Project description DEENESFRITPL Strengthening seaweed aquaculture in Europe Seaweed cultivation is the fastest growing aquaculture sector in Europe. The red algae Palmaria palmata is a target species of the European seaweed industry due to its high protein content (between 20% and 35%), essential minerals, and appealing flavour. However, current aquaculture still uses randomly collected wild types of Palmaria. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) ASPIRE project will develop fast growing seaweed strains by screening and characterising high yielding and robust Palmaria strains. The project will use advanced sequencing and bioinformatics tools (TASSEL pipeline) to identify the biochemical and genetic markers of high-yielding Palmaria strains. ASPIRE will establish an innovative web-based database (MySQL, VueJS) and perform farm-level trials to validate the productivity of the selected elite seaweed strains. Show the project objective Hide the project objective 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. Fields of science agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheriesnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabasesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyphycologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinssocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity Programme(s) HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme Topic(s) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 Call for proposal HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit Grant Coordinator NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY Net EU contribution € 215 534,40 Address University road H91 Galway Ireland See on map Region Ireland Northern and Western West Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window EU contribution No data Partners (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all MUNGO MURPHY'S SEAWEED CO. LIMITED Ireland Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Aille barna county galway H91X938 Galway See on map Region Ireland Northern and Western West Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding No data
