The initiative “MIcSeaOnMed - Technical cooperation for the Valorization of Fish by-products up to the Health and Well-being sectors”, co-funded by the EEA grants Portugal through the Fund for Bilateral Relations, had the coordination of the 3B's Research Group from University of Minho and participation of Icelandic institutions of the academia and industrial sector.
This initiative, starting on October 2021 and ending in June 2022, allowed to share experiences between the two countries, on the valorization of marine biological resources and fish by-products and associated development of industrial applications, with emphasis on biomedicine.
Under this collaboration and after a successful mission to Iceland, the 3B´s Research Group organized the workshop “Blue Biotechnology: from the academy to the entrepreneur sector”, held in Guimarães in the 24th of May 2022, with more than 100 people attending, receiving researchers and students mostly from North of Spain, Portugal and Iceland. The workshop counted with speakers from Iceland, who shared their work on the valorization of Icelandic marine biological resources and fish by-products through research and development of applications for industry, in particular cosmetics, nutraceuticals and biomedicine. It also counted with speakers from Portugal and Spain who shared their experience on the use of local fish by-products from fishing activity to develop biomaterials for the regeneration of human tissues and other biomedical applications.
This collaboration will continue with the production of a review paper focusing on the use of fish collagen and derivatives for skin care and regeneration, being another step to explore synergies and work possibilities between both countries in the valorization of fish by-products and marine biological resources.