Looking back at our intervention during the iCULTURE workshop
On March27th, the iCULTURE project organized a dedicated workshop to discuss seaweed supply biomass in Europe, how to make it even more sustainable, and how to use it for a competitive, circular, climate-positive and resilient EU seaweed industry.
The workshop gathered over 90 stakeholders from various horizons with industry actors and professional organizations, researchers, seaweed experts, and public authorities.
The workshop started by a short introduction of iCULTURE project, before moving directly into the topic of the day.
Maris Stulgis, Policy Officer Blue Bioeconomy, algae and aquaculture for DG MARE, presented the ongoing actions at EU-level to support the algae sector and ocean-positive actions. He also emphasized the strong focus of the European Commission for restorative activities, which go beyond ensuring sustainability of current activities. In a context of declining seaweed forest globally, EC has set up very aggressive objectives within EU Nature Restoration Law, EU Biodiversity Strategy or the European Ocean Pact. He also discussed EU Nature Credits Roadmap, targeting to close a € 37 billion/year funding gap for biodiversity, which can represent a big opportunity for seaweed farming.
Several speakers (Céline Rebours – Møreforsking, Helena Abreu – EABA, Anda Ikauniece, CINEA) then described current and future seaweed biomass availability and demand scenarios. Wild harvesting, cultivation and beach-cast seaweed were discussed, regularly citing data from CIRCALGAE report D1.1 as one of the relevant sources. A recurring observation was also the lack of exhaustive, reliable and harmonized data across EU countries, which should be a priority to get the “full picture” and support the sector development. Related actions are being implemented by EABA and Eurostat. Prof. Olivier De Clerck, Ghent University, also presented the work performed in iCULTURE project to develop models and predict evolution of seaweed marine forests
The next part of the workshop covered Research, innovation and industrial pathways supporting circular and cascading value chains.
Georg Kopplin, R&D manager of Alginor ASA and partner in both iCULTURE project and CIRCALGAE, illustrated his company’s biorefinery model.
He was followed by Ronan Pierre, from CEVA, who presented some key takeaways from CIRCALGAE report “Report of the current algae industry in Europe” with a focus on the report conclusion investigating gaps, synergies and opportunities for European algae biorefineries. After a short introduction on the current situation in the industry and main focus area for potential biorefineries, he explored current technical and processing hurdles, integration of biorefineries in market and supply chain dynamics, as well as a in moving regulatory and policy landscape. He concluded with perspectives for process optimization opportunities, industrial synergies and agility, to support a thriving algae bioeconomy.
To conclude the workshop, Monica Padella, Project Officer at CBE-JU, and Laura Maragna, EU4Algae Project Manager, outlined funding opportunities for algae innovation and scale-up, and next steps in the deployment of EU4Algae, the European Commission’s flagship initiative for the algae sector.
For CIRCALGAE, this marks an important step forward. Taking part in these discussions and workshops helps give greater visibility to our work, while allowing us to collaborate effectively at both European and national levels to support the development of practical, algae-based circular solutions for a more sustainable and resilient blue economy
You can download the presentation to learn more : iCULTURE presentation
Don’t hesitate to watch the Workshop iCULTURE – Replay to find out more.