AQUASERV – RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES FOR SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE, FISHERIES AND THE BLUE ECONOMY

Project Information

AQUASERV

Grant agreement ID: 101131121

DOI

10.3030/101131121

EC signature date 24 October 2023

Start date 1 April 2024

End date 31 March 2029

Funded under

• Research infrastructures

Total cost

€ 14 157 482,77

EU contribution

€ 14 157 482,52

Coordinated by

CENTRO DE CIENCIAS DO MAR DO ALGARVE
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AQUASERV (AQUASERV – RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES FOR SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE, FISHERIES AND THE BLUE ECONOMY)

Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main goals of AQUASERV are to unify, improve, integrate, and customize Research Infrastructure (RI) capabilities, providing on-site, remote, and virtual access to facilities, instruments, databases, and expertise. This initiative aims to advance science and support European policies, including the Common Fisheries Policy, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Sustainable Blue Economy, and the European Green Deal. AQUASERV will promote system-based changes essential to the EU's objectives for improving policy outcomes and socioeconomic performance, as outlined in these policies. These modifications target food systems, environmental management, extraction, and manufacturing processes, unlocking the blue bioeconomy's potential to enable a fair and equitable socioeconomic transition toward sustainable, green production systems. The success of Europe's shift to blue food and production systems must align with the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters 2030," which aims to protect and restore ocean and water health through research, innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments. Ultimately, Europe's economy should be modern, resource-efficient, and competitive, phasing out net greenhouse gas emissions and safeguarding the EU's natural capital. Research infrastructures (RIs) are vital to Europe's research, education, and innovation ecosystem. They play a key role in mobilising critical mass around shared European strategies and goals. RIs have created common platforms, gathered resources and expertise, raised awareness, and provided trans-European access to promote a fair and inclusive blue economy sustainably. They also address increasing interdisciplinarity, scale, and complexity of challenges linked to European policy priorities. AQUASERV has united specialized RIs, experienced in delivering services in aquatic and social sciences. It offers a broad range of advanced, interdisciplinary, integrated, and tailored services—including habitats, bioresources, facilities, instruments, and expertise—to support the implementation of European policies.
These ambitious goals will be achieved through the following objectives:
1. To offer unique, relevant, and cutting-edge integrated and customised services that facilitate interconnected actions connecting society, farms, food, and economic activity.
2. To provide centralised and efficient transnational access via a user-friendly central hub to the service catalogue and data discovery services offered by the contributing RIs, enabling users to browse and search for suitable services.
3. To decrease the time needed to reach destination goals through joint research and training. Building on previous successes in access provision, AQUASERV will further integrate, customise, or combine services and adapt access modalities to support interdisciplinary research aligned with EU priorities.
4. To promote and implement measures to safeguard and ensure compliance with Open Science policies, complementing and synergising with other relevant EU initiatives.
5. To ensure the sustainability of the AQUASERV network and its internationalisation.
6. To develop an ambitious outreach and engagement programme that attracts new and existing users, collaborates with industry and policy stakeholders, and raises awareness of research and innovation to advance the Blue Economy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

AQUASERV comprises 40 partners, including affiliated entities, of which 36 offer transnational (TA) or virtual access (VA). AQUASERV chose the ARIA platform to manage TA applications. The platform was customised to AQUASERV's submission requirements, and the service catalogue was uploaded. ARIA became operational within six months, enabling the first call to launch on 15th November 2024 as planned.
A Staff Mobility Programme for staff involved in service delivery was launched on 12th November 2025 and received 9 applications, of which 1 was selected.
An internal call to integrate, customise, or combine existing services to ensure data availability and interoperability was launched on 31st March 2025, but no proposals have been received to date.
The AQUASERV Training Catalogue was developed using available courses, and a questionnaire was distributed to identify training gaps within the partnership, which was analyzed later. Two internal calls for Training Courses were initiated to support new training activities. One course has been approved for funding from the first call, and the second is under evaluation.
Training on data FAIRification is provided via the Ocean Training platform. A Data Management workshop was held during the 2025 annual meeting.
By the end of RP1, only ten TA projects have been completed, and user compliance with data deposition has not yet been reported. For each TA project, users must submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) and are encouraged to deposit data in public databases and repositories. A Data Helpdesk was established to assist users in preparing DMPs. Each DMP has been reviewed and, when needed, received tailored recommendations to improve compliance with the project’s Open Science (OS) and Data Management (DM) policies. Additionally, AQUASERV set up community accounts on platforms such as OpenAIRE Argos (including AS-specific DMP templates), Protocols.io and Zenodo to facilitate DMP creation and data sharing.
Ethical issues are identified during project applications and discussed between users and service providers to secure necessary licenses if applicable. When proposals raise potential ethical concerns not fully addressed, the management team seeks advice from the Ethics Advisory Board. The team keeps copies of permits and licenses for facilities. Upon arrival, users are briefed by providers on relevant safety and ethical considerations.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The AQUASERV services catalogue includes 75 TA services offered by 33 partners and 43 web tools and datasets as VA services provided by 3 partners.
Transnational access services are offered through a continuously open call launched in November 2024 and via challenge-driven calls every eight months (the first of which was dedicated to Ecosystem Restoration). During RP1, 102 TA proposals (requests) were submitted, of which 90 were technically feasible to evaluate, and 43 have been approved for funding (with 32 still under review). Ten projects have just been completed.

AQUASERV_VA_JSI_Mar2025

AQUASERV_KickoffMeeting_GroupPhoto_Apr2024

AQUASERV_WebsiteLaunch_Sep2024

AQUASERV_TA_EcologicalRestoration_May2025

AQUASERV_VA_VLIZ_Mar2025

AQUASERV_TACallLaunch_Nov2024

AQUASERV_Podcast_Jan2025

AQUASERV_TrainingCallLaunch_Feb2025

AQUASERV_NewsletterLaunch_Oct2024

AQUASERV_VA_ICES_Mar2025

AQUASERV_CCMAROpenDay_Mar2025

AQUASERV_VA_Mar2025

AQUASERV_AquafututeSpain_May2025