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H2020Doctoral network2021–2025

EASYTRAIN · Eco-Innovative Aquaculture System Training for European Industrial Doctorates

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2021-03-01 → 2025-02-28
EU contribution
€1,528,149
Participants
6
Scheme
MSCA-ITN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Eco-Innovative Aquaculture System Training for European Industrial Doctorates

EASYTRAIN has addressed one of the major global challenges of our time: the need to produce healthy, high-quality food in a sustainable and resource-efficient manner to meet the demands of a growing population. Aquaponics offers a promising solution, integrating fish and plant production within a closed-loop system where fish waste provides nutrients for plants, and the plants, in turn, purify the water, therefore reducing environmental impact and resource use. The overall objective of EASYTRAIN was to establish a multidisciplinary network that brings together academic excellence and industry know-how to advance research and innovation in aquaponics. The project combined the complementary expertise of two universities and four industry partners — including aquaponic farming, fish feed production, microalgae biotechnology and aquaculture engineering — to jointly train six Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) through a comprehensive industrial doctorate programme. Throughout the project, EASYTRAIN has successfully provided the ESRs with hands-on research experience, industry exposure and multidisciplinary training in aquaponics, supporting both their scientific development and future employability. The project has not only generated significant new knowledge in areas such as nutrient dynamics, system design, fish welfare and sustainable feed development, but it has also translated some of these results into practical applications. Notably, some of the research outputs are already being exploited commercially by project partners, demonstrating the strong societal and economic relevance of EASYTRAIN’s results. EASYTRAIN has thus contributed both to strengthening the European aquaculture and sustainable food production sectors and to building the next generation of skilled professionals capable of addressing future challenges in this field.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Aquaculture is the world fastest growing food production sector, providing over 50% of sea food, while capture fisheries remains static. However, there is increasing concern about its sustainable and profitable development. This challenge requires effective cooperation and communication between the academic and the private sector. The EASYTRAIN project tackles this challenge by developing innovative aquaculture systems based on the most modern techniques in the field of aquaponics using organic aquaculture feed formulas, which substitutes fishmeal by Spirulina and quinoa as filler. EASYTRAIN combines the expertise of two academic and four industrial partners from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Italy, with complementary expertise in the field of plant and fish farming, feed production, aquaculture engineering and micro algae biotechnology. The outcome of EASYTRAIN will be 6 researchers with experimental and transferable skills ready to cope with the future challenges of the prospect aquaculture sector.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA · MurciaCoordinatorSpain
  • ALGA ZYME FACTORY SRL · FERRARAItaly
  • JARDINERIA Y VIVEROS LA NORIA SL · LorquiSpain
  • LANDLNG AQUACULTURE BV · BoxtelNetherlands
  • SPAROS LDA · OLHAOPortugal
  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FERRARA · FerraraItaly

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union