Vigo hosts today and tomorrow the 5th Atlantic Stakeholder Platform Conference, an annual meeting in which dozens of agents interested in the European Atlantic Strategy gather, with the aim of seeking ways of cooperation, exchanging information and identifying financial opportunities and potential partners for their businesses. Approved in 2013 by the European Commission, the Atlantic Action Plan (AAP) is the plan designed to develop the European Atlantic Strategy, which focuses on identifying challenges and opportunities in the Atlantic region and evaluating existing initiatives that can support growth and job creation. After the inauguration held this morning at the Auditorio Mar de Vigo, the conference hosted the presentation of the Atlantic Project Awards, six awards with which the European Commission recognizes, through several categories, the best initiatives aligned with the priorities of the Atlantic Strategy and its action plan in areas such as entrepreneurship and innovation; Atlantic marine and coastal environment; accessibility, connectivity and sustainability and international cooperation.
The University of Vigo has become the main protagonist of the Atlantic Project Awards today, as the Vigo academic institution is the coordinator of one of the awarded projects (EBB) and participates in two others (SpilLess and Mariner), out of a total of six awarded, selected from more than twenty. “The European Marine Biological Resource Centre Biobank, EBB, project is the best example of how the Marine Research Centre of the University of Vigo has taken the search for excellence very seriously, leading a project with 10 leading institutions in marine biology in Europe and four marine business clusters, which seeks to transfer knowledge to productive sectors and administrations and strengthens international collaborations that make us better”, explains Antonio Villanueva, scientific representative of Spain on the EMBRC board and representative of the CIM.
In addition to the award in the Protect, secure and enhance the marine and coastal environment category awarded today to the EBB, it is necessary to add those awarded to the SpilLess and Mariner projects, in which the Geoma and Divulgare groups participate, respectively. SpilLess (First-line response to oil spills based on native microorganism cooperation) is a European project led by the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (Ciimar) of the University of Porto, in collaboration with INESC TEC, of the same University, the Geoma group of the University of Vigo and the companies ACSM, Biotrend and Marli, with the aim of developing services and products with commercial value to respond to incidents at sea caused by oil spills. For its part, the Divulgare group of the University of Vigo has been involved for two years in the Mariner project (Enhancing HNS preparedness through training and exercising), coordinated by Cetmar, which aims to improve the response capacity to chemical spills by developing coordinated training and response plans between different regions of Atlantic Europe, such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal.
Recognition of the first global initiative to coordinate marine biobanks
The EBB is the first global initiative that proposes the practical and long-term transnational coordination of marine biobanks, contributing to a European initiative, the EMBRC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre), becoming a global benchmark for the study of marine biology and ecology. “After achieving funding for the first project led by the University of Vigo in the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme, which was a very important achievement, I believe that this award serves as recognition of the effort we are making in implementing our strategic plan with the vision of turning the CIM into a benchmark in marine research”, notes Villanueva.
In addition to facilitating the biotechnological valorization of marine biological resources and increasing the capacity of the Atlantic area to innovate, the EBB is a pioneer in the implementation of procedures to comply with the new legislation on access to genetic resources, developed with the aim of ensuring that part of the benefits generated by biological exploitation are invested in the protection of biodiversity in the countries of origin of the exploited resources. “The category in which we were awarded the award is fully aligned with its philosophy. Biobanks contribute to the conservation of marine biodiversity by complementing traditional in situ conservation techniques with ex situ methods that are safe and reproducible for the short, medium and long-term storage of biological samples,” notes the CIM representative.
Two years ahead to develop the project
After completing its first year, the EBB will end in 2020. Having laid its foundations and developed the project’s communication and identity channels, in its first year of life the European initiative “was able to create awareness about the regulations on access to genetic resources among marine researchers from the public and private sectors, if we see all the fruits of this work, they will materialize in the coming months”, clarifies Villanueva.
Regarding future actions that the project coordinated by the University of Vigo will undertake, the implementation of a plan to capitalize on the project’s results; the completion and materialization of common standard measures for all biobanks or the selection and development, in collaboration with industry, of practical cases in the use of marine biological resources for commercial or near-market research, which will serve as a basis for developing a guide on what companies that want to access marine genetic resources must do to comply with the legislation.
