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Humanity is fighting an emergent environmental and social crisis, and our oceans should be part of the solution. The 2030 Agenda established by the United Nations outlines seventeen interconnected objectives to guide nations and societies towards sustainable development that span various domains and address critical issues such as zero hunger, good health and well-being and global climate change. One of these objectives is specifically dedicated to life below water and aims at conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas, and marine resources.
The ocean has an immense potential to address and help fight the global crisis on many fronts, not only due to its role as the world’s “lungs” and carbon sink by producing around 50% of the oxygen needed, assimilating 25% of carbon dioxide emissions and consequently in limiting temperature rise arising from these emissions. Additionally, to face the growing scarcity of global land resources, the bioresources present in the ocean hold unlimited potential to be used in different solutions and applications across many sectors.
Portugal has a vast coastal area with 77,000 km2 of marine protected area and the fifth largest exclusive economic zone in Europe and has been committed to the blue economy since early. The National Ocean Strategy 2021-2030 (NOS 2021-2030), approved by the Portuguese government in 2021, reinforces this commitment by focusing on the importance of scientific knowledge, the protection of the ocean, the valorisation of marine ecosystem services and the recognition of their role as vectors of sustainable development.
To contribute to these ambitious objectives, the Oceano Azul Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation launched the Blue Bio Value, with the support of BlueBio Aliance a programme focused on supporting blue biotechnology companies and R&D projects to improve their value proposition and scale. Maze joined the foundations in 2021 as Blue Bio Value’s programme manager and has been operating in this field since. The Blue Bio Value programmes focus on blue biotechnology, which refers to using technology to transform marine bioresources into different products and processes, a market valued at $2.3bn in 2023. This sector exhibits a broad spectrum of applications, from fish to algae, from molluscs to microorganisms invisible to the naked eye. Such bioresources are today used in various sectors such as health and cosmetics, food and aquaculture, biomaterials and chemicals, and environmental remediation.
Blue Bio Value Acceleration is an equity-free impact growth programme dedicated to scaling up marine bio-based projects that foster biotech innovations for a healthy and productive ocean. In the past three years, from 269 applications that resulted from intensive scouting work, 54 startups from 27 different countries participated in the support programme, organised in 3 cohorts of around 18 startups.
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During one month and a half, the startups receive individual business and industry support, mainly focused on enlarging the founders’ network of contacts in the ocean economy space. At the end of the programme, for two weeks, all founders travel to Portugal to explore and immerse themselves in the local ecosystem, where they benefit from knowledge and collaboration sessions, networking events, and field trips to relevant scientific institutions and industry players.