Summary
EMBRIC, European Marine Biological Research Infrastructure Cluster to promote the Blue Bioeconomy, is a large project with the overarching objective of building interconnectivity along three dimensions: science, industry, and regional RDI policies. The expected endpoint is the formation of a perennial cluster of research institutes (RIs), which will foster innovation in marine biotechnologies. To prepare this sustainable cluster, EMBRIC focuses on two specific sectors of marine biotechnology, namely (i) discovery and development of marine natural products, and (ii) marker-assisted selection in aquaculture.
SZN is involved in WP7 and WP10.
The objective of WP7 is to demonstrate that linking complementary expertise in biology, analytical chemistry and genetic engineering can provide the blue biotechnology industry with high-performance strains from across the diversity of microalgae. This will involve:
1) Proof of concept that strains from across microalgal diversity constitute a rich resource of natural products for commercial exploitation.
2) Proof of concept that microalgal strains can be genetically engineered to improve their performance capabilities for commercial exploitation.
3) Proof of concept that selective breeding in microalgae in combination with genotype screening can produce strains with improved performance in commercial applications.
The objective of WP10 is to demonstrate that:
1) The external scientific user community is interested in using EMBRIC, i.e., infrastructure workflows across multiple RI-partners.
2) RIs within EMBRIC do provide integrated, interoperable transnational access.
3) Translational access to EMBRIC combined with interdisciplinary collaboration with in-house researchers can initiate Key Enabling Technologies.
4) Translational access aids external users with the maturation of their ideas for Technology Transfer.
What we do
Within WP7, the SZN will contribute to the identification of bioactive compounds from microalgal strains and to the generation of genetically engineered diatom strains.
Within WP10, the SZN will manage the translational access, coordinating the scientific, technical and logistic access to the different RIs involved.
Partners
27 partners from seven European countries plus one Israeli institution are involved in this project.
Research Area
Marine Biotechnology
Project Lifetime
June 2015 – May 2018
SZN Role
Partner
Principal Investigator
Wiebe Kooistra, WP10 and Steering Committee member for SZN
Mariella Ferrante, WP7
Project Leader
Bernard Kloareg, France
Funding Institution
European Commission, under the H2020-INFRADEV-4 call
Dedicated website
Personnel involved
Mariella Ferrante, Researcher
Wiebe Kooistra, Senior Researcher
Adrianna Ianora, Senior Researcher
Marina Montresor, Senior Researcher
