ARE WE REALISING THE VISION AN D STRATEGY FOR EUROPEAN
MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH?
Joel Querellou
Former Ifrem er Head o f M icrobiology o f Extreme Environm ents Laboratory, Ifrem er
Former Chair o f the Marine Board W orking Group on Marine Biotechnology, France
E-mail: leintan@ free.fr
Marine biotechnology has been recognized as a strategic field o f activity to prepare the tran sition
from an oil-based econom y to a bio-based econom y by m ost o f the leading countries in the world,
from EU countries to the US, Japan, China, etc. C onsidering the trends th a t were observed during
the firs t decade o f th is century in Europe, several initiatives have been developed in recent years.
Marine biotechnology o pp o rtu n itie s and challenges were th o ro u g h ly discussed w ith in several
W orking Groups and initiatives (EU Collaborative W orking Group on Marine Biotechnology, ESFMarine Board W orking Group on Marine Biotechnology, and o f course the ongoing CSA
MarineBiotech). A new vision and an appropriate strategy were adopted and key recom m endations
proposed as m ajor guidelines fo r fu tu re policies (Marine Board Position Paper 15 on Marine
Biotechnology, CWG-MB final report).
Since the publication o f the ESF-MB PP15, d iffe re n t program m es and projects have been launched.
Several o f these projects are in perfect agreem ent w ith the recom m endations or d irectly inspired by
the conclusions o f the ESF-MB PP1 5. The current initiative to im plem ent a Marine Biotech ERA-NET is
also an im p o rta n t step forw ard. Nevertheless, considering the econom ic and social crisis in EU, and
notably the North-South gradient in the a b ility to fund national RTD projects, an ERA-NET is a
necessary com ponent o f the fu tu re policy but m ig ht not be su fficie n t to keep national policies
aligned during the next decade. A d d itio n a l mechanisms should be discussed and the EC should
keep a direct su pp ort to marine biotechnology research projects, in relation w ith health, food,
energy and environm ental policies.
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