The FOODIMAR project involves six partners from six different countries:
Partner: SUBMARINER Network for Blue Growth EEIG
Country: Germany
Website: https://submariner-network.eu
Description: The SUBMARINER Network is a unique platform that brings actors from the whole Baltic Sea Region together to actively promote innovative and sustainable uses of marine resources. It operates across the whole knowledge triangle – research, education, and innovation – integrating perspectives from a local to an international scale, different scientific disciplines as well as policy and economic stakeholders.
Role in the project: SUBMARINER is responsible for the coordination of the project and leading the communication, exploitation, and dissemination activities. SUBMARINER will also work on gathering good practices examples of seafood side-stream valorization initiatives to foster collaboration and knowledge transfer. SUBMARINER will also develop policy recommendations for identifying and reducing market-entry barriers and the scale-up of seafood side-streams-derived products.
Partner: Chalmers University of Technology
Country: Sweden
Description: Chalmers University of Technology, located in Gothenburg, Sweden, is a renowned institution specializing in education and research in technology, natural sciences, architecture, maritime studies, and other management-related fields. It is recognized for its innovative approach, close collaboration with industry, and contribution to sustainable development.
Role in the project: Chalmers leads WP2 in charge of the sustainable extraction processes aiming to improve the process and resource efficiency while reducing environmental risks, ultimately contributing to a lower carbon footprint.
Partner: SINTEF Ocean AS
Country: Norway
Website: https://www.sintef.no/en/sintef-research-areas/biomarine_resources/
Description: SINTEF Ocean conducts research and innovation related to ocean space for national and international industries. Our ambition is to continue Norway’s leading position in marine technology and biomarine research. Many of the challenges of modern society can be solved through sustainable use of the ocean. Transport, food and energy production represent the backbone of ocean-based industries and are also core areas for SINTEF Ocean. In addition, we focus on environmental technology, with one of the world’s leading professional environments in marine environmental technology. Through cooperation in the SINTEF group, we are also able to integrate our own expertise with expert technological knowledge from other industry sectors.
Role in the project: SINTEF leads WP1 ‘Sourcing of raw material characterization’, where it will map the value chains of selected raw materials, they also lead one of the project pilots working with Norwegian whitefish fisheries. In addition to their role in WP1, SINTEF will support WP2 conducting a preliminary characterization of all pilot’s raw material and test conventional extraction methods to compare the effectiveness of the tested innovative methods.
Description: Established in 2018 supported by TÜBİTAK 1512 BİGG, Tetis Biotechnology aims to produce different bioactive compounds using green production technologies, supporting the sustainable use of our marine resources considering academic research. In addition, it develops various prototype products for the food, cosmetic, and biomedical fields. Since its establishment, it has been conducting research for both the Turkish and European markets with the support of public institution grants and the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT Food).
Tetis Biotechnology aims to utilize economically non-important species in fisheries and the by-products of marine products produced through aquaculture for the benefit of society in a sustainable manner, both directly and indirectly affecting ecosystem health.
Role in the project: TETIS leads the commercialization efforts under WP4 ‘Market Assessment & Commercialization,’ where the company will craft a comprehensive go-to-market strategy and estimate the potential demand for FOODIMAR ingredients. Additionally, TETIS leads one of the project pilots, collaborating closely with the Turkish seabream aquaculture industry and fishers to manage jellyfish by-catch. TETIS is also involved in piloting products containing FOODIMAR ingredients and validating them with the industry and relevant stakeholders.
Description: The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) was founded in 1966. With its main campus in Odense, the university is present in six different cities with five faculties: Humanities, Science, Business & Social Science, Health Science, and Engineering. The university employs around 5,000 staff members and has over 21,000 students.
The research group involved in FOODIMAR is part the SDU FOODLAB at the Department of Green Technology. SDU FOODLAB explores food materials from fundamental science to product innovation under the paradigm that fundamental understandings of food and curiosity will accelerate food innovation.
Role in the project: SDU leads WP3 ‘Functionality Testing and Product Development’, where they will carry out a functional characterization of the selected FOODIMAR to understand how these behave in different food products (i.e. as foams, emulsifiers) and to identify the best ways to use them. SDU will also pilot products containing FOODIMAR ingredients and validating them with the industry and relevant stakeholders. In addition, SDU leads one of the project pilots, collaborating closely with Danish fishers and jellyfish by-catch.
Description: Ghent University (UGENT) is a top 100 university and one of the major universities in Belgium, founded in 1817. UGENT has 11 faculties that offer a variety of courses and conduct in-depth research within a wide range of scientific domains. The university employs approximately 9,000 staff members, 12% of whom are international, and educates over 45,000 students, 13% of whom are international, through 50 bachelor’s programs and 157 master’s programs. UGENT is highly involved in research and technology transfer, with over 8,000 researchers, including 17% professional researchers, 17% postdoctoral researchers, and 66% PhD researchers. The university has produced over 50,000 scientific publications between 2008 and 2018 and supports student mobility (2-6k students), development cooperation, international strategic partnerships, and institutional regional partnerships. The research group participating in the FOODIMAR project is the STEN (Sustainable Systems Engineering) group.
Role in the project: UGENT contributing to sustainability, resource efficiency, and circular analyses, leading WP5. UGENT is responsible for conducting resource efficiency studies, including quantifying energy losses throughout the life cycle to identify optimization points for processes in terms of thermodynamics and enhancing environmental and economic performance. Their role involves performing life cycle assessments (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessments (S-LCA) to evaluate the sustainability and resource efficiency of the FOODIMAR value chains. They will also contribute to capacity building activities.