BlueBio CofundKick-off Meeting ReportDate and time: 29th January 2018, 09:00 - 17:00 CETMeeting venue: Research Council of Norway

Drammensveien 288, 0283 Oslo, Norway

List of Annexes:

Annex I Agenda Annex II Participant List

Summary of main conclusions The deadline for pre-proposals should be moved from Sunday 17 March to Monday 18

March to ensure the call secretariat can support applicants on the day of the deadline. The oversubscription of 3 times on projects proceeding to the 2nd phase of evaluation will be

based on the "maximum national call contribution". An updated Consortium Agreement will be shared with the consortium. Partners are invited to submit potential persons for the role of Independent Ethics Advisor.

Welcome, aim of the meeting, current state, tour de tableFridtjof Unander welcomed the participants to the kick-off meeting of BlueBio. As the RCN Project Legal Signatory, Fridtjof has followed the project as it has developed. He stressed the importance of building a strong and sustainable, knowledge-based Bioeconomy for Norway and the Research Council; recognising the importance of international cooperation to reach that goal. Fridtjof encouraged the partners to take the opportunity to plan for the months ahead and to support the co-funded call. But also, to think further about the additional activities which will add value to the funded projects and will develop the Blue Bioeconomy sector and community.

European Commission UpdateNikos Zampoukas participated in the meeting from the European Commission (DG RTD) and will be the Policy Officer for the BlueBio Cofund, acting as a link with other parts of the EC. Nikos provided an update on several EU process including:

An update to the Bioeconomy Strategy which identifies the potential of the Blue Bioeconomy in several actions. It specifically highlights mariculture and the need to achieve zero waste in aquatic food systems.

SCAR-Fish has also identified several priority areas. On the topic of "Valorisation of Underutilised Material from fisheries and aquaculture", SCAR-Fish recommends new research and also coordination of research. The SCAR-Fish group also conducted a gap analysis study on fish welfare which produced a prioritised list of research needs. The group has also made recommendations of the needs of fresh water aquaculture.

Food2030 is a systemic approach to connect, scale-up and boost EU Food R&I in EU Food Systems and address Food and Nutrition Security.

H2020- several projects have been funded relating to the Blue Bioeconomy including mesoplegic biota exploration, cutting-edge breeding and feeding in aquaculture, and collaboration with South Atlantic Countries on aquaculture.

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Nikos informed about Horizon Europe, indicating that the Blue Bioeconomy will be addressed under the Cluster on Food and Natural Resources. There will be a new approach to partnerships in order to rationalise the European R&I partnerships landscape. Partnerships will only be supported if they are more effectively achieving policy objectives than Horizon Europe.

Nikos also encouraged BlueBio to build on the legacy of the ERA-Nets Cofasp and MBT and to ensure that their projects are not abandoned. Kristin informed Nikos that one of the activities was to continue to develop the project database from Cofasp.

BlueBio basic principles and the value chain approachKirstin Thorud introduced the basic principles of the Cofund. BlueBio will address bioresources along the whole value chain. The scope of the call text is broad to allow projects across the whole value chain and this also follows up on the interest of the funding partners in BlueBio.

Dennis Lisbjerg provided an overview of the bioeconomy and, within that, the Blue Bioeconomy. The Blue Bioeconomy covers all uses of bioresources, including food but also cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and recreation. Circularity is a core concept in the Blue Bioeconomy. As we develop the concept of the Blue Bioeconomy, we shouldn’t be talking about Value Chains, but Value Nets. Many agree that there should be a food first principle, whereby food is the preferred use of biomass followed by other uses in a cascade. The value chain approach requires a system thinking, if this is not done we risk losing out on circularity and sustainability. Dennis presented an infographic which gives an overview of the entire Blue Bioeconomy that could be used by BlueBio as tool to explain what the wider Blue Bioeconomy is.

Call implementationJella Kandziora presented the activity of Work Package 2 and the implementation of the co-funded call. The call was launched in December 2018 and the submission platform is online since then. The timeline for implementing the call was presented and it was suggested that the deadline for pre-proposals should be moved from Sunday 17 March to Monday 18 March to ensure the call secretariat can support applicants on the day of the deadline. This proposal was accepted, and this new deadline will be publicised. The selection date for the projects was moved from December to early November (date tbc).

Preparation for the Brokerage EventHanna Lee Behrens provided an update on the Brokerage Event for BlueBio, which take place on 30 January 2019. 77 people have registered for the event and many have scheduled meetings to discuss potential collaborations. As part of the event, Kristin will present BlueBio and Jella will present the general rules for applicants and how to use the participants portal.

H2020 Grant Agreement, Legal and Financial IssuesKristin gave an update on the the Grant Agreement. RCN has now received the 1st pre-financing and will make the payments to the partners as outlined in the Consortium Agreement.

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WP1 will ask the partners to provide information for the reporting (as required in the Grant Agreement, Article 18 and 20).

Kristin also informed that there is currently an amendment being developed as requested by the European Commission.

Consortium AgreementThe Consortium Agreement (CA) has been updated. There are some minor changes, clarifications and changes in content and was circulated in advance of the meeting. Kristin went though the most significant changes. An outstanding question remained regarding oversubscription. It was suggested that the oversubscription of 3 times should be based on the "maximum national call contribution" and not the "initial national call contribution". This proposal was agreed.

A number of other clarifications were proposed and accepted including:

Vivian Vilich asked that the comment in section 7.4.5 regarding the transfer of travel from BMBF to Pt Jülich should also apply for BMEL and BLE.

Gisela Nascimento informed that the person named in the CA representing FRCT has hanged.

The light evaluation of the pre-proposals was discussed. Some partners need to have an evaluation of the projects in the first phase as a way of determining which projects can proceed to the second step (and therefore comply with the oversubscription criteria). WP3 is developing the criteria for the light evaluation and will propose a procedure.

It was clarified that countries can increase their national budget for the call and that it is not necessary to amend the Consortium Agreement do to this. The consortium was reminded that partners can fund projects after the EU top up has been spent.

The issue of knowledge transfer was discussed, one of the major barriers is language and while there is no provision at the level of BlueBio to provide a translation service it could be possible that some partners could translate some specific outcomes (e.g. policy briefs). It was suggested that there could be a session on knowledge transfer at the project kick-off meeting.

WP Overviews and Work Plan by WP Leader WP1: Coordination and ManagementKristin informed about the task related to stakeholder engagement in WP1. A Stakeholder Engagement Plan will be developed, working closely with WP5 and the development of a Communication Plan. The Stakeholder Engagement Plan will identify the main stakeholders of BlueBio and categorise them into groups of "inform", "consult", and "collaborate". This exercise will also be used to identify potential members of the Advisory Board, which will be formed once the plan is produced.

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WP4: Follow-up and monitoring of projects resulting from the co-funded callAbraham Trujillo presented the activities of Work Package 4. The main task to focus on in the short term is the development of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Once these have been developed they will be communicated to the project coordinators.

WP4 is also tasked with organising the mid-term and final seminars. It was noted that there are a lot of workshops planned in BlueBio and not much budget to support them. As such we should aim to hold workshops back-to-back with planned events (such as e.g. the mid-term seminar).

WP5: Communication, Exploitation and Dissemination of the resultsLýður Skúli Erlendsson presented Work Package 5. The website is now online, and the logo was decided last year. Several social media profiles have been created and will be used to promote the co-funded call. Lýður also presented an animated infographic which is planned to be published in the days after the meeting. This infographic could be amended after the call to promote the Blue Bioeconomy in general. Matis will look into possibility of translating the infographic into several languages but this was not included in the initial proposal.

WP6: Additional callsFiona Grant presented Work Package 6. The first additional call is scheduled for month 18. The additional call could take into account the gaps in funding from the first co-funded call, but they could also identify new topics and novel partnerships, especially to target higher TRLs. Several opportunities for partnership were presented including the Biobased Industries Joint Undertaking, the Circular Bioeconomy Thematic Investment Platform, and the UN Green Finance Network. The European Foundation Network also organises thematic calls and could be something to explore.

It was proposed that a working group could be set up to start planning for the additional calls and could involve the value chain supervisors.

WP7: Related activitiesGianna Fabi presented Work Package 7 and its tasks. There was discussion about the first task which is to update the COFASP database with projects funded in the period 2013-2022 including projects dealing with marine biotechnologies and analysis to identify possible gaps and needs for future research. This will require input from all funding agencies taking part in BlueBio. There was a discussion on what level of detail should be included in this database. While more information is always better, WP7 will define a minimum criteria necessary. An excel file will be distributed to the partners but it should also be possible to merge existing databases. It is important that we try to get a good sample across Europe. As a group of funders, it should be possible to easily send a database of funded projects.

Good dialogue will be needed to ensure that there is coordination between the additional activities that are related or rely on other Work Packages.

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WP8: Ethics requirementKristin presented Work Package 8, which is a mandatory requirement added by the European Commission. A Data Protection Officer has been appointed in JÜLICH to ensure the project is compliant with data protection regulations. WP8 will also need to appoint an Independent Ethics Advisor and RCN is currently looking into the requirements of this role and potential candidates. Partners are invited to submit potential persons who could fulfil this role.

Consortium managementKristin informed about the consortium management. As discussed several times, it is essential that there is a good dialogue between the work packages to ensure that the task in BlueBio are carried out as efficiently as possible.The ambition is to hold most meetings via videoconference to minimise travel costs and to try and group physical meetings.An informal partners meeting will be started and held monthly (by video conference). This will be an opportunity to exchange information on the project and related activities. A doodle for the first of these meetings will be circulated shortly after the meeting.

Next Consortium MeetingsAn overview of the consortium meetings in 2019 were presented (table 2).

Call Steering Committee (selection meetings)

Executive Team

Consortium Advisory Board

28.01.2019 29.01.2019 3 June 3 June 3 June? End

September

November November November November?

AOB (All)Sigurdur Bjornsson presented a series of marine microbiome exploratory workshops that are being planned as part of the AORA project and in collaboration with the MicrobiomeSupport CSA. These activities will address Prospecting, Environment & Climate, and Food value chain. The first workshop on 4/5 March 2019 will focus on identifying common ground. There will also be a workshop on 27 June and a final one in Sept/Oct.

Timo Halonen informed that Finland and EC will organise a bioeconomy event in July 2019 in Helsinki. It will be a 1-day event with one session dedicated to the Blue Bioeconomy. The idea is to showcase some concrete actions.

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Annex I AgendaTime Task

09:00 – 09:30 RegistrationWelcome, aim of the meeting, current state, tour de table (Fridtjof Unander, RCN)

European Commission Update (tbc)

BlueBio basic principles and the value chain approach (Kristin Thorud, RCN)

Call implementation (JÜLICH / UEFISCDI)

Joint co-funded Call» WP2: Preparation and launching the co-funded call (JÜLICH) » WP3: Evaluation and selection of proposals (UEFISCDI)

11:00-11:15 Coffee break

Preparation for the Brokerage Event (Hanna Lee Behrens, RCN)

H2020 Grant Agreement, Legal and Financial Issues (Kristin Thorud, RCN)» Financing issues» Reporting

Consortium Agreement (Kristin Thorud, RCN)» Financial provisions» Updates

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

WP overviews and work plan by WP leader

WP1: Management (RCN)

WP4: Follow-up and monitoring of projects resulting from the co-funded call (AEI)

WP5: Communication, Exploitation and Dissemination of the results (RANNIS)

WP6: Additional calls (MI)

WP7: Related activities (CNR)

WP8: Ethics requirement (RCN)

15:30 – 15:45 Coffee breakConsortium management (Kristin Thorud, RCN)

» Involvement in additional activities» WP-WP collaboration

Next Consortium Meetings (Kristin Thorud, RCN)

AOB (All)

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Annex II Participant List

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