Co-creating Science Commercialization Opportunities for Blue Biotechnologies: The FucoSan Project

Abstract

<jats:p>We report the experience of the FucoSan InterReg project that had the ambition to generate commercialization opportunities for biotechnology research in a marine environment. Fucoidan, a promising biomarine polysaccharide extracted from seaweed, offers a broad array of potential applications; however, the supporting innovation value chain is still under development. We explore how the use of business modelling tools can contribute to building a shared understanding of commercialization opportunities across a diverse range of research and development actors. We analyze data (interviews, workshops, and surveys) from a German-Danish network of actors involved in the FucoSan InterReg project to identify how the tools contribute to setting up a base to support future activities across a potential innovation value chain. The results point towards the direct and indirect positive effects of engaging in the co-creation of a shared understanding of the functionality and possibilities of promising biomarine products. The findings support the idea that interdisciplinary and multilateral interactions help actors to identify the necessary connections and interdependencies to build a sustainability-driven innovation value chain.</jats:p>

Academic artists’ engagement and commercialisation

“…It has been suggested that star scientists benefit from complementary resources that are not available to ordinary researchers. These include a citation premium from interorganisational authorship (Zucker & Darby, 1996) and greater involvement in knowledge transfer activities (Giones et al, 2020;Olmos-Peñuela et al, 2014). There is evidence showing that higher scientific impact is associated to long-term university-industry relationships (Garcia et al, 2020) and that for established researchers (senior, male, with more resources and larger stocks of publications) 'science and commerce go hand in hand' (Haeussler & Colyvas, 2011: 50).…”

Bioeconomy Innovation Networks in Urban Regions: The Case of Stuttgart

“…Bioeconomy research and development networks in Germany [19] as well as German biotechnology clusters have been assessed with regard to knowledge flows and spillovers at the firm and/or public organization level [20][21][22][23] as well as at the regional level [24,25]. Other studies analysed the German wood-based bioeconomy network [26] and German-Danish marine biotechnology value chains [27]. In the context of urban areas, bioeconomy has been discussed with regard to an "urban bioeconomy metabolism" [28], green innovation areas [29], urban green infrastructure [30] and urban agriculture [30,31] as well as the circular economy, waste management, and environmental value creation [32][33][34].…”