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Innovative health technologies: Ocean as a secret weapon of research!
The BlueHealthTech research alliance in Kiel receives 15 million euros in funding to develop innovative health technologies from the sea.
Innovative health technologies: Ocean as a secret weapon of research!
The BlueHealthTech research alliance will be funded with a total of 15 million euros by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) until the end of 2028 geomar.de reported. This funding, which includes an amount of 6.75 million euros for the second funding phase, follows a positive interim assessment in June 2025. Prof. Dr. Anton Eisenhauer, the alliance coordinator and professor of marine environmental geochemistry at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, leads this initiative, which brings together over 70 partners.
BlueHealthTech's main goal is to develop processes, products and business models that use the ocean as a resource for innovative health technologies. Since December 2021, more than 20 research and development projects have already been initiated. Participants submitted more than 60 ideas in four project calls. Current projects such as MorphoMarin and IsoOx demonstrate the alliance's interdisciplinary approach by combining marine biotechnology and pharmaceutical research.
Strategic approaches and innovation potential
The BlueHealthTech alliance takes a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of chronic diseases. This also includes the use of sensitive trace analysis from marine research in healthcare to overcome the challenges of chronic diseases. Strategic forecasting methods, including scenario analysis, identify healthcare market needs. In addition, development technology roadmaps are created to identify future fields of innovation in the Kiel region.
A crucial element of the second funding phase is technology transfer and the development of new products and services in the areas of diagnostics, therapy and prevention. This is also supported by the support program “WE! – Change through innovation in the region”, which supports structurally weak regions in creating new economic perspectives.
Sustainability and economic diversification
The marine bioeconomy, which researches biological resources in the sea and develops new exploitation techniques, plays a central role in this context. The seas and oceans, which cover 72 percent of the Earth's surface, are home to a wide variety of creatures whose potential benefits to humans are enormous. Deutschland.de highlights that maritime technologies can offer a promising basis for sustainable developments.
Examples of innovative projects include research into obtaining new protein sources from the sea, such as the “Food for the Future” (F4F) project, which is investigating new approaches to food production. In addition, the collaboration between GEOMAR and the Estonian company Furcella OÜ shows that products such as face creams based on marine resources have already been successfully developed.
Overall, BlueHealthTech promotes the diversification of the regional economy and creates new jobs in the areas of biomedical research, digital diagnostics and preventative healthcare. The innovative power that comes from merging marine and health sciences is a promising path forward.