The Olhão Blue HUB will be dedicated to promoting scientific knowledge of excellence and training in the field of the sea, more specifically in areas such as biotechnology, aquaculture and the food industry, including new technologies and robotics.

As part of the unit's innovation objectives, the aim is to promote the establishment of companies and/or the creation of new ones (including start-ups and spin-offs), in a space for incubating and developing businesses, goods and services.

At the Olhão Blue HUB, whose R&D promoter is S2AQUAcoLAB, we estimate a capacity for incubating and setting up 15 companies and 90 jobs, mainly skilled labour, which will boost the local and regional economy linked to the sea.

The project aims to rebuild and extend a building located in the harbour area of Olhão, which has housed various services of the then IPIMAR since the middle of the 20th century, namely between 1984 and 2002, and later the Aquaculture Station, which was the genesis of the Olhão Pilot Fish Farming Station.

When the organisation moved to the Ria Formosa Natural Park at the beginning of the 21st century, the original building became less active, dedicated to IPMA pathology and nutrition tests in partnership with local companies (Sparos). Recently, an office and laboratory area was refurbished and is currently being used by S2AQUAcoLAB.

The intervention takes advantage of part of the existing structure, reformulating its interior compartmentalisation in accordance with the new objectives, in order to provide this infrastructure with the technical characteristics that will allow it to be used in a new contemporary way, capable of housing rooms for researchers and technicians, areas for living marine organisms, various laboratories and areas reserved for companies, both in terms of their technological development and their specific intellectual property.

With the birth of the Olhão Blue HUB, the aim is to further encourage the creation of areas of interaction between companies, to promote their network with science and knowledge centres, and to share with universities and training centres. A new network will be created, revitalising an area that further links the city and the region to the sea. A new HUB will create and encourage the transfer of knowledge, boosting innovation, blue biotechnology and a new network of synergies.