ASPIRE · Accelerated Seaweed Production for Innovative and Robust seaweed aquaculture in Europe
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-10-01 → 2024-09-30
- EU contribution
- €215,534
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Accelerated Seaweed Production for Innovative and Robust seaweed aquaculture in Europe
The ASPIRE project was developed in response to the growing need for sustainable aquaculture practices and the untapped potential of seaweed farming as a solution to environmental and economic challenges. As global demands for sustainable protein sources and climate-smart farming practices increase, seaweed cultivation offers a promising pathway to address nutrient pollution, improve coastal water quality, and contribute to carbon sequestration. However, limitations in knowledge about optimal strains, cultivation techniques, and scalable practices have hindered its full potential. The project aimed to bridge these gaps by focusing on the red seaweed Palmaria palmata, a high-value species with significant potential for use in food, feed, and bioproducts. ASPIRE sought to identify and cultivate elite Palmaria strains, develop innovative tools and methodologies for their sustainable farming, and establish a comprehensive database (PalMap) to guide future research and industry efforts. By combining novel seaweed phenotypin, biochemical and genetic profiling with real-world aquaculture trials, the project set out to support the growth of a robust seaweed industry. ASPIRE’s objectives are aligned with broader political and strategic goals, including the European Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which prioritize environmental sustainability, food security, and economic development. By enhancing the scalability and sustainability of seaweed farming, the project contributes to tackling global challenges while empowering coastal communities and promoting rural development. The outcomes of ASPIRE have the potential to significantly impact both local economies and global efforts toward a greener future.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The ASPIRE project will develop fast growing seaweed strains to strengthen Europe’s potential to thrive in an emerging seaweed aquaculture industry. Seaweed cultivation is the fastest growing aquaculture sector and provides huge potential for market growth in Europe. The red algae Palmaria palmata is one of the target species of a growing European seaweed industry due to its high content of protein (20–35%), essential minerals and its appealing flavour. Recently, there has been significant advancements in the aquaculture procedures for Palmaria, but these approaches are still mainly built on the utilisation of randomly collected wild-types of Palmaria. A targeted strain selection has therefore huge potential to increase the prospects of Palmaria aquaculture in Europe. The objective of the ASPIRE project is to screen and characterise high- yielding and robust Palmaria strains. This will be implemented utilising high-throughput phenotyping technologies using performance screening (growth, morphology characteristics and photosynthetic parameters) and metabolomic analysis (primary/secondary metabolites using GC-MS, spectrophotometer, NMR etc.). These results in conjunction with next generation sequencing (Illumina seq.) and bioinformatics tools (TASSEL pipeline) will be utilised to identify both biochemical and genetic markers of high-yielding Palmaria strains. To ensure that the results have a high impact and find their way to the commercial end-user, the project will establish a novel and easy-to-use web-based database (MySQL, VueJS) specifically designed for use by the aquaculture stakeholders. The ASPIRE project will conduct farm-level trials to validate the advantages of growing the selected elite seaweed strains in terms of productivity and overall biomass quality. The multi-disciplinary project will set the bases for an urgently needed modern seaweed breeding programme to further develop the emerging European seaweed aquaculture sector.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101066815
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e511491b7d&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5f9e533e3&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union