A New Tool for Faster Construction of Marine Biotechnology Collaborative Networks

The increasing and rapid development in technologies, infrastructures, computationalpower, data availability and information flow has enabled rapid scientific advances.These entail transdisciplinary collaborations that maximize sharing of data andknowledge and, consequently, results, and possible technology transfer. However, inemerging scientific fields it is sometimes difficult to provide all necessary expertise withinexisting collaborative circles. This is especially true for marine biotechnology that directlyaddresses global societal challenges. This article describes the creation of a platformdedicated to facilitating the formation of short or mid-term collaborative networksin marine biotechnology. This online platform (https://www.ocean4biotech.eu/map/)enables experts (researchers and members of the marine biotechnology communityin general) to have the possibility to showcase their expertise with the aim of beingintegrated into new collaborations/consortia on the one hand, or to use it as a searchtool to complement the expertise in planned/running collaborations, on the other. Theplatform was created within the Ocean4Biotech (European transdisciplinary networkingplatform for marine biotechnology) Action, funded under the framework of the EuropeanCooperation in Science and Technology (COST). To build the platform, an inquirywas developed to identify experts in marine biotechnology and its adjunct fields, todefine their expertise, to highlight their infrastructures and facilities and to pinpointthe main bottlenecks in this field. The inquiry was open to all experts in the broadfield of marine biotechnology, including non-members of the consortium. The inquiry(https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/single/UKVsBNtD) remains open for insertion of additionalexpertise and the resulting interactive map can be used as a display and search tool forestablishing new collaborations.