Dorinde Kleinegris

Decades of unsustainable overfishing practices are depleting aquatic ecosystems at a time when nearly one-fifth of all animal protein consumed by humans comes from seafood, reason why aquaculture has gained tract over wild fisheries. To ensure the future viability of the sector and to unlock its potential to provide food with a lower carbon footprint, it is imperative to improve current technologies and management strategies. This is especially relevant for the EU sector, where 70% of consumed seafood is imported and the production is concentrated both in terms of countries and farmed species. The European Green Deal has recognised aquaculture and algae as promising solutions to achieving the goals of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy. It acknowledges the potential of algae to become an important source of alternative low-carbon footprint protein and contribute to improving the sustainability and competitiveness of the aquaculture sector. Nonetheless, the European algae industry is still in an early phase lagging behind the overall increase seen at a global level, mostly driven by Asia. Within this context, the EU project INNOAQUA aims to pave the path towards the upcoming sustainable and diversified EU land-based aquaculture industry by demonstrating and mainstreaming innovative algae-based foods and solutions, using ecology, circularity, and digitalization approaches. INNOAQUA addresses main barriers hindering growth of the sector, starting with demonstration at a pre-commercial level (TRL6-7) of the operational, technical, and socio-economic robustness of digitally enhanced integrated fish and algae RAS-IMTA cultivation systems. This is continued by the piloting of optimised processing techniques following biorefinery principles and the formulation of high added value seafood products, based on microalgae, macroalgae and fish processing side streams. A dedicated waste minimisation and valorisation strategy throughout the full value chain will help optimizing and increasing the economic and sustainability performance. Moreover, INNOAQUA will also work on understanding how consumer perceptions and social norms influence the consumption of innovative seafood products by co-creating the products together with end-users and simulating their uptake in digital models of communities to identify effective market deployment and penetration strategies. Lastly, a multi-level outreach strategy, comprising amongst others materials for skills development and activities to foster international cooperation, aims at fostering knowledge transfer and ultimately helping maximize the project’s scope and impact. The INNOAQUA consortium consists of a multidisciplinary and powerful combination of research organisations and universities, associations and companies (nice small and medium enterprises, and two large industries) from eight countries with complementary knowledge and skills required for the successful implementation of the project objectives. NOREC Norwegian Research Centre (NO) is the coordinator of the consortium, which further consists of Viking Aqua (NO), Marineholmen RASlab (NO), Algemy Ingredients (ES), A4F AlgaFuel (PT), Safiestela - Sustainable Aquafarming Investments (PT), INESC TEC - Instituto De Engenharia de Sistemas E Computadores, Tecnologia E Ciencia (PT), INNOVATIONENT Teamcoast Association (ES), Renovatio (FR), PESCANOVA España (ES), Viva Maris (DE), Sustainable Acquaculture (ES), PEDAL Consulting (SK), European Aquaculture Society (BE), Eco Imagination (FR), PERSEUS (BE), and Universidade Federal Do Rio De Janeiro (BR). Total project eligible costs are 7.3 million euros, almost 6 million of this is funded by the European Union.