Bioeconomy for Blue Growth in the Baltic Sea Region – a platform project to capitalize on the outputs of complementary transnational projects

Blue Platform

PROGRAMME 2014-2020

priority

2 Natural resources

objective

2.4 Blue growth

Blue Platform

Blue Platform compiled solutions from Interreg and Horizon projects in blue bioeconomy to pave the way for emerging economic opportunities that explore innovative and sustainable uses of marine resources.

Project summary

Advancing the Bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea: the Blue Platform Project

The blue bioeconomy covers activities that are based on the sustainable use of renewable aquatic resources, such as aquaculture, mussel and algae farming or marine biotechnology. Such activities are crucial to achieving blue growth, which meaning that maritime sectors are both environmentally and economically sustainable. Luckily, many actors across the Baltic Sea region are already very active in these sectors, and a wealth of past and on-going blue bioeconomy projects and products is available.

Increasing awareness and capacity

Blue Platform increases the awareness of existing blue bioeconomy knowledge in the Baltic, and focuses on streamlining activities both now and in the future. The platform partners develop a manual with common standards; policy papers on how funding and legislation could be better aligned; and develop a Blue Platform Roadmap 2020. The project website features more than 25 past and on-going transnational products developed by more than 10 projects database of baltic blue bioeconomy activities, projects, products and actors and is continuously updated: For example, a natural sunscreen extracted from organic seaweed produced by a Danish company; a Lithuanian start-up using Baltic Sea mollusk shells to prepare artificial bone tissue; a Swedish municipality developing a new type of fish feed from seaweed washed ashore.

Become involved with the Blue Platform!

The Blue Platform is leading the Baltic Blue Bioeconomy Community through a dynamic website and web-based products, as well as by bringing people together face-to-face. Meet the project platform partners at one of the seven transnational workshops during the Blue Platform Roadshow, follow #BluePlatform on social media or visit the website.

Projects represented in the platform

Interreg Baltic Sea Region: ALLIANCE | Baltic Blue Growth | BalticLINes | Smart Blue Regions | Go LNG | BalticRIM
Interreg Central Baltic: Plan4Blue
Interreg South Baltic: InnoAquaTech
Interreg North Sea Region: BIOCAS
BONUS: Blue WEBS
H2020: MUSES
EMFF: Baltic SCOPE | PanBaltic SCOPE

details

Budgets

Blue Platform
in numbers

1.05

Million

Total
0.79

Million

Erdf
0.05

Million

Eni + Russia
0.00

Million

Norway

Achievements

Putting bioeconomy into focus

The Blue Platform raised the awareness of public and private decision-makers about the growing importance of the new blue bioeconomy sector in the Baltic Sea region. It brought together the results of more than a dozen of Interreg and Horizon2020 projects and summed them up in the web-based information hub. By analysing pilot results from several projects, the platform provided stronger evidence on the usefulness of the developed solutions in new, for the region, topics.

The platform partners clustered the information about this new sector of blue bioeconomy by topics and countries. Through numerous workshops, policy-makers and public agencies, companies and researchers learned about practical achievements in mussel and algae cultivation, sustainable aquaculture, blue biotechnology, and multi-use of marine space, which in 2013 were merely theoretical concepts. For example, more public authorities and companies learned that blue mussels and various native algae species could be cultivated in the Baltic Sea Proper, an area with lower salinity levels, how local short product value chains could be developed with input from these resources which show good market potential (for feed, food, cosmetics), low-trophic aquaculture and fishery offered cost-effective ways of nutrient removal, where needed, and recirculating aquaculture produced high value products sold at regional markets.

New Mussel working group!

In addition, the platform established working groups to actively cooperation and promote innovative and sustainable uses of marine resources. They are coordinated by the Submariner Network. The cooperation established within the Mussel working group allowed for a fast and successful application for a transnational investment under the new Interregional Innovation Investment Stream, which brought EUR 7.3 million into the mussel cultivation market within the Baltic Sea region.

Mapping bioeconomy actors

The platform also mapped public and private actors involved in new marine uses: almost 3,000 individuals in the Baltic Sea region working in more than 1,700 different institutions. Out of them, more than 650 companies worked within the blue bioeconomy throughout the Baltic Sea region. These were companies, for example, from traditional fish aquaculture to working with new uses of algae and blue biotechnology. In addition, the companies got the opportunity to promote themselves as well as the products and services they produced through the blue bioeconomy business hub developed by the platform.

Work hand in hand with EU Strategy

The partners of the platform, the coordinators of the EUSBSR policy areas Bioeconomy and Innovation as well as the members of the Submariner Network developed the roadmap to advancing the blue bioeconomy in the region beyond 2021. This roadmap includes four actions: getting pilots to the next level, involving companies of all sizes, strengthening ‘The Blue on Land’, and interlinking Baltic with EU wide communities of practice. Already by May 2022, more than 15 new partnerships started to implement parts of the actions. Almost half of them were successful to secure funding, while others were pending. The future of the blue bioeconomy development seems to be in skilful hands of the platform partners and their supporters.

Outputs

Blue bioeconomy roadmap beyond 2021

The roadmap presents the current status of the blue economy in the Baltic Sea region and future prospects for sustainable development. It identifies trends, needs, market niches and strategic actions which can be exploited to upscale blue economy activities in the region while increasing sustainability and achieving international environmental goals. It helps public authorities responsible for regional development and marine resources as well as businesses plan their future actions.

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Actors map active in blue bioeconomy

This is an interactive map of actors in the Baltic Sea region and beyond that are active in the blue bioeconomy. It includes companies, associations, networks, public authorities, research, and funding bodies. The following topics are represented: algae, blue biotechnology, energy, fish aquaculture, maritime cultural heritage, maritime spatial planning, mussels, multi-use, reed, shipping, tourism and many more.

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Blue bioeconomy business hub

This catalogue of businesses includes information on innovative and sustainable blue companies and products. It gives the opportunity to companies around the BSR and beyond to be part of the growing network by fostering business collaborations. The catalogue can be used as a platform for cross-disciplinary communication and exchange. It shows a comprehensive overview of the companies that joined the catalogue: their profile, products and services.

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Country profiles on blue bioeconomy with good practices

The profiles explain the specificity of how the blue bioeconomy is addressed in each of the Baltic Sea region countries. They include priorities and key sectors, regulations and funding, key actors and networks. They share good practices from the countries how the blue bioeconomy is supported and developed.

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Position paper on aquaculture legislation in the Baltic Sea region

The position paper identifies next steps for the blue bioeconomy stakeholders in the Baltic Sea region to enhance the development of the sector. It is targeted towards relevant national ministries and transnational organisations, like HELCOM and VASAB.

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