Seas and oceans are the greatest resource on the planet and are of fundamental importance for the sustainable development of a strategic asset for a country with 8700 km of coastline and which owns about 15% of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. However, their potential is still largely untapped. To expand the country’s blue economy we need a close collaboration between research and industry capable of identifying smart solutions. In fact, on the one hand, we need to develop tools for the sustainable use of marine resources and, on the other, we can create new employment opportunities. Marine life offers a plethora of new opportunities, in terms of food, nutraceuticals and bioactive molecules, which are of extraordinary importance in the field of pharmacology, biomaterials and bioremediation. The development of new technologies and biotechnologies can unlock this little-explored potential determining positive impacts in different industrial sectors and on the national economy.

The EMBRC-UP project represents a national strategic implementation of the EMBRC ERIC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre) and is planned to enhance the research potential in the area of ​​”Health and Nutrition” in the marine resources sectors. The proposed infrastructures follow the model of a distributed infrastructure and are unique in the Italian context. The equipment, sensors, instrumentation, digitalization and data acquired through this project will allow to boost Italian research in the exploration and sustainable exploitation of marine resources, while strengthening cooperation and exchanges within the Italian Joint Research Unit, thus increasing Italian competitiveness in these sectors of strategic importance also in light of the European partnership Sustainable Blue Economy that Italy is coordinating.