Lessons Learned for Marine Biotechnology

Milestone 1

• Realize a complete inventory of local skills needed for the topic of academic actors, start-ups or companies already established in the region;
• Make lists of actions and players, record skills, know-how and economic potential, identify best practices and make full use of them to put the chosen topic on the national agenda;
• Start a survey to establish the relationship between local communities and the coastal areas and share results with politicians to put marine biotechnologies on the national agenda as an economic and sustainable opportunity;

Milestone 2

• Promote the involvement of public authorities on local, national and European levels;
• Be aware that policy-makers are not easy to engage unless they see a specific benefit that fits their agenda;
• Start planning at least 4 months in advance the organisation of a workshop as it is very time consuming task;
• Carefully consider the workshop's duration as many participants think that a one day-long workshop is too long;

Milestone 3

• Assign participants to a specific table according to gender, type of organization/institution, type of expertise in the field, main interest in general to ensure multidisciplinarity;
• Multiply events where researchers from academia and industry exchange with a broader community to enhance this community and its visibility;
• Connect all stakeholders through education and communication;
• Foster collaboration among companies in the marine biotechnologies value chain and social and environmental actors;
• Workshops may participants convince about RRI, but doesn't tend to help them in the concrete application of RRI in their daily work;
• Raise awareness among pupils and students about environmental protection through informational programs as well as promote the specific sector as a means of employability;
• Learn about participatory methods and how to use them;
• Help the participants with examples to understand how to embed RRI principles when discussing a sector and societal challenges.

Milestone 4

• Make an inventory of innovations and tools, and facilitate collaboration and networking for the development of biotechnologies in France;
• Focus on the concept and its tools when explaining RRI to participants.

Milestone 5

• Foster stakeholder engagement, capacity building, behavioural changes and production and consumption pattern shift with Science education;
• Have business and industry professionals consider producing socially and environmentally acceptable marine bio-based goods and services;
• Consider ethics when dealing with the legal frameworks to assure marine biotechnologies sustainability and social awareness.

Milestone 6

• Facilitate collaboration between research and industry/market to create a dynamic knowledge-sharing mechanism;
• Convince investors to facilitate the creation of a dynamic knowledge-sharing mechanism;
• Create training programs targeting SMEs and investors by focusing on enablers and barriers;
• Exchange with star chefs on new products from the transformation of marine resources to provide the opportunity to make the audience aware a wider audience;
• Develop new tools and infrastructures of research on marine resources, particularly in inaccessible depths, but also for monitoring the marine environment, stocks of biomass or still unwanted algae;
• Make restaurants aware restaurants and the public about the potential offered by the blue biotechnologies;
• Raise awareness and spread information about marine biotechnologies to the different groups of stakeholders;
• Develop a "Social and Solidarity Economy" type of framework in the field of marine biotechnologies;
• Organize of a marine biotechnology day at the regional level including different actors to make the general public aware on the marine biotechnology sector and its potential;
• Encourage scientists and NGO's to popularize the different aspects of marine biotechnology through science café, forums, open days etc;
• Organise Open Days in companies to ensure that the general public becomes familiar with marine biotechnologies;
• Involve senior/retired scientific experts to communicate on marine biotechnologies in layman's terms to ensure that the general public becomes familiar with the topic;
• Promote researchers qualifications to find new bio applications for products answering societal needs;
• Develop new model of governance for marine biotechnology development including the engagement of the society;
• Build a network to report challenges to politicians to put marine biotechnologies on the national agenda as an economic and sustainable opportunity;
• Implement training and guidance for careers around marine biotechnologies to reduce marine pollution;
• Push for cooperation among academic institutions and the industry, as it is crucial;
• The greater majority of actions relate to more than one RRI dimension; this shows that actions are multidisciplinary and involve multiple stakeholders.

Milestone 7

• Use Open access to boost innovation and increase the use of scientific results by all societal actors as well as to develop public trust and engagement;
• Consider the distinction between the actions of making information available and the actions of making the information understandable by its potential users when dealing with Open Access;
• Develop new collaborations for new means of communication;
• Get media cover and social media presence to influence policy and decision makers;
• Organise a European "Grenelle" of bioethics to do an inventory of knowledge, regulations and current projects and processes as well as to define indicators and good practices for the development of marine. biotech;
• Collect and share information and good practices to raise awareness on marine biotech and to reduce marine pollution.

Milestone 8

• Raise awareness among the general public to make informed choices and have an active social participation to further push the new initiatives;
• Train policymakers through communication tools and adapt legislation to facilitate the creation of a dynamic knowledge-sharing mechanism;
• Create funding mechanisms to promote RRI in research and innovation in the innovative sectors;
• Involve "Ambassadors" or " figures" at regional level (navigators, high level sportsman, known well-respected public figures of all kinds);
• Create of a one-stop shop for the Institute of blue bio-technologies with short and long-term strategies;
• Create an award for the best blue bio-technologies innovation or product to make maritime biotechnologies a sustainable economic opportunity;
• Start a regional programme and raise awareness of tourism actors to ensure that the general public becomes familiar with marine biotechnologies;
• Put in place a certification label of projects to draw guidelines for the sustainable development of marine biotechnologies;
• Train educators and information relays on marine biotechnologies to develop them in the field of marine pollution;
• Promote the reinforcement of policies and adoption of coherent legislative frameworks to develop marine biotechnology;
• Coordinate and develop industrial, academic and political linkages to boost funding around marine biotechnologies;
• Train and convince policymakers, implementers, and investors to develop biotechnologies;
• Add marine biotechnologies in school programmes to ensure that the general public becomes familiar with marine biotechnologies;
• To develop a sector, develop a legal framework promoting and regulating its development;
• Education is necessary for the marine biotechnology development thus the need for developing university educational programmes on marine biotechnology;
• Improve regulations and legislations about the release of bacteria at sea.

See also...

Marine Sector