Consortium: BLUE BIOECONOMY CoLAB, CIIMAR, MC SONAE, INESC-TEC, NEADVANCE, UA, UM, IPMA, CIIMAR, FCUP e SEAentia

The World needs a new economic model that generates economic growth by decoupling raw materials from natural resources. With this critical mission in mind, the Blue Bioeconomy Pact embraced the challenge of reindustrializing Portuguese industries through the integration of blue biotech solutions in value chains, leveraging the sustainable use of marine bioresources to increase added value through decarbonizing innovation. This Consortium will bring the Ocean to shelves by investing in 7 sectors – Biomaterials applications (Vertical Biomaterials); new paradigm for Bivalves production (Vertical Bivalves); marine-based Textiles (Vertical Textiles); sustainability in the Food sector (Vertical Food); scale up Algae production (Vertical Algae); circular Feed solutions (Vertical Feed); bioinformatics for the Fishing sector (Vertical Fish) – and 3 transversal initiatives overarching projects aimed at accelerating the development and commercialization of products and services of the sector - the Portuguese Blue Biobanks network, a digital platform for the valorization of marine co-products, and promotion of startups and SMEs’ growth and internationalization.

As part of the Blue Bioeconomy Pact - Vertical Fish - this project is delineated into two primary research lines, that will be developed in parallel: STOParasitas - Operational technological systems for detecting parasites in wild fish - and LowTrophAqua - Modular systems for integrated aquaculture of Low Trophic level marine species with applications in blue biotechnology.

Under STOParasitas, the consortium will concentrate its efforts on the expedite detection and diagnosis of fish parasites, which currently require testing in a laboratory environment, or encompass destructive stages that cannot be applied in daily routine examinations. To develop the appropriate methodology for the market and to respond to the environmental problem, there are key issues that need to be addressed. This is the case of evaluating the number of species involved and the number of occurrences for each of them, but also their cause, using innovative traceability methods, based on the digitalization of detection, not only at their origin but also along the entire value chain. Aware of the importance of this problem, that can impact not only the Fishing sector but also the adjacent industries of the blue bioeconomy, the Consortium will work on the development and testing of new systems and smart tools for the effective detection and identification of these parasites, and monitoring of its dissemination routes – the STOParasitas system.

In LowTrophAqua - the consortium will focus on the development of modular systems for integrated aquaculture of low trophic level marine species with applications in blue biotechnology with the aim of 1) Identify the best extractive accessory species of low trophic level (e.g., sponges, ascidians, polychaetes, and micro-crustaceans) that do not need to be produced in hatcheries and ensure nutrient sequestration in marine fish aquaculture operated in ponds, RAS systems, and cages; 2) Develop autonomous modular systems that allow the production of biomass of extractive accessory species of low trophic level considered most suitable for different types of marine fish aquaculture; 3) Validate the autonomous modular systems developed in a business environment (marine fish farms operated in ponds, RAS systems and cages); 4) Characterise and bioprospect the biomass of low trophic level extractive accessory species produced in the autonomous modular systems in the different types of marine fish farms (ponds, RAS systems and cages).