Pedro Bobião, Managing Director of Vide de Grunwald—pictured here during a visit to an inland fish farm on the Paraná River—spoke exclusively with WeAreAquaculture about the Maringá Blue Cluster project.
Photo: Courtesy of Pedro Bobião.
He doesn't dare say it out loud because he is not sure if there are any others he isn't aware of. Still, Pedro Bobião—Managing Director of Vide de Grunwald, the Portuguese company that is developing the project in partnership with the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Development at the State University of Maringá (FADEC)—is almost certain that the Maringá Blue Cluster, in the Paraná state of Brazil, could become the world's first inland blue economy cluster.
Located in the northern part of Paraná, more than 500 km from the coast and about 150 km from the nearest river, Maringá—Bobião says—has the three elements a cluster needs to succeed: resources, capital and knowledge. The territory—the geographic location—matters only insofar as that place provides the conditions for those three factors to come together, and in Maringá, a key element of that synergy is a 'secret' that's right in plain sight: its university.
Designed to demonstrate how an inland territory can become an international reference in the blue economy through science, technology, innovation and the ability to connect knowledge with economic development, the Maringá Blue Cluster aims to transform the scientific excellence of the State University of Maringá (UEM) and the regional innovation ecosystem into new companies, investment and development for the blue economy.
As Vide de Grunwald explains, the goal is not to bring the sea inland but to demonstrate that inland regions can develop the technologies, companies, and knowledge that will transform the blue economy, finally enabling innovation—which is so closely linked to it—to scale up. To that end, its Managing Director, Pedro Bobião, believes that blue economy projects must move beyond what he calls “wishful thinking” to focus on achieving results.
"A major problem we face in the blue economy is that it's being built on wishful thinking. ‘I'd like this to work here. I see a great future here because…’ No. What are the local conditions? Does it have all the stakeholders needed to make a distinctive blue cluster possible?” Those, he tells WeAreAquaculture in an exclusive interview, are the questions that should be asked before starting a project like this.
Therefore, contrary to the traditional view that associates the blue economy exclusively with coastal regions, the Maringá Blue Cluster project is based on a different premise: many of the solutions that will determine the sector's competitiveness in the coming decades will increasingly emerge from centers of scientific and technological excellence, regardless of their proximity to the sea.
Aquaculture, genetics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, software, engineering, automation, industrial processing, water management, traceability, and data analytics—these are the capabilities across the entire value chain of the blue economy that have become strategic, regardless of whether they are located near the coast or not. And it was precisely this combination of capabilities that led to the selection of Maringá, regardless of its location in the interior of Brazil.
For several decades, UEM has established itself as one of Brazil's leading scientific institutions in areas strategic to the blue economy. Its expertise in aquaculture, genetics and animal breeding, water resources, biotechnology, veterinary medicine, animal production, engineering, AI, software, data science, and innovation represents one of the project's greatest scientific assets and one of the main reasons for the creation of the Maringá Blue Cluster.
The scientific capabilities are already in place; the project now aims to create an environment capable of connecting those capabilities with companies, investors, governments, and national and international partners, transforming knowledge into new companies, technologies, investments, value chains, and economic development.
"Universities produce knowledge. Companies understand markets. Investors seek opportunities. Governments promote development. The challenge is to create an environment in which these assets work together. This is the collaborative architecture we want to build in Maringá," says Bobião.
"My view of clusters is that they are like a beehive: many clusters, each one does its part, but the important thing is that there is a capacity for communication and transfer, for practice," the Managing Director of Vide de Grunwald—a company focused on business transformation, investment and the development of innovation ecosystems, with a dedicated focus on the blue economy—continues explaining.
To this "hive" the Maringá Blue Cluster is, the UEM contributes much more than just knowledge. As Pedro Bobião explains to WeAreAquaculture, within the university there's also the technical side, the experiments, and even a seafood processing company. But, in addition, it includes more than twenty junior companies—student-run junior enterprises not necessarily directly related to the blue economy, but that can contribute to the project in other areas, such as finance or legal issues. "It's a perfect storm," he summarizes.
In his opinion, for innovation to be viewed as territorial innovation—beyond people, knowledge, infrastructure, or investments, those involved must fully understand that in a blue cluster, the added value lies in bringing together different stakeholders who do not act solely in their own interest, but rather are part of a collaborative governance structure that creates the conditions for innovation to be scaled up and exported, thereby truly generating added value.
However, the perfect cluster needs even more than that. It needs—as Bobião claims—cities, companies outside the university, governments (not just national ones, but also and above all local and regional ones), associations, and foundations.
This view is shared by Leandro Vanalli, Rector of the State University of Maringá, for whom the initiative represents an opportunity to strengthen the university's role as a driver of economic and social development.
"The Maringá Blue Cluster strengthens UEM's capacity to transform research, outreach and innovation into economic and social impact, bringing the university even closer to companies, municipalities and society," he said. "More than simply participating in a project, the university becomes part of a model designed to transform knowledge into development, technology-based companies and new opportunities for the region."
Professor Ricardo Pereira Ribeiro—one of the world's leading experts in tilapia hatchery genetics—echoed this sentiment, stating that the initiative represents an important step toward aligning the scientific excellence developed by the university with the needs of the market and society.
"UEM has a long-standing track record in areas such as aquaculture, genetics, animal production, water resources, biotechnology, engineering, software and innovation," he stated. "The Maringá Blue Cluster creates a favourable environment in which these capabilities can generate new technologies, companies and solutions with a tangible impact on the economy, expanding the transfer of knowledge to society."
Aerial view of the State University of Maringá (UEM) campus, in the state of Paraná, Brazil.
Photo: Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM).
Indeed, as Professor Pereira pointed out, the Maringá Blue Cluster is not only poised to become (probably) the world's first inland blue economy cluster, but the initiative also aims to serve as a replicable model for other Brazilian and international regions with strong scientific capabilities that seek to transform them into innovation, entrepreneurship, investment, and sustainable economic development. Or, as Pedro Bobião puts it, to take that model "from Maringá and Paraná to the world."
To achieve this, during the first phase—already underway—Vide de Grunwald will be responsible for the strategic architecture and initial launch of the cluster. During these first 90 days, the project is mapping the region's scientific, technological, and business capabilities; engaging companies, cooperatives, investors, municipalities, and national and international partners; identifying business and technology opportunities; building an initial portfolio of strategic projects; and defining the cluster's governance and development model.
During this period, in addition to identifying capabilities and opportunities and mobilizing companies, investors, municipal governments, and national and international partners, the work will also include creating the institutional conditions necessary to expand, in a second phase, the formal participation of the UEM and other research, science, and technology institutions, thereby consolidating a permanent model of collaboration among academia, industry, investors, and the public sector.
Once the second phase is complete, the project will move into its third stage: the development of a startup acceleration program designed to transform identified scientific and technological opportunities into scalable, investment-ready businesses. The program is expected to combine new ventures emerging from the local innovation ecosystem with selected external startups whose technologies can address opportunities identified by the cluster. The goal is for the first cohort to be ready to engage with investors within 12 months of the project's launch.
"If all goes well, by June of next year we'll be talking to investors; we're already in talks with startups to launch a cohort. That's the goal," Vide de Grunwald's Managing Director tells WeAreAquaculture.
As mentioned above, rather than creating yet another cluster, the Maringá Blue Cluster seeks to demonstrate that the future competitiveness of the blue economy will depend less and less on proximity to the sea and increasingly on the ability of regions to integrate science, technology, business, investment, and public policy into a common strategy for value creation.
"The most competitive territories of the future will not necessarily be those with the greatest natural resources. They will be those that are best able to connect science, technology, businesses, investment and public policy to transform knowledge into innovation, prosperity and economic development. That is exactly what we are building in Maringá," Pedro Bobião concludes.
