Aquaculture infrastructures for excellence in European fish research 3.0 (AQUAEXCEL3.0) (39837)

Aquaculture now provides over half of seafood for human consumption worldwide. The sector continues to grow annually to meet global demand, and is the fastest growing animal production sector. However, within the EU, aquaculture production is still lagging, with a high dependency on imported fish remaining. Shifting consumer preferences, growing welfare concerns, new standards, and climate change are also affecting the industry. The sector’s sustainable growth can only be achieved through efficient and responsible production of high-value fish products.

AQUAEXCEL3.0 aims to further boost the EU aquaculture sector by supporting external research teams collaborating with high-quality facilities, providing free training courses on the latest topics and ensuring research is aligned with industry needs. Fish as the main target of this project, but shellfish and macroalgae research is also included, to push towards lower trophic level aquaculture.

DTU Aqua will lead JRA1-3, where real-time microbiome tools will be implemented to assess bacterial biodiversity in experimental fish facilities. In JRA2 we will contribute to 2.3 on cell cultures. We will offer access to one high security facility for fish and crustacean and one facility for shellfish and provide on-line courses.

Partners
National Institute of Aquatic Resources, DTU Aqua
Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, France (coordinator)
Havforskningsinstituttet, Norway
University of Stirling, UK
Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece
Nemzeti Agrárkutatási és Innovációs Központ, Hungary
Institut Francais de Recherche pour L’Exploitation de la Mer, France
NOFIMA AS, Norway
University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Norway
SINTEF OCEAN AS, Norway
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Wageningen University, Netherlands
Stichting Wageningen Research, Netherlands
ERINN Innovation Limited, Ireland
Université de Lorraine, France
European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform, Belgium
Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve, Portugal
Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Spain
Universita Degli Studi Di Torino, Italy
INRAE Transfert, France

Funding
The project is funded by EU Horizon 2020.   

Research area: Fish and Shellfish Diseases
Research area: Coastal Ecology