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“Enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of European biotechnological industries”

About Us

BLUEandGREEN will enhance the research and innovation capacity of CIIMAR and will help to raise the research profile of the staff, as well as of the partner institutions, through the implementation of a vast number of joint activities.

Approach

The internationally leading institutions and teams selected for this proposal are complementary and have expertise in the four main scientific areas that correspond to the present understanding of priorities and in which CIIMAR seeks to attain excellence:

Goal

These collaborative efforts will force CIIMAR to step up by raising researchers’ professional standards, enhancing networking in research and technological sector, involving industry which will influence research planning and thus contributing to the economic growth.

Expected Impacts

Enhance S&T capacity and staff’s research.
Competitiveness and sustainability of European biotechnological industries.
Contribution to the Marine Biotechnology European Research Area
Contribution to the implementation of the objectives of the regional, national and EU Blue Growth strategy.
Improvement of the innovation capacity and stakeholders.
Environmental and social impacts.

“Involving industry which will influence research planning and thus contributing to the economic growth.”

The consortium

CIIMAR

Participant 1 / Portugal

CIIMAR is a non-profit research and advanced training institution hosted by the University of Porto. Its mission is to develop exceptional-quality research, promote technological development and support public policies in the area of Marine and Environmental Sciences. CIIMAR is a multidisciplinary institution, organized into 3 Thematic Lines: Global Changes and Ecosystem Services, Aquaculture and Seafood safety and Marine Biotechnology.

University of Helsinki

Participant 2 / Finland

University of Helsinki is the largest university in Finland and concentrates on high-level scientific research and education. The group of Prof. Kaarina Sivonen has carried our pioneering research on cyanobacterial bioactive compounds including studies on their structures, bioactivities as well as biosynthesis. One of the main focuses in recent years has been the genome based analysis of cyanobacteria and their bioactive compounds. The group of Prof. Karina Sivonen has extensive experience on the organization and implementation of intensive post-graduation courses.

University of Bergen

Participant 3 / Norway

University of Bergen is a young and modern university, involved in 109 FP7 projects, 38 of which it coordinates; among them 7 ERC Advanced Grants, 1 ERC Starting Grant and 1 ERC Synergy Grant. To date, UiB has been awarded 18 projects under H2020. The group of Prof. Lars Herfindal has carried out screening for anti-cancer compounds, bioactivity-guided isolation of active compounds, and elucidation of mechanism of action of cyanobacterial compounds. In recent years he has built a laboratory facility for production of therapeutic nanocarriers, a major purpose being to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs and drug candidates.

GEOMAR – Biotech

Participant 4 / Germany

GEOMAR Centre for Marine Biotechnology is one of the leading institutes in marine sciences in Europe. The Kiel Centre for Marine Natural Products directed by Prof. Deniz Tasdemir was established as competence centre for marine natural product research. With its outstanding infrastructure, it serves as an excellent platform for developing small molecules from the marine habitat into drug leads and other functional ingredients. This includes dereplication/secondary metabolite profiling and bioactivity screening of the crude extracts, purification and characterization of their chemical structures and various bioassays to determine the application potential of metabolites. GEOMAR, a

Centre of Helmholtz Association, is one of the leading institutes in the area of technology transfer and market-oriented research.

Funcación MEDINA

Participant 5 / Spain

Fundación MEDINA (MEDINA, Spain) is a non-profit public-private research organization focused on the discovery of novel bioactive compounds from microbial origin. MEDINA has more than 50 years’ inherited experience in natural products (NPs) drug discovery, with expertise in fungal and bacterial microbiology, NPs chemistry (isolation and structural elucidation), and HTS using cutting-edge screening technologies. The research group of Dr Francisca Vicente is skilled in HTS technologies, including the use of high throughput equipment, transfer of assays to robotic stations, assay validation and availability of a broad array of assay technologies normally used at MEDINA for NPs libraries screening. MEDINA is a leading institution in the application of research towards innovation, in special in the natural products area.

“Help to raise the research profile of the staff, as well as of the partner institution.”

Core Team

Vitor Vasconcelos

Partner:
CIIMAR
Position:
Full Professor at Faculty of Sciences University of Porto
President of the Board of CIIMAR

Francisca Vicente

Partner:
Fundacion MEDINA
Position:
Head of the Screening Area at Fundacion MEDINA

Kaarina Sivonen

Partner:
University of Helsinki
Position:
Full professor at the University of Helsinki
Coordinator of The Cyanobacteria Group

Deniz Tasdemir

Partner:
GEOMAR-Biotech
Position:
Full Professor at GEOMAR
Director of GEOMAR-Biotech

Lars Herfindal

Partner:
University of Bergen
Position:
Full professor at the Faculty of Dentistry and Medicine at the University of Bergen

“Help to raise the research profile of the staff, as well as of the partner institution.”

Contact Us

Message us now

Address

Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões
Av. General Norton de Matos s/n
4450-208 Matosinhos
Portugal
Phone: +351 223 401 800

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