Project description
Creating the foundations for integrated multi-trophic and sustainable aquaculture
Aquaculture is a significant industry in Europe and plays a crucial role in addressing climate change and biodiversity. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) has emerged as a promising development within the sector, offering improved sustainability and potentially larger yields. However, despite its advantages, the challenge of monitoring, testing and managing IMTA on a large scale has hindered its expansion. The EU-funded IMPAQT project aims to create the foundations for the European aquaculture industry’s transition to sustainability and environmentally friendly solutions. It will seek to achieve this by developing and providing the necessary equipment and platform to address the issues that impede the expansion of IMTA. The project will demonstrate the benefits of IMTA through testing and innovation in six pilot initiatives.
Objective
The Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is acknowledged as a promising solution for the sustainable development of aquaculture. However, IMTA has been only tested at very small scale in Europe, while management of large-scale IMTA areas remains difficult.
The high level ambition of Impaqt project is to drive a paradigm shift in the EU Industry and its , paving the way to both a more environmentally friendly and more efficient/higher yielding European Industry. To that respect, Impaqt proposes an intelligent management platform for IMTA. Impaqt will develop and deploy novel sensors and data sources, together with smart systems required for long term autonomous monitoring in the field. An advanced IMTA model will be provided which yields spatially explicit information on how the different farm components interact with the environment on the scale of an ecosystem and that can be used for planning decisions by both farmers and regulators. Last but not least, an integrated management system, operating at the scale of an IMTA farm and comprising analytics and decision support functionalities, will be developed to enable enhanced operational decisions for animal welfare, production optimization, environmental protection and food quality assessment.
Impaqt systems and models will be validated in 6 pilots (Scotland, The Netherlands, Ireland, Turkey and China), addressing inland, coastal and offshore aquaculture. Impaqt will demonstrate the eco-intensification of EU aquaculture, by demonstrating the eco-efficiency and the environmental impacts minimized, the socioeconomic benefits and ecosystem services enabled, as well as the transition towards a circular economy business model. Impaqt brings together a considerable range of partners including 14 academic/research organizations, 4 SMEs and 3 large industries, all leaders in their respective fields/business, while aims to effectively transfer the project’s results to relevant stakeholders through training activities.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
H91 R673 Galway
Ireland
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Participants (21)
171 21 NEA SMYRNI
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1253 Luxembourg
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2518 AD Den Haag
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
34912 Istanbul
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35070 IZMIR
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06560 VALBONNE
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Participation ended
29200 Brest
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
8500-794 Portimao
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
2629 HV Delft
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MK7 6AA Milton Keynes
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PA37 1QA Dunbeg Oban
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T12 YN60 Cork
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81 712 Sopot
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08225 Terrassa
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118 55 ATHINA
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176 71 Athina
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00133 Roma
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35210 Alsancak Izmir
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15705 Santiago De Compostela
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266071 QINGDAO
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PL6 8BX Plymouth
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.