The vision of the EU aquaculture industry is to grow substantially in the next decade and to provide annually 4.5 million tons of sustainable food products. To this aim, NewTechAqua intends to expand and diversify EU production of finfish, molluscs and microalgae by developing and validating technologically-advanced, resilient and sustainable new solutions. The organizational approach of NewTechAqua is to group the solutions in 6 different categories: feed, Industry 4.0, sustainable farming, genetics, new species and new products. They will be validated on conventional (Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, seabass and seabream) and emerging (greater amberjack, meagre, Senegalese sole and grey mullet) finfish species, molluscs (Pacific oyster, mussel) and microalgae. NewTechAqua is structured in 9 WPs. WP1 will conceive, formulate, produce and demonstrate three innovative sets of aquafeeds (pro-health, organic, zero waste). WP2 will establish new AI epidemiological models for enhancing the control of parasite outbreaks in Norwegian and Mediterranean farms. Sustainable aquaculture will be also promoted by advanced model systems and technologies for mollusc and in-land fish farms ecointensification. WP3 will develop innovative breeding programmes to improve performance, robustness and quality of farmed fish, molluscs and microalgae, while WP4 will achieve significant advances in reproduction technology of three emerging fish species. High-quality seafood products and sustainable food processing techniques for valorisation of by-products will be validated. WP6 will develop a set of indicators to monitor and measure progress towards the expected impacts, while market uptake of NewTechAqua results and outputs will be ensured by a detailed exploitation strategy (WP7). Finally, NewTechAqua will achieve well-targeted communication, dissemination and maximum transfer of generated know-how and project new technologies (WP8).

Recent developments in genomics have advanced innovation in European aquaculture. However, despite the creation of reference quality genome sequences for the main species, our understanding of genome functions remains limited. AQUA-FAANG will deliver a step improvement in understanding of genome function and exploitation of genotype-to-phenotype prediction in the six most important European farmed fish species. The project brings together world-leading interdisciplinary expertise and industry partners providing direct pathways to commercial exploitation. AQUA-FAANG will functionally annotate the genomes of all six species, employing standardized experimental assays and analysis pipelines defined by the FAANG initiative. AQUA-FAANG datasets will be shared and coordinated with other FAANG initiatives via the FAANG data coordination centre, and made available through the Ensembl genome browser. As infectious disease is of paramount concern for sustainable aquaculture, the project focuses on understanding functional genomic regions in both healthy and immune-challenged fish. This will improve knowledge of the genomic basis for disease resistance and is complemented by novel approaches to increase understanding of immune cell heterogeneity. Standardized comparative analyses will provide essential insights into genome functions that cannot be gained from study of single species. Functional assays will be used to study intermediate phenotypes and prioritise causative genetic variants in trait-associated genomic regions to accelerate selection of disease-resistant stocks. Functionally-enriched marker panels will be developed to improve accuracy of genomic selection. An active programme of stakeholder engagement and dissemination will ensure uptake of project outputs by industry, academia, the public and in policy. The outputs will enhance precision breeding, drive competitiveness within the aquaculture sector, and enhance food and nutrition security in Europe.

The overall objective for SelectOrganic is to develop selective breeding programs for the organic farming of European sea bass, gilthead seabream, rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon, respecting high animal welfare requirements and aiming at improving species resilience, disease resistance, product quality and resource efficiency. Furthermore, we aim at fish utilizing as much alternative feed materials as possible. This will contribute to “develop and improve good practices in organic aquaculture, make sustainable use of biodiversity". Four Case Studies are outlined with different tasks in 5 WPs. Each case study addresses each of the four key species above and specific traits of economic and welfare importance in addition to key challenges in organic aquaculture. We will define breeding objectives, develop phenotyping of “new organic” traits, estimate genetic parameters and develop the required organic reproduction technology and selection methods to address critical knowledge gaps or challenges. A specific welfare auditing WP will exploit experiments from two other WPs on resource efficiency, bacterial disease resistance and heat wave resilience to test and apply species-specific fish welfare indicators. The project outcome will be technologies, methods, and strategies for selective breeding for organic fish farming, while maintaining genetic diversity and contributing to non-toxic environments and to maintain biodiversity. Finally, successful innovations, including many aiming at precision farming, will be integrated in cost-effective breeding plans for organic aquaculture. Socioeconomic studies on non-market valuation of public goods as fish welfare and ecosystem services in addition to policy incentives will involve a broad range of actors. Together with communication, dissemination, and training activities, this ensures successful exploitation and significant impact of the project output and expanded organic aquaculture in Europe.

The PPILOW project aims to co-construct through a multi-actor approach solutions to improve the welfare of poultry and pigs reared in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems. The first originality of PPILOW is the participatory approach, involving all actors of the production chain from farmers to consumers, citizens, scientists and policy makers, for proposing and studying welfare improvement levers. The second originality of the project is to provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement that can be applied on a pan-European basis with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market (national legislation or consumer preferences). More precisely, PPILOW will co-create with end-users welfare self-assessment tools, innovative breeding and rearing strategies and techniques for improving the welfare of animals by avoiding mutilations (piglet castration or beak trimming in poultry), the elimination of one day-old layer male chicks, favouring positive behaviours, and improving health and robustness in both species. The innovative solutions will be investigated experimentally and the most promising ones will be tested on-farm. Multi-criteria analyses of the most effective breeding and rearing strategies will then be realised to evaluate their economic, social and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept embracing sustainability goals with specific emphasis on animal and human welfare. Business models will be created for the use of high-quality products issued from the adoption of PPILOW strategies to improve welfare in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems for poultry and pigs. Finally, to ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, appropriate dissemination activities will be developed (such as training, digital videos from field partners, EIP abstracts…) and the close involvement of national practitioner groups throughout the EU will be managed to facilitate change.