Summary
This regional roundtable workshop focused on Blue Economy and Blue Biotechnologies for the Adriatic and Ionian macro region, bringing together participants from Albania, Greece, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia and Spain, along with representatives from research institutions, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, private companies and NGOs.
Jesus Enrique Argente Garcia (University of Murcia, Spain – UMU) presented an overview of the 2B-BLUE project, explaining how it aims to address barriers in blue technology through public-private collaboration, demonstration sites, and knowledge transfer across Mediterranean countries. Massimiliano Pinat from Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology of the National Research Council, Ancona, Italy (CNR-IRBIM) provided a comprehensive presentation on Blue Biotechnology, defining the sector and highlighting its growth potential, particularly in the Mediterranean region where unique biodiversity offers opportunities for pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and environmental solutions. Daniel Bosch (National Institute of Biology, Piran, Slovenia) shared details about pilot projects across different countries, including Albania's IMTA system in the Bay of Vlora, France's valorization efforts, Greece's bioremediation work, Slovenia's microalgae and sea cucumber cultivation, and Italy's regenerative IMTA systems.
Country-specific presentations followed, with Andrea Miccoli (CNR-IRBIM) describing Italy's BioBase project focusing on sustainable marine resource use in the Adriatic Sea, while Katja Klun from Slovenia outlining their multi-faceted demonstration sites, Chrysa Efstratiou (Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Athens, Greece) from Greece presenting their sea cucumber bioremediation pilot, and Rigers Bakiu (Albanian Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Tirane, Albania – ACEPSD) sharing Albania's IMTA implementation results. The workshop concluded with Rigers Bakiu presenting an analysis and recommendations on Blue Economy and Blue Biotechnologies in Albania, highlighting the country's potential in these sectors and its alignment with EU strategies. The expected next steps are represented by sharing the standard operational protocols for sampling and monitoring activities from the Gargano pilot (in Italy) with the meeting organizers, while ACEPSD team and relevant partners and stakeholder will continue developing the online collaboration on drafting the Blue Biotechnologies Roadmap for the Adriatic and Ionian Macro-Region inside the broader concept of the Mediterranean basin, as suggested by Mr. Argente and Mr. Pinat. Meanwhile, all interested project partners and stakeholders can share information on private companies’ application of the new blue biotechnologies, in order to improve mapping and the interactions, as suggested by Chrysa Efstratiou.
