Portugal: Blue energy, the solution that comes from the sea

published on 10 March 2022 | reading time approx. 2 minutes

One of the most important entrepreneurship programs (BlueBio Value) linked to the sea economy in Portugal is being carried out and involves 17 startups and two foundations.

The BlueBio Value is a business acceleration and incubation program dedicated to the ma-rine bioeconomy sector and its goal is to create the right conditions to make Portugal a global leader in the marine biotechnology industry. The participants may range from univer-sity students to scientific researchers, who are interested (or working) in the Blue Biotech industry.

The Program aims to support entrepreneurs with commercially viable projects that use ma-rine resources in a sustainable way and help address today's major societal challenges.

BlueBio Value focuses on four challenges:

feeding the growing population in a sustainable way.
climate change and CO2 control.
ageing population and well-being.
resource scarcity and plastics reduction.

All products and services accelerated by Blue Bio Value must safeguard and/or promote the sustainability of the ocean.

Since the start of the BlueBio Value program in 2018, 42 companies of 15 nationalities have already been accelerated. The program has contributed to empowering startups in blue biotechnology and affirm Portugal as a relevant and innovative European Centre in the de-velopment of the most modern marine bioeconomy.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) fore-cast, the global blue economy will grow from $1.5 trillion (€1.3 million) in 2016 to $3 trillion (€2.6 trillion) in 2030 and provide the creation of 200 million jobs.

Did you know that Portugal has the 5th largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) within Eu-rope, 3rd largest of the EU and the 20th largest EEZ in the world, at 1,727,408 km2?