How do we build a competitive, sustainable and responsible European macro algae industry?

To be able to build a competitive, sustainable and responsible European macro algae industry, we are organising a workshop to foresight innovation pathways in macro algae. R&D, innovation and market creation and to use this foresight to:

• Identify opportunities and challenges, bottlenecks

• Characterise the variety of socio-economic impacts

• Build a clearer vision of the future macro algae industry and routes towards it

Location: Station Biologique Roscoff, Brittany, FranceTiming: 09h00 6th September – 10h00 7th September 2018Project: APPRISE: Anticipating Potential Pathways and Routes for Innovation towards desirable Socio-Economic impacts (focus on macro algae)Sponsor: EUROMARINE

Why do we need to think ahead?

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the mariculture of seaweeds and their use to provide fresh edible seaweeds in Western countries, as well as to secure the provision of biomass with specific qualities to boost the growing biotechnology sector in Europe. Several pilot scale cultivation sites and a few small commercial farms throughout European waters have proven the technical feasibility of this approach.

However, the costs of algal biomass production is more than 10 times higher than simply collecting wild materials. Economically viable seaweed farms in Europe are still scarce with total surface not exceeding 100-150 ha. These depend on niche markets in Europe (cosmetics, food) to survive economically. Recently, two commercial operations in Portugal (ALGA+) and France (Innovalg) have also demonstrated the economic sustainability of land-based tank cultivation of seaweeds for niche markets and bioremediation purposes.

The small amount of algal cultivation in Europe at present reflects the major bottleneck which is to develop markets able to absorb European seaweed production costs.

PARTICIPANTS

The workshop will bring together stakeholders from all parts of the macro algae innovation ecosystem (researchers, algae producers and harvesters, processing firms, user firms, industry associations, regulators, investors and policy representatives) to provide the right mix of expertise to develop a robust analysis of the challenges ahead.

PROCESS

All participants will be provided a baseline analysis of the macro algae innovation ecosystem, which will be fleshed out together. We will then interrogate these ecosystems by defining product development directions and the challenges, opportunities and bottlenecks along those development pathways. We will then together analyse the diversity of socio-economic impacts that these pathways will trigger.

OUTCOMES AND ADVANTAGES OF PARTICIPATING

Participants will come face to face with other stakeholders in the Macro Algae innovation system, making new connections and reinforcing previous connections. It is an opportunity to share thoughts, opinions and expert judgements on the future challenges of the field and collectively attempt to manage them.

A concrete outcome of the project will be a report detailing the future innovation pathways, the map of the ecosystem and details of the challenges and opportunities ahead. In addition, the report will better articulate the potential (and demonstrated) socio-economic impacts of macro algae innovation.

INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING?If you are interested in participating to this activity, please send an email to Douglas Robinson (contact@douglas-robinson.com) expressing your interest to participate including why you want to attend and what you would bring to the workshop in terms of expertise and experience (a couple of sentences are enough).

The project will be able to cover some of the participants hotel and transport costs, and thus if you would like the project to cover your travel and accommodation, please make this clear in your email.

Dr. Douglas Robinson. Research Scientist at CNRS, Douglas’ expertise lies in foresight and impact assessment, particular in new fields of science and technology where becoming familiar with the details of the technology field is essential for robust sociological analyses. UMR-LISIS, Marne, France. Website: www.douglas-robinson.com

Dr. Philippe Potin. Local host, leading scientist and project coordinator of a number of national and international initiatives around macro algae value chains. CNRS, SB-Roscoff, France.

Dr. Pierre Colas. Pierre is an INSERM researcher at the Station Biologique of Roscoff. He is engaged in various activities to help promote blue biotech development in western Brittany: heading the Blue Valley project and contribution to the creation of the Campus Mondial de la Mer sitting on the board of the Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantiqu.

Isabel Sousa Pinto Professor at the University of Porto and head of the Coastal biodiversity laboratory from Ciimar and participant/leading national and international initiatives around macroalgae production and use and ecosystem services assessment

Dr. Ronan Sulpice. Head of laboratory / lecturer at National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. He has expertise in genetics, metabolism and growth phenotyping of photosynthetic organisms. Collaborator on GenialG, a H2020 funded project on the cultivation and valorisation of macroalgae.

Gudmund Skjåk-Bræk. Professor in Biochemistry at NTNU -Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Leader for The Norwegian biopolymer laboratory – NOBIPOL. He has for more than 40 years been devoted to basic and applied research on alginate and alginate modifying enzymes and other marine polysaccharides. He has been leading several EU (FP6/7) and large national projects on marine biopolymers and biomaterials and is currently the leader of the MARPOL.

Berit L. Strand. Professor in Biomaterials at NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology and part of The Norwegian biopolymer laboratory – NOBIPOL. She has extensive experience in alginate structure-function relationships, biomaterials and biomedical applications. Strand runs both basic and applied multidisciplinary projects and in close collaboration with end users.

Finn L. Aachmann. Professor in Biopolymer NMR at NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology and part of The Norwegian biopolymer laboratory – NOBIPOL. He has expertise in characterisation of carbohydrate modifying proteins and carbohydrates. Aachmann are leader/involved in both several national and ERA-NET projects focused around marine biomasses from brown algae and crustacean.

Dr. Philip Kerrison. Senior postdoc at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) with expertise in seaweed cultivation and ensilage. Philip is engaged in a number of large UK and EU consortiums on large scale seaweed cultivation as a source of biofuel and/or chemical extracts.

Dr. Adam Hughes. With global food security becoming more dependent on food farmed in the sea, producing that food sustainably is becoming increasingly important. Addressing this challenge, Adam is a researcher and senior lecturer in sustainable aquaculture focusing on the development of economically and environmentally sustainable production systems for marine animals and plants. Adam is a marine ecologist with over 20 years’ experience working in marine resource management and aquaculture.

Dr. Susan L. Holdt is an associate professor at the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Food). She is chair of the interdisciplinary Seaweed Network in Denmark, Secretary of the Danish Seaweed Organisation of companies, and general secretary of the International Seaweed Association. She is also involved in the EU CEN-algae looking into standardising this marine resource.

ORGANISATION TEAM https://www.euromarinenetwork.eu/activities/APPRISE