Over the past two decades, Portugal has generated 69 blue bioeconomy patent families with international protection.
Adobe Stock
A new study by B2E CoLAB has found that most Portuguese marine technology patents fail to progress beyond the gap between laboratory research and market adoption.
The study, titled A Retrospective for Decisions – Blue Bioeconomy Portuguese Patent Signals 2004–2024, is the first systematic assessment of Portugal's inventive activity in the blue bioeconomy sector.
According to the report, Portugal has generated 69 blue bioeconomy patent families with international protection, including in the United States and China, over the past two decades.
However, 94% of these technologies have never progressed beyond laboratory validation, while only 6% have reached the demonstration stage in operational environments.
Moreover, the report highlights that around 13% of patent families remain at the proof-of-concept stage, while 81% are stalled at intermediate Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), having been successfully tested in laboratory conditions but not yet demonstrated in operational environments.
"Over the past twenty years, Portugal has demonstrated genuine and steadily growing scientific capability in the blue bioeconomy," said Marta Santos, Technology Transfer Manager at B2E CoLAB and co-author of the study. "This is not a shortage of ideas, but a structural challenge."
Among the main causes behind this phenomenon, B2E CoLAB identifies the lack of shared infrastructure for pilot projects and demonstrations, lengthy licensing and regulatory compliance processes, and funding instruments that are not well adapted to technology scale-up activities.
On the other hand, Portugal appears to be in a favourable policy context to address this situation, as the country's Blue Bioeconomy Pact has received funding through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), alongside the National Ocean Strategy 2021–2030.
The study analysed 1,985 patent applications identified through international databases (PATENTSCOPE/WIPO and The Lens), of which 239 were considered relevant and consolidated into 69 Portuguese-priority patent families covering the period 2004–2024.
According to the European Commission's EU Blue Economy Report 2025, living marine resources generated €37.9 billion in gross value added (GVA) and €209.4 billion in turnover in 2022, while the blue biotechnology sector generated €327 million in GVA and €942 million in turnover.
