The first summit of the Blue Economy Business and Science Forum is currently taking place in Hamburg. The Summit’s purpose is to address the challenges of Blue Growth by bringing together business, science, finance and policy representatives to exchange knowledge and experience, discuss opportunities and barriers for innovation in the blue economy and celebrate scientific and industrial achievements. An anticipated outcome of the Summit is the provision of recommendations to the European Commission on how to benefit from already existing research, innovation and technology achievements to speed-up commercialization of marine technologies; how to bring science and business communities closer; how to encourage cross-sectoral collaboration; and what regulatory and financial measures the European Commission should take to boost investments in the Blue Economy. Speaking today in the closing plenary session, Executive Secretary of the EMB, Niall McDonough, outlined actions that would increase collaboration between science and industrial sectors. These included: updating the metrics of success for publicly-funded scientists so that they extend beyond publication records to include other measures of success such as knowledge transfer, IP generation and participation in policy advice; improving marine graduate training in order to maximize opportunities to develop the Blue Economy; and improving mechanisms for data sharing between science, public institutions and the private sector. The Summit agenda is available online.