Marine Biotechnology Ireland reflects our national innovation system. This national programme connects public and private sector institutions as a catalyst for economic growth. A range of policy, development and industry objectives inform research activity. The programme contributes to the development and diffusion of new marine related biotechnologies with commercial objectives in mind.
The high-growth industry sectors of pharmaceuticals, biopharma, medical devices and advanced materials have a strong presence in Ireland. Firms in these sectors have become increasingly research intensive. This trend to generate, capture and exploit research outputs is also visible in Ireland’s globally successful food and food ingredients companies. The source of much of this new knowledge, which underpins the development of new commercial products, can be traced to research scientists in Ireland’s third level institutions and research institutes.
Collaborating research institutions work within a defined process to target marine organisms as a source of new materials for commercial applications in the health, food and industrial products sectors. A broad range of disciplines within the areas of life sciences and marine biological sciences contribute to the collection and screening of organisms and the commercialisation of research outputs to create new bioproducts and processes.
Core research areas that are linked to marine biotechnology include:
In 2007, the Marine Institute set out the National Strategy for Marine Research and Innovation 2007-2013 (‘Sea Change’) and has since then invested in excess of €20 million towards marine biotechnology based research and business opportunities. New research capacity and capabilities in molecular and nanosciences have been sustained also by various other national funding schemes, i.e. from Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, Marine and Food, Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, Health Research Board, Higher Education Authority and others, which can further support scientific investigation in marine biotechnology. These funds have also created commercially-oriented competence centres and industry-led partnerships, to deliver new and improved biotechnology-based products and processes. Since 2007 Irish researchers have drawn nearly €30 million of EU funding for marine science research, 10% of which is directly related to marine biotechnology research.