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Valorization of Marine Invasive Alien Species a Pathway Towards the Protection of European Marine Biodiversity: From Destructive Invaders to a Source of Wealth

Project description

Tackling marine invasive species with circular solutions

Marine ecosystems face a pressing threat from invasive alien species (IAS), disrupting native biodiversity and ecosystems. These species outcompete local fauna, leading to imbalances that ripple through the entire ecosystem. They also pose significant economic burdens on fisheries, aquaculture and related industries. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the VALIAS project aims to harness circular economy principles and valorise underutilised IAS feedstocks, transforming them into valuable products like food, fish feed and cosmetics. By extracting compounds such as collagen, enzymes and functional fatty acids, VALIAS creates a win-win solution for European fisheries and aquaculture companies. With partners across academia and industry from five EU Member States, VALIAS promises innovative solutions for sustainable marine management.

Objective

"VALIAS aims to match the need for managing the marine Invasive Alien Species (IAS) populations with the growing demand for marine derived-products. Under the frame of circular economy, the valorization of unexploited IAS feedstocks can represent a sustainable strategy for the realization of a circular bio-economy, with the production of stable and safe food, fish feed and cosmetic ingredients. Various compounds with high commercial value obtained from fish and other invasive aquatic species byproducts, including collagen, enzymes, bioactive peptides, minerals and functional fatty acids will be valorized in VALIAS. VALIAS proposal can turn the current problem represented by marine IAS into a ""WinWin"" solution both for the European fisheries and for the companies active in the sector of aquaculture, nutrition and cosmetology. Specifically, VALIAS will contribute to the limitation of IAS stocks and of their negative ecological and economic impact on marine life, fisheries, human welfare, and health in European seas. Finally, VALIAS will contribute to the enrichment of the knowledge of the biology of IAS, a key objective of European Directive 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of introduction and spread of alien species. VALIAS will bring together experts from industry and academia specialized in interdisciplinary/inter-sectorial, yet highly complementary, research areas of Marine-Maritime Research, Aquaculture, Feed-Food technology and safety and Cosmetology. As a joint research and innovation project, it will develop a strong partnership involving 8 partners from 5 EU countries (EL, CY, IT, IE and BG) and with different technical backgrounds from the academic and non-academic sectors. The execution of the project and the knowledge sharing will be based on secondments (exchanges) of research and innovation staff with an in-built return mechanism strengthening collaborative research among the different countries and sectors."

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE - HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff Exchanges

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-SE-01

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Coordinator

PRINSUS I.K.E. TECHNOVLASTOS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 248 400,00
Address
IROON POLYTECHNEIOU 9
15 780 ZOGRAFOU, ATHENS
Greece

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (10)

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