialize

according to their main bioresources (Figure 4). Competition between these

regional clusters will certainly occur to some extent, e.g., to attract scientists,

companies and jobs. Yet, complementarities and alliances can be promoted and

supported, leading to the integration of innovation ecosystems in marine

biotechnology all the way to a multi-regional pan-European ecosystem fostering

cohesive and inclusive growth. A powerful incentive for integration is

collaboration and subsidiarity at the European level.

Regions have the political power to help in this process, using European

Structural and Investment Funds as instruments to promote the development of

innovation clusters. They can also foster the establishment of regional capital

funds, combined with guaranties from the European Investment Bank to promote

the development of the marine biotechnologies in their territories. In this respect,

the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI or Juncker Plan) is an

17

interesting opportunity5. EFSI can either be geographically focussed (regional

scale or national) or thematically focussed (marine biotechnology for instance).

5. Conclusions

Generation of basic scientific knowledge in the marine domain is primarily

carried out by academic operators while translational research is principally the

domain of the private sector and resulting economic development is largely

supported and accompanied by regional authorities. EMBRIC hence faces the

need of marrying scientific excellence, a national and European challenge, with

territorial development and cohesion, a multi-regional challenge. A recent study

by EMBRIC partners (Robinson et al, 2016), based on the pilot case study of the

Station Biologique de Roscoff and to be extended to other EMBRC facilities,

shows that the two challenges can be reconciled to promote the blue bio-economy.

EMBRIC addresses the necessity of scientifically integrating the marine

biological research community with other disciplines. The construction of

EMBRIC workflows will enable more precise and complete matching of user

demands with service supply. Such an alliance between the EMBRIC RIs in the

implementation of expert centers at the EMBRC facilities will mobilize entire

innovation chains in their regions, promoting socio-economic development.

There are a number of other Research Infrastructures or Integrated

Infrastructure Initiatives that are relevant to the EMBRIC alliance, such as

5 EFSI Platforms are referred to as platforms that consist in Special purpose

vehicles, managed accounts, contract-based co-financing or risk-sharing arrangements or arrangements established by any other means by which entities channel a financial contribution in order to finance a number of investment projects (Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2015 on the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Investment Advisory Hub and the European Investment Project Portal and amending Regulations (EU) No 1291/2013 and (EU) No 1316/2013 — the European Fund for Strategic Investments, Official Journal of the European Union, L 169, 1 July 2015).

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Lifewatch (biodiversity data), Euro-Bioimaging (advanced microscopy), Instruct

(structural biology) or Eurofleet (oceanographic vessels). Indeed several EMBRC

laboratories already combine elements from these latter infrastructures as well as

from those of the current EMBRIC alliance, a testimony of the growing

importance of the marine bioresources in fundamental and strategic research in

biology and ecology.

A top priority of EMBRC also is to embed with the maritime regions of

Europe, directly and via their pan-European representation (CPMR). This will be

achieved by identifying common incentives between the regional innovation

ecosystems to overcome any regional tendencies for isolation. Alignment of

regional with national funds as well as convergence between H2020 and structural

funds should encourage maritime regions to build on complementarities and

synergies. One promising idea worthy of consideration would be the creation of a

Maritime Investment Fund under the responsibility of the European Investment

Bank, to support the development of innovation ecosystems and to foster the

growth of companies involved with the development of the marine biotechnology

sector.

As EMBRIC develops, we can foresee an extended alliance to sustain the

project legacy (Figure 5). For example, the mission of LifeWatch is to advance

biodiversity research and to provide major contributions to addressing the big

environmental challenges, including knowledge-based solutions for environmental

management. A closer interaction between the current EMBRIC consortium and

Lifewatch would serve well the preservation marine habitats and of marine

bioresources.

We believe that given the need of establishing synergies between research and

innovation grants, on the one hand, and structural funds, on the other hand,

regional, national and EU policy-makers can be convinced to support EMBRIC

activities beyond the life-time of the project. We suggest that this policy, the

clustering of RIs to resolve upcoming bottlenecks and to promote regional

economies, is extended to address other societal Grand Challenges.

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In conclusion the RI EMBRC-ERIC and the RI cluster project EMBRIC

recommend the implementation of two main strategies to promote the blue bio-

economy: i) The concrete combination of diverse RI elements into EMBRIC

innovation clusters in peripheral maritime regions; and: ii) The convergence of

regional, national and European policies at these focal points. These initiatives are

essential to integrating European peripheral maritime regions into the mainstream

of the global knowledge-based bio-economy and to giving Europe a leadership in

marine biotechnologies.

Acknowledgments

The EMBRIC project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research

and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654008

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References

Amin and Roberts (2008). Community, Economic Creativity and Organization. Oxford University Press.

European Commission (2007). Improving knowledge transfer between research institutions and industry across Europe: embracing open innovation – Implementing the Lisbon agenda.

European Commission (2009). Building a sustainable future for aquaculture – A new impetus for the Strategy for Sustainable Development of European Aquaculture.

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/en/node/2715 Hurst, D.; Børresen, T.; Almesjö, L.; De Raedemaecker, F.; Bergseth, S. (2016).

Marine biotechnology strategic research and innovation roadmap: Insights to the future direction of European marine biotechnology. Marine Biotechnology ERA-NET: Oostende.

European Science Foundation (2010) Marine Biotechnology: A New Vision and Strategy for Europe: Marine Board – ESF Position Paper 15

European Marine Board (2017) Marine Biotechnology: Advancing Innovation in Europe’s Bioeconomy. EMB Policy Brief No. 4, Ostend, Belgium. ISSN: 0778-3590

EMBRC Business Plan (2017), EMBRC, Paris OECD (2013), Marine Biotechnology: Enabling Solutions for Ocean Productivity

and Sustainability, OECD Publishing, Paris. OECD (2016), The Ocean Economy in 2030, OECD Publishing, Paris. Robinson, D. K. R., Schoen, A. and Laurens, P., Horellou, S., Colas, P. and

Larédo, P. (2016) Assessing marine biotechnology research centres in peripheral regions: developing global and local STI indicators. 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, València (Spain), September 14-16, 2016.

See the full description of TRLs in the Horizon 2020 programme here : https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-g-trl_en.pdf

Wenger E (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Table Captions

Table 1. From expert centers to innovation clusters in EMBRC facilities.

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Figure Captions

Figure 1. Distribution of EMBRC laboratories in Europe

Figure 2. Laboratory distribution of the RIs involved in EMBRIC. The map

illustrates the geographic separation of marine stations (EMBRC laboratories),

mostly located in areas with direct access to marine habitats, from the laboratories

of other ESFRI RIs such as EU-OPENSCREEN, MIRRI and ELIXIR, which are

mainly concentrated inland.

Figure 3. EMBRIC workflows. The organization of RI pipelines into workflows

will accelerate innovation. Natural product and aquaculture workflows allow users

to go from a marine bioresource, provided by EMBRC, AQUAEXCEL or MIRRI,

to the development of a marketable product by the exploitation of ELIXIR and

EU-OPENSCREEN pipelines.

Figure 4. Examples of EMBRIC innovation clusters. The map highlights the RI

workflows in relation to the marine bioresource they stem from: 1) Macro-algae

(Brittany), 2) Fish and shellfish (Scotland, Crete, Basque Country, Galicia), 3)

Microbes (bacteria and /or micro-algae, Occitany, Campania).

Figure 5. Potential alliances to sustain the EMBRIC legacy.

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Stage TRL Organization criteria Impact 1. EMBRC

Laboratory 1-2 Signing the EMBRC charter Local

2. Technological Platform 3-4 In house facilities Regional

3. Incubator 5-7 Separate facility National

4. Science Park 8-9 Physically and legally independent entity European

Table 1. From expert centers to innovation clusters in EMBRC facilities.

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Figure 1. Distribution of EMBRC laboratories in Europe.

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Figure 2. Laboratory distribution of the RIs involved in EMBRIC. The map illustrates the geographic separation of marine stations (EMBRC

laboratories), mostly located in areas with direct access to marine habitats, from the laboratories of other ESFRI RIs such as EU-OPENSCREEN,

MIRRI and ELIXIR, which are mainly concentrated inland. The maritime regions shaded in blue are affiliated with the CPMR.

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Figure 3. EMBRIC workflows for value creation. Marine bioresources are provided by EMBRC, AQUAEXCEL or MIRRI. Involvement of

ELIXIR and EU-OPENSCREEN expert centres further streamlines the study of these bioresources in view of the delivery of active biomolecules

(natural product workflow) or aquaculture products (aquaculture workflow).

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Figure 4. Examples of EMBRIC innovation clusters. The map highlights the RI workflows in relation to the marine bioresource they stem

from: 1) Macro-algae (Brittany), 2) Fish and shellfish (Scotland, Crete, Basque Country, Galicia), 3) Microbes (bacteria and /or micro-algae,

Occitanie, Campania).

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Figure 5. Potential alliances to sustain the EMBRIC legacy.