The first actions on marine biotech was taken at the 2nd ScanBalt Forum in Gdansk where a workshop on marine biotechnology took place in May 2003. In November 2003 Norfa (Nordic Academy for Advanced Study) extended funding to ScanBalts new Marine Biotech section.

The marine biotech group boasts ScanBalt presentation with marine biotechnology scientists from each of the countries Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Sweden, representing both public and private interests. Leading the group is Professor Peter Aleström from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in Oslo. 

A two day workshop in Copenhagen consolidated the network and it was decided to submit a second application to Norfa, this time for a Norfa network. The application is for 3-5 years funding of around euro 40.000 annually. The present network will be expanded and all relevant actors will be invited to take part. Proceedings from the workshop with results from a collective SWOT analysis and areas of specific interest are available from Lise Vinkel lv@scanbalt.org

In November, 2004, the participants in the Marine Biotechnology network prepared a ScanBalt position paper, regarding Marine Biotech, to input into the FP7 discussion. Read the paper here.