© Derek Keats
© Derek Keats

41 proposals for ERA-MarineBiotech call

The FP7-funded ERA-MarineBiotech (ERA-MBT) has announced the submission results of its second call for proposals.

‘Biodiscovery – Bioactive molecules from the marine environment’ was launched in December 2015 and received 41 applications requesting a total funding of €45m. Its main applicants are higher education institutions and non-university public research organisations, which account for 60% and 25% of the requested funding respectively.

The remainder of the requested money is being sought by commercial companies (10%) and non-profit organisations (5%).

The call’s main purpose is to explore bioactive molecules in organisms from the oceans, including those from fishery and aquaculture activity, or in materials resulting from the processing of marine organisms. The aim is to further explore the potential and to provide compounds that offer chemical diversity and bioactive potency of value in meeting the needs of society.

The call is an initiative of 14 funding organisations from 11 countries. Teams from Norway, Germany, Portugal and Ireland are the most prominently represented in the proposals. Iceland, Italy and Sweden are also well represented, while British Columbia (Canada), which joined the call from outside the ERA-MBT consortium, submitted two proposals.

The winning projects will be announced by the ERA-MBT consortium by the end of September and are expected to start in early 2017.

ERA-MBT aims to support Europe’s marine biotechnology community in adding value to marine biological resources in ways that nurture and sustain the lives of European citizens through the better co-ordination of relevant national and regional research, technology, development and innovation programmes in Europe. In doing so, it hopes to provide a significant contribution to addressing some of the major societal challenges facing us today.