Project description
Growing microalgal sources of fucoxanthin
Some seaweed is very good for your health. Fucoxanthin, for instance, is a natural substance sourced from brown seaweed. This golden-brown carotenoid pigment can break down white fat in the body, kill cancerous cells, and help fight Type II diabetes. Harvesting fucoxanthin from brown seaweeds is not sustainable as this seasonal crop has an expensive and time-consuming extraction process. The EU-funded AlgaHealth project has isolated, developed and cultivated new and proprietary microalgae strains of Isochrysis species. Novel agro-physiological manipulations helped make them grow faster and produce more fucoxanthin. With its innovative method for growing microalgae inland and novel microalgal strains, AlgaHealth will produce commercial levels of fucoxanthin with premium quality.
Objective
Obesity, diabetes and other metabolic syndromes affect an increasing proportion of the population and pose significant economic burden to healthcare systems. To prevent and treat lifestyle-related diseases, it is not sufficient to use an exclusively pharmacological treatment. Nutrition also plays a critical role. Therefore, researchers began to find safe and effective functional ingredients in food to prevent and treat such diseases. One of these functional ingredients is fucoxanthin - a golden-brown carotenoid found in macro and microalgae.
The common method to harvest fucoxanthin is from macroalgae (brown seaweeds), but it is not an acceptable alternative because it is seasonal, not sustainable and allows to the extraction of very low quantities of fucoxanthin. The only alternative for a more efficient and sustainable production of fucoxanthin are microalgae. However, existing production techniques of microalgae require high investment and large energy input, preventing large scale and sustainable production.
At AlgaHealth we isolated, developed and cultivated new and proprietary microalgae strains of Isochrysis species and novel agro-physiological manipulations to make them grow faster and produce more fucoxanthin. These novel technologies constitute a proven and efficient platform for industrial scale production of high quality fucoxanthin-based oleoresin, at lower energy and environmental-friendly production costs.
AlgaHealth is an Israeli biotech company founded in 2017 and stemming from its co-founders’ 20-year experience in microalgae and carotenoids industries. The proposed work in Phase 1 of the SME instrument fits into our overall plan to reach the market by contributing the financial resources needed to plan a fast sound wider deployment of AlgaHealth products and their market uptake.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
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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.
Misgav
Israel
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.