INDUSTRY EVENTS
REVIEW Biomarine Business Convention
by Simon J Davies, Professor of Marine Biosciences and Aquaculture Nutrition, Brixham Blue Hub, University of Plymouth
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was delighted to attend the 5th Biomarine Business Convention held in the Estoril centre near Cascais, Portugal on 29th -31st October representing Plymouth University and its new Brixham Blue Hub in Devon, England at the heart of the SW fishing and processing industry. As usual, this was an excellent and well-organised meeting across the marine biosciences sector. People from all over the world gathered in once place to share ideas and a passion for marine conservation and oppor tunities for wealth creation and business der ived from our precious ocean resources. The conference brought together CEOs, top execIDL milling grain utives and start-ups fromandaround
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the world to discuss the importance of marine bio-resources and the importance of the blue economy. Under the experienced stewardship of Pierre and Veronique Erwes, (and assistance of his talented sons’ Antione and Nicolas) new ground was broken and innovative approaches launched to widen dissemination through media. This included for the first time the advent of Biomarine TV with live on-streaming and daily interviews with expert leaders in each discipline. His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco was present delivering a balanced view on global food security from the seas and consideration for the environment with emphasis on pragmatism with the need for sustain15 able portrait cetak.pdf in 1technology 12/24/14 development
and the business sector with respect to our growing energy needs and diminishing fish stocks with concerns for any irresponsible aquaculture practices. His passionate views relating to global climate change and issues such as ocean acidification are a prime area for his Foundation to help resolve. His Monaco Foundation provides inspiration and generous funding for these topical problems to be scientifically addressed by leading universities and agencies. This 5th edition of BioMarine was a deemed to be special since the Por tuguese Government is deploying its new Blue Growth Strategy. This maritime country is re-discovering its unique heritage and we witnessed the entire national industr y united in the forum to project its stated aims of achieving the ‘Blue Economy’ initiative as a national policy driver. I spoke briefly to The President of the Republic of Portugal, His Excellency, Aníbal Cavaco Silva who told me that this convention had his full support and was a great 3:52 PM for Portugal to embrace platform new science and technologies in a very important and strategic sector that was impor tant for Europe and the world. It was also the case of full speed ahead for BICA,The1st General Assembly of BICA (Biomarine International Clusters Association) was held on October 29th at the Estoril Congress Center, Por tugal opening new avenues for business collaboration and new venture capital investment engagement. HSH Prince Albert II has been actively championing its creation. Besides current Founding Members, several entities attended the meeting. The Board welcomed new associate member s: Nofima Norway, European Marine Science Park Cluster-Scotland Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Shoalhaven Blue Tech Australia, Plymouth University – Marine Institute a n d P ly m o u t h M a r i n e Laborator y. Pedro Nunes,
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Head of Eureka Secretariat gave a presentation on the mechanism initiate the Eureka Biomarine Cluster. 2015 will be a busy year for BICA as this will become embedded in forming synergies and alliances that will attract new funding routes and the incubation of new business interests with robust international underpinning. Key issues spanned over 20 themes such as: • Biotechnology and Genetics in Aquaculture • Micro algae: the key to improving Nutrition worldwide • Marine compounds as natural ingredients for the nutraceuticals and the cosmetic industry. Another area was, how can Norway, as a leading maritime country, help develop and boost marine research and innovations in other parts of the world? Developing use of marine byproducts and discards from agriculture for nutraceutical uses as an untapped potential of biomolecules extracted from marine organisms was a most important topic for many companies. Is a vegetal diet in the next generation of aquafeed? Marine Biotech: novel strategies for marine microbe cultivation, Marine Biotechnology: Start-ups’ strategy to attract the right investors opened wide possibilities. From the per spective of International Aquafeed and my own specialisation in fish nutrition, I par ticipated briefly in the live Biomarine TV event with my own experience of work on suitable plant based ingredients for use in complete aquafeeds. This is a good topic and formed a basis for lively debate. There was clearly a strong focus on micro and macro-algae with many examples of products on hand to demonstrate the wide applications in food and beverages on the grounds of taste and health. We were treated with a variety of ice creams, yogurts and chocolate delights tinged with chlorella and other strains of algae giving an interesting twist of flavours and tangs. Even algae enriched olive