Project description
Artificial reefs to revitalise coastal waters
The ocean today produces only 10 % of the world’s food. Restoring large-scale marine food production is a necessary priority to meet the 70 % food gap predicted by 2050. Aquaculture has strong potential in this respect. The EU-funded ORTO project is helping Bulgaria-based company Sea Harmony in developing a game-changing approach: Pisa Reefs, a vertical mussel reef technology, which will be turned into sustainable, efficient, low-carbon, multi-species aquaculture hubs. Pisa Reefs are suspended between the ocean surface and bottom at depths down to 100 m. They are ideal locations for mussels, which rapidly reverse eutrophication, restoring deoxygenated ‘dead zones’ and sequestering carbon as effectively as the same area of forest. This innovation is expected to greatly expand markets and opportunities for Europe.
Objective
Meeting the 70% food gap predicted by 2050 will require new sustainable food production. Aquaculture has strong potential, but fragile marine ecosystems have been significantly damaged by human influence, including through Eutrophication. The resulting ‘dead zones’ reduce the already limited area of coastal waters available for current aquaculture approaches.
Sea Harmony has produced ORTO (Ocean Reef Tower Oases), an integrated aquaculture concept adding automated harvesting and scalable production to the company’s patented “Pisa Reef“ vertical mussel reef technology. Pisa Reefs are ideal locations for mussels, which rapidly reverse Eutrophication, restoring deoxygenated “dead zones”, seeding robust food chains, and sequestering carbon as effectively as the same area of forest.
Suspended between ocean surface and bottom at depths down to 100m, Pisa Reefs avoid problems from sea traffic, weather, surface pollution or bottom contamination with limit other aquacultures. This opens up exploitation of the vast area of the continental shelves. Continental shelf aquaculture has the potential to exponentially scale food production from today’s limited volumes.
ORTO transforms Pisa Reefs into sustainable, efficient, low-carbon, multi-species aquaculture hubs: a game-changing approach that greatly expands markets and opportunities for Europe. Revitalising coastal waters and communities, we anticipate halving EU Mussel imports within 12 years of project start; earning us €256M in direct revenue and creating 272 jobs.
In ORTO Phase 1 (6 months), we will: demonstrate Harvester and Mobile Production Unit prototypes; enhance IP strategy to foster innovation and global exploitation; improve market knowledge with better metrics, competitive analyses, and pricing; secure up to 5 commercial trials for phase 2 ecosystem production replication (at minimum viable size); perform detailed planning and secure co-financing for phase 2; and refine our analysis of opportunities and risks.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture sustainable agriculture
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- social sciences sociology governance crisis management
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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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.
9000 VARNA
Bulgaria
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
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.