ICBM researchers Dr Mareen Möller and Dr Samuel Nietzer are the winners of the first Wilhelmshaven Innovation Award in category 1 - Startups, Founders and Project Teams. The basis for their success was the expertise gained through their scientific work on the sexual reproduction of stony corals in the laboratory at the ICBM site in Wilhelmshaven. What followed was the idea to breed these often colourful and ecologically highly valuable tropical cnidarians on a large scale as part of a company spin-off. The pair of scientists beat out 18 competing projects to win the prize.

The sexual reproduction of stony corals, which has only been successful a few times in the laboratory worldwide, will - operated on a large scale - contribute to reducing their removal from nature for science and aquaristics and thus further improve knowledge about the tropical reef corals, which are under massive pressure due to climate change and marine pollution, in order to protect them. The importance of coral reefs in the tropical belt of the oceans is roughly comparable to that of tropical rainforests on land.

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