UK’s Center for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) is supporting four innovative aquaculture seed funding projects. This is the first aquaculture-related seed funding initiative from CIEL which aims to help accelerate innovation, research and development in the sector with a focus on two themes – Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of aquatic species and using seaweeds to create a link between aquatic and terrestrial food production.

One of the projects aims to enhance the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of cleaner fish as a sustainable tool for sea lice management, with improvements that could have positive impacts on the salmon industry in Scotland. The project will assess the effect of functional feed ingredients from Anpario on the performance, immune system and microbiome of juvenile ballan wrasse and look to demonstrate that the use of such ingredients can limit mortality rates of ballan wrasse during production. This improvement would have positive impacts on the LCA of the salmon industry in Scotland.

The other projects aim to develop a seaweed protein biomass cultivation system, run by the startup company, Seaweed Generation Ltd.; assess the greenhouse gas emissions from pangasius (Basa) production in Vietnam; and assess the life cycle analysis of UK-grown warm water prawns.

“From exploring the viability of high protein seaweeds in a cost-effective way to assessing the effect of functional feed ingredients on salmon performance – these innovative projects cover areas identified as critical to helping drive a sustainable and productive future for the sector,” said CIEL chief executive, Lyndsay Chapman. “Agriculture and aquaculture face many similar challenges that require world-leading science-based solutions and innovative technologies and systems. This must be embraced if we are to capitalize on the opportunities that lay ahead.”