Fisheries College to establish marine biotech innovation center

Mangaluru: Within a few months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement about giving topmost importance to developing India’s blue economy, the Fisheries College in Mangaluru has taken a step toward the goal by deciding to set up a Marine Biotech Innovation Center.

The college hopes to take up research into the possibilities of producing food and other useful products from marine biological organisms. If everything goes according to plan, the innovation center will be operational within a month’s time.

Research into producing useful products has been lagging in India as compared to foreign countries. Many new and novel uses of marine products are being discovered in medicine and other sectors.

To bridge this gap, the innovation center will be set up with a Rs 6 crore grant from the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) of the state government, which encourages innovation. The center will work to realize the objectives of the National Policy on Blue Economy of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Facilities at the center

The incubation center will be set up in a 4,200 sqft area, that will house a laboratory, training center, and an office. About 100 startups are planned to emerge in 3 years. They will be given subsidies.

The center will support innovations and research into developing value-added products from seaweed and fish products,  producing biofuels, desalination of seawater, producing animal feed from marine products, and so on.

The Dean of the Fisheries College, Dr. Shivakumar Magada said the proposal for setting up the innovation center is in the final stages of approval by the government. Several organizations including the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi will collaborate in the venture. Start-ups that aim to innovate on research into marine biocomposites and new food preparation methods will be encouraged at the center.