At a time when Portugal is seeking to consolidate its position in an increasingly green, digital, and resilient economy, the blue bioeconomy emerges as a strategic lever for sustainable economic growth.

This new paradigm of economic development, focused on marine biological resources, science, and technology, is a driver for cross-sector collaboration and innovation.

It is through the articulation between sectors of economic activity, sometimes seemingly disconnected from each other, that opportunities will arise that can prove to be real competitive advantages. We are talking about sectors such as aquaculture, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, construction, fashion, energy, tourism, and even design. These crossovers are already beginning to happen in national and European initiatives promoting innovation based on co-products and solutions with low environmental impact. Let’s look at some examples:

• Marine bioactive compounds extracted from algae, with applications in the cosmetics industry or in food supplements, due to their antioxidant properties;
• Seaweed cultivated for environmental purposes can be used as alternative biopolymers to plastic;
• Bivalve shells can have applications as varied as integration into mortars and cements for civil construction;

However, these new value chains are highly dependent on cooperation between various players, such as producers, researchers, processors, etc. Their integration can effectively produce concrete results: new products, new markets, and greater economic returns.

In this convergence ecosystem, Collaborative Laboratories (CoLABs) play a key role as facilitators of market-oriented cross-sector innovation. The case of B2E CoLAB (Collaborative Laboratory for the Blue Bioeconomy) is particularly relevant: it operates in sustainable aquaculture, marine biotechnology, and the valorization of living marine resources, acting as a bridge between the scientific system and the business community, and contributing to accelerating technological solutions and business models based on circularity and the valorization of co-products—in partnership with national and international entities. B2E CoLAB has integrated projects that reinforce this positioning – examples include:

• RoadMap4MarineCoproducts:

This project, funded by the EEA Grants Bilateral Relations Fund and led by B2E CoLAB, aimed to identify the challenges and opportunities that exist in Portugal in the sector of marine by-product valorization. Through strategic partnerships with partners such as the Norwegian Seafood Innovation Cluster (NCE Seafood Innovation) and the Iceland Ocean Cluster (IOC), it was possible to understand the potential of this valorization and draw up a RoadMap, applied to the Portuguese context, with recommendations for new business models, new value chains, and new technologies and processes.

• Fish Matter Platform:

Part of the Mobilizing Agenda of the Blue Bioeconomy Pact (PBA) of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the Fish Matter platform aims to foster connections between those who generate marine co-products and those who can use this raw material to develop new products and new value chains. In addition to this potential match, the Fish Matter platform will have a knowledge database available where information and literature on technologies and projects that enable the creation of new value chains and new companies will be made available.

The blue bioeconomy is not just an environmental commitment — it is a smart economic strategy. Its growth depends directly on the creation of dynamic cross-sector ecosystems capable of generating economic value through collaboration between agents with different but complementary skills.

The future of the blue bioeconomy does not belong to those who exploit the ocean the most, but to those who best understand it as a platform for convergence and the creation of shared value.