THE EUREMAP PROJECT
A research partnership to create a pipeline of marine bioprospecting services to enable the discovery of novel bioactive natural products.▼
Advanced research services to discover new marine products
The EUREMAP project aims to create a pipeline of research services in marine bioprospecting to support and enable the discovery of novel bioactive natural products from marine organisms. This pipeline will comprise a wide range of services spanning the biodiscovery process, from isolating specific molecules to testing their applications in clinical trials.
Who will benefit from EUREMAP?
Available to researchers from academia and industry, the EUREMAP service pipeline will boost the rate of marine biodiscovery, strengthening the Blue Economy in Europe and beyond and providing our society with new applications for the health and food production sectors.
Our pipeline includes multiple approaches:
Genomics
Advancing tools for marine gene discovery and product identification.
Green Chemistry
Standardising access to marine extracts and enhancing extraction methods for sustainability.
Marine Natural Compounds
Integrating technology for efficient identification and synthesis of bioactive molecules.
Data Management
Ensuring open science practices and enhancing data availability and compatibility.
How are we creating the first comprehensive set of services in bioprospecting?
Service standardisation across RIs
To encourage research in marine natural products by EU researchers and industry, we will optimise access to the technology platforms available in the different research infrastructures (RIs) and harmonise the outputs in terms of products and quality control.
Collaboration and networking
To ensure that complementary capacities, expertise and resources are guaranteed in the future, EUREMAP promotes close collaboration between researchers, industry and government. This will enable us to respond to the emerging needs of the blue economy sector and create a hub of innovation in marine bioprospecting for the private sector.
New technologies and techniques
Through our collaboration and commitment to FAIR access, all partners will benefit from the latest technological advances in disciplines essential to any natural product discovery pipeline, such as genomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics.
Sustainable bioprospecting strategies
Open access to existing collections of marine bioresources will ensure better re-use of existing data and collections, allowing more targeted search and exploitation of marine resources available in ex-situ collections without requiring new bioprospecting.
Technical information
January 2024 – December 2026
Funded by the European Union | HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01-04-101131663
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
A research partnership to transform marine bioprospecting
The EUREMAP project assembles specialised teams, first-generation equipment and facilities from a consortium of four European research infrastructures: EU-OPENSCREEN, EMBRC, ELIXIR and EMBL. This approach constitutes an innovative and ambitious step towards scientific collaboration between research infrastructures.
Dedicated to advancing fundamental and applied marine biology and ecology research, the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) is a research infrastructure that enables access to services, facilities and technology platforms in over 60 sites across nine European countries. It has been involved in several joint research infrastructure initiatives such as EUREMAP, with over 1,000 users and 630 scientific articles published, many in top journals.
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s flagship laboratory for life sciences. With over 110 independent research groups and service teams covering the spectrum of molecular biology across six sites, EMBL is the leading biomolecular data repository and provides a range of tools, services and training in bioinformatics to the scientific community worldwide.
Bringing together scientists from 24 countries and over 250 research institutes, ELIXIR is a European life sciences infrastructure that enables researchers to access and analyse life science data to improve the value and impact of life science research on public health, the environment and the economy.
Recognised as the most extensive European high-performance screening network, EU-OPENSCREEN is a research infrastructure that dives into chemical biology and early drug discovery. It provides researchers with access to cutting-edge technologies to develop their own early drug discovery projects, supporting all stages of a chemical tool/lead development project, including assay adaptation, high-throughput screening and chemical optimisation of ‘hit’ compounds.
PARTNERS
Bringing together experts from complementary fields
EUREMAP is powered by a robust network of over 10 multidisciplinary institutions from eight different countries, each contributing unique strengths and expertise towards a shared goal: to create a complementary and comprehensive pipeline of research services in marine bioprospecting.
The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) focusses on the importance of the Arctic, climate change and resource exploitation. It offers a range of studies with a focus on polar research, indigenous issues and marine sciences. It is involved in global Arctic discussions and partnerships.
The Fundación MEDINA research organisation is dedicated to the discovery of novel active microbial natural products to be developed as new drugs and high-value biotechnology products. Its multidisciplinary team has expertise in microbiology and biotechnology, bioimaging technologies and more.
With renowned expertise in marine and maritime science, Ghent University (UGent) leads innovative studies within several areas, such as Blue Biotechnology, Building with Nature, Sustainable Seafood, Maritime shipping & logistics and more.
Having recently established its Mediterranean marine lab, Tel Aviv University is the largest Israeli university which will supply libraries of (frozen) marine bacteria and sponges, provide re-culturing marine bacterial isolates of interest and run antimicrobial assays.
Diving into the field of marine bioresources and biotechnologies, the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), a public research institution, is addressing the exploitation of molecules of marine origin for industrial processes, pharmaceutics, nutraceuticals and other fields of interest.
Focussed on the discovery, optimisation and translation of novel anti-infectives, The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, as a founding member of EU-OPENSCREEN, contributes its capabilities such as extraction of an untargeted metabolomics, structure elucidation, bioprofiling and more.
Combining the fields of technology and natural and social sciences, SINTEF is one of Europe’s largest research organisations and has been conducting research and developing projects since 1950. Now it combines an expert multidisciplinary team with employees from over 70 countries.
Recognised as one of the leading ocean science research centres in Portugal and a founding member of EMBRC, Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve (CCMAR) is bringing together experts in marine biology, ecology, oceanography, environmental sciences, biotechnology, fisheries and aquaculture.
As the largest public research organisation in Italy, the National Research Council (CNR) and the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (ICB) are particularly active in bioorganic chemistry and chemical biology, with expertise and infrastructure in chromatography, organic synthesis and more.
With over 100 research units and research platforms, Sorbonne Université (SU), one of the leading universities in France, is dedicated to bioinformatics research by focussing on the metabolic pathways of microorganisms, the characterisation of biomolecules of interest and more.
The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) covers all scientific domains. One of its main objectives is to improve society’s knowledge while ensuring technological development in identifying, characterising and producing target metabolites.
Combined research capacity of the EUREMAP consortium
PROJECT STRUCTURE
Our pillars and work packages
EUREMAP’s workflow consists of nine interlinking thematic pillars organised to link the technical pipeline from genomics, green chemistry, marine natural compounds and data management, while addressing important needs such as engaging with industry, building capacity, ensuring sustainability, establishing partnerships and raising awareness of EUREMAP among different stakeholders.
Pillar 1
Project Management
Pillar 1 coordinates, manages and controls the consortium activities so that they run smoothly and that all partners communicate with each other to achieve all their ambitious goals.
A professor in marine bioprospecting and head of the natural products platform Marbio at UiT, Jeanette Andersen specialises in the discovery of novel bioactive compounds from the marine environment. Her PhD research at the University Hospital of North Norway focussed on inhibiting Herpesviruses with natural proteins/peptides. At Marbio, she has developed an automated assay platform for various screenings, including antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer.
Pillar 1 includes two work packages – WP1 and WP2 – each corresponding to successive reporting periods. Their main goals include a) establishing efficient management procedures for the EUREMAP project; b) ensuring that project deliverables and milestones are met according to the workplan and budget; c) maintaining effective communication within the consortium and with the EU Commission, d) ensuring compliance with ethical requirements; and e) promoting gender equality.
Pillar 2
Genomics
Pillar 2 establishes workflows for tools and services to identify and classify secondary metabolite gene clusters and their products in marine microorganisms through in silico bioprospecting. This involves repurposing and customising bioinformatics tools and pipelines to enable us to identify and characterise gene clusters and metabolic pathways related to compound production.
WP3 is developing a state-of-the-art BGC prediction pipeline for marine bioprospecting applied to prokaryotic and eukaryotic marine data. Using EUREMAP results, WP3 will then build libraries of enzymes and co-factors associated with a particular class of BGC, which will subsequently be used to generate libraries of chemical analogues.
WP3 Leader – Rob Finn, EMBL-EBI
A world leading expert in the field of microbiome informatics, Rob Finn brings on board a wealth of experience in leading major synergistic European initiatives, such as coordinating the HORIZON-funded BlueRemediomics project.
WP4 is developing a new service for microbial biomass production, providing biomass for the extraction needed in the early stages of the development pipeline, including activity screening and structural analysis of bioactive molecules.
WP4 Leader – Marcelino Suzuki, SU
With a 30-year career dedicated to studying environmental microorganisms with molecular and genomic approaches and their technological use, Marcelino Suzuki is a Professor at Sorbonne Université, where he heads a group of 50 people working on microbial diversity and biotech.
Pillar 3
Green Chemistry
Pillar 3 is developing services to provide chemical extracts on a small and large scale, with an emphasis on using greener technology to extract and purify compounds by replacing organic solvents with more sustainable alternatives.
A professor in Marine Biotechnology at UiT, Espen Hansen works at Marbio, a platform for marine natural products drug discovery. His research focusses on analytical chemistry, employing various chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques to isolate and characterise bioactive secondary metabolites from marine animals, plants and microorganisms.
WP5 is connecting and standardising services for optimal access to marine extract libraries, metabolomics and a broad range of bioassays.
WP6 is working towards demonstrating and validating services linked to extraction, metabolomics and bioassays across the different RIs. It will also identify and implement new and improved extraction technologies to facilitate a shift towards greener and more sustainable methods.
WP7 is supporting demonstration case-studies in bioassay-guided isolation and providing bioprofiling, safety and toxicity studies of marine natural products.
Pillar 4
Marine Natural Compounds
Pillar 4 is developing and providing services to allow for higher throughput and more comprehensive support in customised chemistry of marine natural products by integrating different services and expertise of the participating RIs.
An expert in natural products research and drug discovery, Olga Genilloud has more than 30 years of research experience in natural products drug discovery in the academic and clinical environments, as well as in the pharma sector. She is the Scientific Director of MEDINA, where she manages the research programs and international collaborations with academic and industrial partners to identify novel drugs and high-value biotechnological products.
WP8 is establishing and integrating technology platform services and analytical/computational tools to support efficient identification and characterisation of novel bioactive molecules from diverse marine sources, and ensure their isolation, structural elucidation, sustainable production and novel synthesis for the preparation of analogues.
WP9 is developing demonstration activities in collaboration with other RIs to validate the application of the services proposed by the chemistry technology platform and ensure the purification and structural elucidation of novel marine natural products from bioactive marine sources.
WP10 will implement a second demonstration case study to achieve the total and semisynthesis of natural products, prepare labeled and fluorescent derivatives, implement bioconversion/biocatalytic approaches and perform in silico studies to generate improved analogues.
Pillar 5
Data Management and Tools
Pillar 5 evaluates existing practices surrounding Data Management and ensures the implementation of Open Science practices and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles with respect to all technical and nontechnical project outputs.
Pillar 6
Industry Engagement and Pipeline Valorisation
Pillar 6 facilitates industry engagement with the project and research infrastructures to promote the use of the EUREMAP biodiscovery pipeline services by industrial end-users.
Olga Genilloud, MEDINA | Short Bio: An expert in natural products research and drug discovery, Olga Genilloud has more than 30 years of research experience in natural products drug discovery in the academic and clinical environments, as well as in the pharma sector. She is the Scientific Director of MEDINA, where she manages the research programs and international collaborations with academic and industrial partners to identify novel drugs and high-value biotechnological products.
WP13 is identifying current gaps in the pipeline for industrial end users and co-develop solutions to address them, defining common rules to establish the route for using the pipeline assets and their valorisation.
WP14 is working towards offering services requested by industry end users to create added value across diverse applications, ensuring compliance of biological resources with current legislation concerning Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and facilitating access to CBD/Nagoya Protocol information on marine assets.
Pillar 7
Training & Capacity Building
Pillar 7 is providing training and capacity building for researchers at all career stages, from academia and industry, within and outside of the consortium in all aspects of marine bioprospecting.
Tanja Miletic, EU-OPENSCREEN
Short Bio:
With a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Trieste, in Italy, Tanja Miletic is a scientific project manager at EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC, where she coordinates and manages EU grants and user access projects.
WP15 is identifying training gaps and developing a suitable training plan for RIs staff and their external users, in view of offering an extensive state-of-the-art portfolio supporting early stage and established researchers in marine natural product discovery. It will also design and organize webinars and workshops in best practices for metabolomics, green chemistry, bioprofiling and synthesis, amongst other research techniques. Finally, it will develop guidelines and launch an open call for a job shadowing programme and staff exchanges.
WP16 will organize several training and capacity-building activities, including a training school for early career scientists in marine bioprospecting, thematic webinars and satellite workshops at scientific conferences in marine bioprospecting, and a call for staff exchanges and job shadowing between consortium members strengthening the existing collaboration and knowledge sharing between RIs and with international experts and industry.
Pillar 8
Long-term sustainability and international partnerships
Pillar 8 will ensure that the integrated bioprospecting pipeline is sustainably integrated into the 3 parent RIs (EU-OS, EMBRC, ELIXIR, EMBL) on a long-term basis, so that the pipeline and services remain readily accessible beyond EUREMAP.
Bahne Stechmann, EU-OPENSCREEN
Short Bio:
With a PhD in cell biology and an MBA in the management of research infrastructures, Bahne Stechmann combines his passion for science with helping scientists implement their research projects. Bahne is the Deputy Director at EU-OPENSCREEN, where he coordinates the activities of this multinational RI initiative in Chemical Biology and early Drug Discovery.
The work packages included in Pillar 8 will define harmonized access rules, related workflows, and implementation procedures for the new services along the established cross-RI marine bioprospecting pipeline, so that the services and capabilities can be readily accessed by external users. It will also build a global community in marine bioprospecting, by organizing regular, inclusive virtual thematic workshops, webinars, and in-person site visits by a delegation of EUREMAP partners to strengthen global partnerships. Main tasks include:
• conducting a landscape analysis of initiatives in marine bioprospecting as a basis for the integration and interconnectedness of EUREMAP with relevant national and international initiatives;
• initiating the engagement with international peers and relevant industries in the Blue Bioeconomy;
• engaging with relevant national and international initiatives based on a landscape analysis;
• reinforcing efforts to build a global community in marine bioprospecting.
Pillar 9
Outreach and Dissemination
Pillar 9 will enhance the visibility of the EUREMAP project and the marine bioprospecting pipeline of services it will develop among user groups and stakeholders, including the scientific community, industry, decision-makers, and society.
Rita Costa Abecasis, CCMAR
Short Bio:
Driven by her passion to increase ocean literacy and bridge the gap between science and society, Rita Costa Abecasis (PhD) is an expert in Science Communication, with a background in Marine Biology.
WP19 is raising awareness of the project and creating the EUREMAP communication channels and tools. For this, it will establish a cross-RI communications working group, develop a Communication and Dissemination Plan, and create a communication toolkit to use during the project and afterwards.
WP20 will focus on increasing the visibility of the EUREMAP pipeline of marine bioprospecting services to end users, decision-makers and society. For this, it will enable a user-friendly digital access to the EUREMAP marine bioprospecting service portfolio and actively attract new users to use it. It will also put efforts into raising awareness about the potential of marine bioprospecting for societal challenges and innovation and foster societal support for RIs as tools to address societal challenges and promote innovation.
OUR TEAM
Rita Costa Abecasis
CCMAR
EMBRC
Pillar 9 Leader
Donatella de Pascale
SZN
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16
Uit
EU-OPENSCREEN
Project Coordinator
Pillar 1, 3 Leader
Robert D. Finn
EMBL
Work Package 3 Leader
Arne-Endre Karlsen
UiT
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 1, 2, 21
TAU
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 15
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 1, 2, 19,20
Tanja Miletic
EU-OPENSCREEN
Pillar 7 Leader
Work Packages 1,2
EU-OPENSCREEN
Pillar 8 Leader, Work Package 2
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 11, 12
HZI
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
Raimo Franke
HZI
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
HZI
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
MEDINA
EU-OPENSCREEN
Pillars 4, 6 Leader
MEDINA
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 18
UGhent
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 13, 14
UGhent
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 13, 14
CCMAR
Elixir, EMBRC
Work Packages 3, 11, 12
Sorbonne Université
EMBRC
Work Package 4 Leader
CNRS
EMBRC
Project member
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 6, 8, 9
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 6, 8, 9
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 7, 13, 14
CCMAR
EMBRC
Work Packages 19,20
Stephane Bach
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 8, 9
Louise Villac
Sorbonne Université
EMBRC
WP4
Espen Hansen
Uit
EU-OPENSCREEN
Work Package 21 Leader,
Work Packages 15,16
Blandine Baratte
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 8, 9
Thomas Robert
CNRS
EMBRC
Work Packages 5, 6, 8, 9
CCMAR
EMBRC
Work Packages 6,7,8,9,10,14
WHERE WE ARE