The Mediterranean sea will be the stage for the new initiative in the field of Blue biotechnology. The new European project will involve 8 countries and, for Italy, ENEA will coordinate the project to which 1.5 million euros are earmarked. Over 22 months, “B-Blue” provides for the activation of multi-stakeholder laboratories and a digital platform to progressively involve over 300 organizations including universities, research centers, national and local institutions, and sector companies.
Five research laboratories will be established in the Mediterranean Sea and, in Italy, the Gulf of Manfredonia has been chosen. The other 4 scientific hubs will be located in the Mar Menor in Murcia in Spain, in the Toulon area in France, in the Gulf of Thessaloniki in Greece, and that of Portoroz in Slovenia. In particular, in Manfredonia mollusk shells, sponges and macroalgae will be studied in a circular economy perspective.
Cristian Chiavetta, ENEA researcher of the Laboratory for the Enhancement of Resources in Productive and Territorial Systems, declared “Biotechnologies is a formidable tool for closing production cycles and enhancing waste in products with high added value in numerous contexts. We hope that B-Blue will become a replicable model also in other coastal areas. In this sense, some realities of the Black Sea basin or overlooking the Indian Ocean have already expressed interest in more sustainable exploitation of marine resources, which preserves their natural capital and protects their biodiversity “
As said by the ENEA researcher, therefore, this project could in the future also be used in other coastal areas, and among these those that are showing interest are precisely those overlooking the Indian Ocean. Are they also an object of interest for IORA scientific diplomacy?
(Source: in salute news)