The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) awarded the title of Collaborative Laboratory to GreenCoLab, an organization that brings together two research units and four companies in the algae biotechnology sector in Portugal. The GreenCoLab will promote the economic growth and innovation of this sector with high potential, focusing on the production on a larger scale and the diversification of commercial products based on algae.

Proposed by CCMAR, the GreenCoLab also includes the National Energy and Geology Laboratory (LNEG) and four Portuguese companies with a long track record in algal biotechnology as partners: Allmicroalgae, Necton, Algaplus and Sparos. Collaborative Laboratories are an initiative of the FCT to create qualified and scientific employment and promote research and innovation activities aimed at creating economic and social value.

The GreenCoLab enables a strategic and integrated approach to the development of new technologies, products and services. Adelino Canário, CCMAR director, believes that "the GreenCoLab will, in the short term, optimize the current industrial production of algae-based compounds for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and animal feed, and ensure that these products respond to market needs. In the long term, we expect GreenCoLab to diversify the range of industrial products that can be extracted from algae to include, for example, biofertilizers to recover soils and products that act on carbon sequestration or wastewater treatment."