2nd meeting of the Blue Bioeconomy Forum – Blue is the new Green!

The second meeting of the Blue Bioeconomy Forum took place on 25. June in Brussels and more than 60 people attended to the event. Angela Schultz-Zehden and Efthalia Arvaniti from the SUBMARINER Network secretariat, Gilli Trond from University of Southern Denmark (SDU), and Elisabet Brock from University of Gothenburg contributed to the event.

The meeting continued the work of the Blue Bioeconomy Forum for developing the Roadmap for the Blue Bioeconomy in Europe. In this meeting, which was the third and the last one, opened with a strong plenary session with DG MARE, DG R&I and EASME.

Further on, the participants had the opportunity to discuss identified barriers obstructing blue bioeconomy development in Europe, as it was captured in previous meetings and underpinning discussions of steering committees and stakeholders survey, and also respond to preliminary recommendations for solutions to include in the Roadmap. 

Participants also heard about inspiring EU projects, existing mechanisms and available tools to all relevant to all EU stakeholders groups, having a bit of something for everyone: research and development, policy makers, administration, business development, even consumers. Among, guests were representatives from BBI-JU and also eight aquatic biomass projects that exhibited in the event. Among highlights was also the Blue Cloud Concept, a new project EMODNet - ICES that in the next three years they will integrate their data and tools, so to make more user-friendly.

The meeting was also a great networking opportunity and a 1-to-1 meeting platform was offered to participants.