The last in the series of eight sectoral workshops carried out within the framework of the OECD project on The Future of the Ocean Economy will be held at the Research Centre for Experimental Marine Biology and Biotechnology of the University of the Basque Country (Plentzia Marine Station, PiE-UPV/EHU), on 29 and 30 September 2015. It deals with the long-term potential of marine biotechnology.
PiE-UPV/EHU organises the OECD world workshop on marine biotechnology in the future of the ocean economy
First publication date: 29/09/2015
The workshop has been organised by the OECD International Futures Programme, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the PiE-UPV/EHU, in collaboration with AZTI-Tecnalia, Euskampus Fundazioa and the Research Council of Norway. Thirty leading experts from 15 countries around the world will explore the prospects of marine biotechnology for blue growth and the emerging ocean-based economy.
They will identify and discuss some of the key advances regarding the long-term potential of marine biotechnology, including sustainable food supply (molecular approaches for aquaculture, fisheries, and seafood quality, safety and processing), gene resources engineering (biomimicry, bioprocess engineering, biofuels and bioengineering), human health research (marine creatures as alternative models in biomedicine), gene resources exploration (biodiversity management, discovery of natural marine compounds with pharmaceutical and industrial applications) and protection and management of ocean health (biosensors, biomarkers, bioassays, bioremediation and biorestoration).
The conclusions obtained will be integrated into an OECD guidelines document with the title "Future of the Ocean Economy: Exploring the Prospects for Emerging Ocean Industries to 2030", which will be presented on a world scale in Korea in 2016. This OECD workshop constitutes an excellent opportunity to promote the marine biotechnology sector in the Basque Country and to internationalise the emerging research and education activities that are being developed by PiE-UPV/EHU in this field.