ALLIANCE+ extension project approved
ALLIANCE project has reached its next level, realized through ALLIANCE+, an extension project, which has just been approved by the Interreg Monitoring Committee, ensuring the continuation of blue biotechnology activities under the Interreg BSR funding umbrella.
Seven project partners from the main stage project ALLIANCE (2016-2019) applied for funding to continue the activities of the ALLIANCE project under the new name ALLIANCE+. The extension project will therefore secure the resources and activities required for a sustained ALLIANCE network and service offer, thus enabling continuous development of future blue biotechnology products. The objective of the new project is to recruit and train new experts to act as blue detectives, mentors and advisors within and in conjunction with the partners of the current ALLIANCE network. Future mentors will be recruited from R&D institutions as well as from established companies. The expertise gained within the main stage ALLIANCE project will be transferred into a ‘mentors’ training package and handbook, and disseminated via tight coupling with three transnational training events. Moreover, the ALLIANCE+ aims to identify and reach out to strategic partners and investors, incl. EU, national, regional public authorities and funding programmes, blue biotech companies, and private foundations, beyond the established partnerships, to provide support for maintaining and strengthening the ALLIANCE service offer.
The extension project starts in August 2019 and will last 18 months as the implementation phase is ending in January 2021. As in the regular project, the ALLIANCE+ project will be coordinated by the same lead partner, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel with the support of SUBMARINER Network for Blue Growth EEIG. Other project partners are: Tartu Biotechnology Park (EE), CRM - Coastal Research & Management (Germany), Klaipeda Science and Technology Park (Lithuania), Finnish Environment Institute (Finland) and KTH - Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden).
We are looking forward to promote blue biotechnology across the Baltic Sea Region by further transnational collaboration.