According to professor Øystein Lie, more than 10 cases are confirmed as runners-up to the award final, and it could be as many as 20 cases on the list when the sun rises on NASF Marine Innovation Day.
"To have this many examples of excellent marine innovation present in the open at the conference, is great. The cases reflects the enthusiasm among entrepreneurs who works for the betterment of the marine sector," said professor Lie.
Pål Myhre is in charge of the case list, and he commented: "There is a huge ocean of cases, but they are mostly under the surface. For many cases it’s not the right moment to have exposure right now. But we have an impressive, representative number of cases to be revealed at the marine innovation day."
Merete Bjørgan Schröder, Awards Chair, manages the case race at the innovation conference, and she will together with a jury decide the winner to be awarded 100,000 Norwegian Kroner and the NASF Marine Innovation Day 2014 Award.
"It’s a challenging task to choose a winner among these very strong innovative cases," said Ms Bjørgan Schröder, Ph.D. and Research Director for Fish Health, Seafood & Human Health at Norwegian Seafood Research Fund.
According to Ms Bjørgan Schröder, the cases will be valued on the following three main criteria.
- Potential value to the industry
- Success potential - probability of successful commercialization
- Innovation level, "outside of the box”
The NASF Marine Innovation Conference, kickstarting the North Atlantic Seafood Forum conference, gathers the marine world’s top scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs as well as the trend setting producers, solutions providers and investors.
The keynote speakers will cover the following main topics under the headline Blue Innovations to Feed the World:
- Next generation aquaculture
- Sustainable exploitation of marine resources
- New blue innovation “climate”
Dilek Ayhan, deputy minister at the Norwegian Ministry of trade, industry and fisheries, will open the one-day conference.
New twist
The Marine Innovation Day this year will have a new twist, with a Round Table debate where speakers and audience will be challenged. In addition, the conference offers support for connecting between interested parties searching for business partner opportunities during the conference day.
The Marine Innovation Day is an important part of the annual North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF), 4 -6 of March 2014.
Last year, Marine Innovation Day was by far the largest single session of NASF. Marine Innovation Day is organized by Marlife in cooperation with following partners and sponsors: The Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF), Fiskeriforum Vest (FFV), Biomarine, Innovation Norway, The Research Council of Norway, AquaGen, EW Group and North Atlantic Seafood Forum.
