At the center of Oslo's marine innovation gravity is the network MarLife, lead by professor Øystein Lie. The senior marine entrepreneur and bio scientist is spending days and nights working for a new world order when it comes to science based business.
It has not always been easy for scientists to play with business entrepreneurs. Professor Lie, himself, an entrepreneur and founder of GenoMar, is taking on new academic challenges as dean at the VetBio Faculty, NMBUfrom January 2014.
– Making the world able to feed it's rapidly growing population, we have to find new cost efficient and sustainable solutions for food production. Biotechnology’s enabling power is one aspect, systemic approaches to find and sustainably exploit new sources and provide more food output from aquaculture and the fantastic riches of the different trophic levels of the sea is another, making science and business cooperate more trustfully is a third and very important aspect, says professor Øystein Lie. Starting in his new dean job, he will still continue to manage MarLife at the strategic level and building networks of cooperation in the biomarine field worldwide. He is soon closing a two year project, the BioVerdi report on Norwegian bioeconomy as the countrys new, important platform for economic development. Involving 50 parties, from the academic captains to leaders in the four big sectors industry, marine, health and agriculture, the report establishes a common, national platform for biotech innovation and entrepreneurship.
– We are really speaking about Norway's new oil, says prof. Lie, managing the report's secretariat together with Marius Øgaard, head of networks and competence at Oslotech.
The global challenges will for the years to come be a playground for Øystein Lie and his allies, now building a new global network connecting regional and national biomarine clusters. Read about BICA, the Biomarine International Clusters Association on the next page.
Not least; the preparation for the annual biomarine innovation summit in Bergen, Biomarine Innovation Day, is fighting for space in Øystein Lie's over-tight schedule. He did not find more hours than 24 per day. Or did he?
Making marine hot spots
