The 9th Rendez-vous de Concarneau on marine biotechnology

This year’s conference in Concarneau, Brittany, ‘where industry meets science’ was successfully held 25-26 September 2017. The general theme was ‘Biomaterials’, but the conference was initiated with a session on ‘International Cooperation’. The keynote address was given by prof. Juan Correa, The Marine Station, Las Cruces, Santiago, Chile. He gave an overview of the research at this marine station, and he emphasised his international collaboration, particularly with European researchers and marine stations in France. This presentation was followed by Torger Børresen, ERA-MBT, who presented ‘Efforts to established continued ERA collaboration on Blue Bioeconomy’. He gave an update on the most recent developments and plans for establishing an ERA Cofund consortium to apply for a project on the expected call BG-02-2018 Blue Bioeconomy Public-Public Partnership with anticipated deadline for applications February 2018. He also presented the newly published EMB Policy Brief on ‘Marine Biotechnology – Advancing Innovation in Europe’s Bioeconomy’, which had been produced as a collaboration between European Marine Board and ERA-MBT.

The next presentation in the session on international cooperation was given by Lucas Bosser from CRPM, Rennes, France. The title of his presentation was ‘European Regions’ strategies for Marine Bioresources’, explaining how his organisations had collaborated on infrastructures with EMBRIC, and could foresee a successful future collaboration with the coming Cofund on Blue Bioeconomy.

The following sessions concerned

• Medical devices for tissue therapies
• Bioadhesion – Biomimicry – Active molecules
• Marine origin polymers used as nutraceuticals and as biomaterials for packaging
• Intellectual properties protection and regulation with emphasis on biomaterials

The scientific presentations were followed by a round-table discussion on ‘sea, biotech, health, technology transfer and collaborative projects; the role of clusters in the innovation process’. The conference gathered a total of 66 participants and generated a range of interesting discussions. As a new development company visits in Bretagne were arranged as a satellite activity, gathering around 20 participants. Presentations will be available at https://sites.google.com/view/rv-concarneau/home.