IDREEM

Title: Increasing Industrial Resource Efficiency in European Mariculture

Summary: The proposal IDREEM will create smarter greener growth for one of Europe's most important industrial sectors: the aquaculture industry. It will achieve this through taking waste streams that are at present lost to the environment (as pollution) and converting them into secondary raw materials for the production of high value organisms such as seaweed and shellfish.

To do this IDREEM will develop, demonstrate and benchmark (against existing production techniques) innovative production technology for the European aquaculture industry. Aquaculture is now a major component of global food security and is the fast growing food production sector globally. However the European industry is stagnating. The industry is facing real questions of economic and environmental sustainability. IDREEM will address these questions by working with a range of SME aquaculture producers across Europe to develop deploy and quantitatively assess the new production technology.

Using an integrated approach defining the environmental, economic and social impact of the new production technology, life cycle assessment and life cycle costing will be used to quantify and demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits. Along with this process a combined environmental and economic modelling platform will be used to provide an evidence based decision making framework for aquaculture producers, regulators and policy makers.

Throughout the project a dedicated impact coordinator will ensure that the project is fully engaged with the wide range of stakeholders, inviting their participation from the beginning and throughout the project (specifically in the form of a project advisory committee) and ensuring that results are fed back into that community. This will ensure that there is a rapid uptake of the new production technology across the European sector, creating opportunity and support for a range of new SME producers, processors and up the value chain.

For more information, please visit EurOcean Knowledge Gate.