B2E – Blue Bioeconomy CoLAB took part in the 3rd Mobilising Agendas for Business Innovation Meeting, organised by IAPMEI at Europarque, in Santa Maria da Feira. The event was the flagship public showcase of the Mobilising Agendas, one of the key pillars of Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), designed to strengthen the country’s scientific and technological capabilities through collaborative projects between industry and the research and innovation ecosystem.

The event brought together initiatives spanning sectors as diverse as space, healthcare, energy, semiconductors and the blue economy. Its scale reflects the ambition of the programme: the 51 contracted Mobilising Agendas involve 1,098 partners and represent more than €5.4 billion in eligible investment.

Within the blue economy, B2E CoLAB is part of the Blue Bioeconomy Pact (PBA), a consortium led by Inovamar with a budget of approximately €133 million. The Pact aims to support the reindustrialisation of Portuguese sectors through marine biotechnology by unlocking the potential of marine biological resources, reducing dependence on land-based resources and integrating marine bioresources into new, carbon-neutral value chains.

The initiative brings together more than 80 organisations across seven strategic areas, including biomaterials, bivalves, marine-based textiles, algae, food, aquafeed and fisheries bioinformatics.

Fish Matter: connecting marine resources with new value chains

Within this ecosystem, B2E CoLAB acts as a bridge between research and industry and is involved in four projects under the Blue Bioeconomy Pact. Its flagship initiative is Fish Matter, an intelligent platform for the valorisation of marine co-products, coordinated by B2E CoLAB.

Built around the concept of “from head to tail”, Fish Matter connects companies that generate marine co-products, such as heads, bones, skin and other underutilised fractions, with businesses, research organisations and innovation partners capable of transforming these resources into high-value products and applications.

More than a matchmaking platform, Fish Matter is being developed as a comprehensive knowledge hub, bringing together information on technologies, expertise, ongoing projects and existing solutions. By making this knowledge accessible, the platform aims to foster collaboration, stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation of new business opportunities.

Its ultimate goal is to ensure that every fish is used to its fullest potential, reducing waste, increasing economic value and supporting a more circular and sustainable blue economy.

Fish Matter was the project showcased by B2E CoLAB at the Blue Bioeconomy Pact exhibition stand, shared with the consortium’s other strategic verticals.

Alongside Fish Matter, B2E CoLAB also contributes to three additional Pact initiatives: Vertical Fish, focused on improving the quality and sustainability of seafood; Vertical Algae, dedicated to strengthening Portugal’s algae production capacity; and Pep4Fish, which advances innovation for sustainable aquaculture.

Together, these projects span a significant part of the seafood value chain, from aquaculture production to consumer products, and from marine co-products to their transformation into new value-added solutions.

B2E CoLAB was represented at the event by Taynara Franco, Innovation and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Officer, and Hugo Barros, Innovation Manager, who presented Fish Matter to visitors and stakeholders while exchanging experiences with teams from other Mobilising Agendas.

The central theme of the event was echoed throughout the day. During the “Lab to Fab” session, dedicated to translating research into industrial applications, one message stood out: innovation only delivers impact when scientific knowledge moves beyond the laboratory and reaches products, businesses and markets.

For B2E CoLAB, this is precisely the mission, to ensure that marine science is transformed into real-world solutions that strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the blue economy.