Projects
Our staff have extensive experiences within research projects within fisheries and aquaculture. Below you can see some of our research projects
2025 - 2029
MarineGuardian will, through a holistic approach, provide impact-driven solutions to reduce fisheries´ environmental impacts on marine species and habitats. Coordinated by Matís, the project brings together 21 partners from research and industry from 9 countries. The project is funded by Horizon Europe - Mission Ocean with a total budget of EUR 8 million.
Current solutions for more sustainable fisheries exist, but are fragmented and often lack real-time actionable insights for fishers and policymakers. MarineGuardian will advance tools, technologies, operational strategies, and enhance knowledge to accelerate the transition towards sustainable and economically viable fisheries. The project will deliver: innovative technologies to reduce and prevent incidental catches of sensitive species and juveniles; best practice guidelines for reduced discard and damage to catch; decision support systems for effective mitigation measures to protect sensitive marine ecosystems, whilst optimising fishing operations; new methods for data sharing in seafood value chains to ease corporate sustainability reporting and ecolabelling processes; and a roadmap for sustainable fisheries will be drawn-up to demonstrate scalability and replicability of the solutions in line with the Mission Ocean objectives.
These will be co-developed with fishers, management authorities, and policymakers, tested in six case studies to demonstrate their feasibility and ensure the long-term viability of the European seafood sector. The six regional case studies include the Barents Sea, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the West of Scotland, and the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Waters.
2025 - 2029
MeCCAM is a pioneering four-year project designed to equip the European fisheries sector with innovative, science-based solutions to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Coordinated by Sjókovin, the project brings together 16 partners from 9 European countries. The project is funded by Horizon Europe with a total budget of EUR 4.5 million.
With climate change posing increasing risks to marine ecosystems and coastal communities, MeCCAM is a timely and vital step towards securing a sustainable future for European fisheries. Over the next four years, MeCCAM partners will develop, implement, and recommend mitigation and adaptation solutions to reduce the environmental impact and increase the resilience and sustainability of European fisheries. The outputs include: decision support tools allowing fishers to mitigate and adapt to climate change; innovative fishing gears to improve selectivity, fuel efficiency, and minimise habitat damage; and an environmental impact management software to reduce carbon emissions, and other impacts across the value chain. MeCCAM also builds adaptive capacity by delivering: climate-informed advice prototypes; mitigation and adaptation plans, as well as general recommendations for commercial utilisation of emerging species; and how to improve governance for mitigation and adaptation in the sector.
MeCCAM solutions will be implemented and demonstrated in six regional case studies, including the Northeast Atlantic, North Sea, Bay of Biscay, Iceland, Cyprus, and Greece. These have been strategically selected to reflect the variety of challenges faced by European fisheries, from industrial pelagic and demersal operations to small-scale fisheries. They include both data-rich and data-poor regions with differing levels of adaptive capacity.
2025 - 2029
OCCAM is a four-year initiative funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union's largest research and innovation program. Coordinated by Nofima, the project brings together 22 partners from research, industry, non-profit, and aquaculture sectors from diverse regions, all committed to climate-proofing the aquaculture industry.
Climate change presents multifaceted challenges to aquaculture, including rising water temperatures, an increase in extreme weather events, and significant alterations to the marine environment. The OCCAM project represents a vital step towards safeguarding the future of safe and sustainable food production from the sea. OCCAM will pilot novel aquaculture practices and tools that help reduce environmental impact while ensuring economic viability. Innovative methods for monitoring and managing aquaculture systems will enable producers to respond in real time to changes caused by climate impacts. The focus is on creating tangible solutions, innovative digital tools, and smart farming practices applicable to a diverse range of aquaculture species across numerous European countries. These advancements are intended to empower fish farmers to effectively adapt to changing temperatures and other climate-related impacts.
Researchers and key stakeholders from the aquaculture industry, alongside technology developers, will collaborate closely throughout the project. A crucial aspect of OCCAM involves the creation of comprehensive training materials and the provision of climate-informed advice for policymakers. This knowledge transfer aims to ensure that the project's findings and solutions can be effectively adopted and implemented across the entire European aquaculture landscape.
To guarantee the broad applicability of the developed solutions, OCCAM will implement nine diverse case studies across Europe, encompassing both small-scale and large-scale aquaculture operations. These case studies will test the project’s tools and approaches, ensuring relevance and applicability across Europe's aquaculture industry.
2024 - 2028
In response to the pressing challenges posed by human activities and climate change on marine ecosystems, BioProtect, a newly-funded EU project, has been officially launched. Coordinated by MATIS in Iceland, the 8 million EUR bring together 18 partners from 8 countries. Over the next four years, these partners will collaborate to develop innovative, adaptable, and scalable ecosystem-centred solutions aimed at safeguarding and restoring biodiversity across European seas, from the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.
The project will consolidate these solutions into an Area-Based Management Decision Support Framework (ABM-DSF), which will be demonstrated at five different study sites across Europe, including Norway, Iceland, Ireland, the Azores, and Portugal. BioProtect will actively engage with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation and utilisation of its solutions by end-users. By raising awareness and enabling stakeholders and citizens to participate in the decision-making process, BioProtect empowers them to protect and restore marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
With its robust framework and collaborative approach, the BioProtect project holds promise and potential for introducing a new era of marine biodiversity conservation and restoration in European seas.
Blue Resource will be quantifying socio-economic activities and assess socio-economic impacts of management scenarios in Demonstration Areas. This will support the evaluation of suitable socio-economic methods in different contexts.
BioProtect started 1. May 2024, and runs for four years. The project is funded by Horizon Europe and is a collaboration between 18 research institutions from 8 different European countries.
2023 - 2026
Reducing oil consumption in the fishing fleet is crucial and of great importance. Firstly, oil represents a substantial portion of the overall costs incurred by fishing operations. Additionally, the current high oil prices exert significant financial strain on the fleet's operations. Furthermore, the Faroe Islands have made a commitment to reducing emissions, and the fishing fleet constitutes a significant portion of the total emissions generated within the Faroese region. Thus, prioritizing efforts to decrease oil consumption within the fleet becomes vital for achieving both economic and environmental goals.
Although there is no publicly available data on oil consumption in the Faroese fishing industry, Sjókovin has conducted analyses in partnership with shipowners, to assess oil consumption in the largest fishing fleet groups from 2019-2022.
This project builds on this work and now expands to focus on enhancing the registration and analysis of oil consumption in Faroese fishing vessels. The primary objective is testing, measurement, and eventual implementation of more specific measures aimed at reducing oil consumption.
The main purpose of the project is therefore to generate the necessary knowledge and awareness to reduce oil consumption in the Faroese fishing fleet.
Sjókovin – Blue Resource leads the project and the project starts in May 2023 and runs for three years.
The SmartFisk project has received funding from Fiskivinnugransking and is also financed by private funding from shipowners and Sjókovin.
Marine Sabres
Marine Biodiversity loss is continuing to decline despite current conservation effort and reversing the decline in biodiversity requires rapid roll out of effective conservation measures that can enable a sustainable and resilient blue economy. MarineSABRES aims to set European marine management on a course to reverse biodiversity decline by bringingtogether partners from diverse audiences and perspectives to co-design a simple Socio-Ecological System (SES) framework that can tackle marine biodiversity loss by accelerating the uptake of ecosystem-based management.
The project is a collaboration between 22 partners from 11 european countries, and has received funding from Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. The project runs from september 2022 and last for four years.
Sjokovin will mainly be working on pelagic fishery in the arctic seas and how the countries that manage the fish stock can best meet the challenges that arise from changes in distribution and population size, which are caused by climate change, amongst other things. This part of the project will be achieved in collaboration with administrations, shipowners/companies and other relevant parts.
2022 - 2026
SeaMark
2022-2026
The Seamark project is about seaweed production and market applications across Europe. SeaMark aims to upscale circular ocean seaweed cultivation and produce twelve new innovative seaweed-based productswithin e.g. medicine, food, feeds and cosmetics. In addition, the impact that seaweed farming has on the ecosystem will be assessed and confirmed, so we better are able to see which role seaweed farming can have in a sustainable circular economy in the future.The entire value chain will also be analyzed for techno-economic feasibility and socio-economic impact
Blue Resource has an important role in the project. We have the responsibility for techno-economic analysis of the developed production processes and to make value chain and socio-economic analysis.
SeaMark started july 1, 2022 and runs for four years. The project is funded by Horizon Europe and is a collaboration between 25 international cross-disciplinary partners.
EU H2020 Project NextGenProteins
october 2019 - februar 2024
NextGenProteins will optimise the production of three alternative proteins and verify their use in various feed and food applications, in order to meet customers’ needs and ensure consumer acceptance. The project will contribute to strengthening food security, sustainability and self-sufficiency of EU protein production by demonstrating the suitability and economic viability of next-generation proteins as part of food and feed value chains; with less strain on natural resources and reduced environmental impacts. Blue Resource is responsible for the work in work package working on regulations, safety and legal requirements in relation to the utilisation of alternative proteins.
EU 2020 Research Project FarFish
june 2017 - november 2021
FarFish aims to provide knowledge, tools and methods to support responsible, sustainable and profitable EU fisheries outside European waters, compatible with Maximum Sustainable Yield. To achieve this, FarFish will develop practical, achievable and cost-effective fisheries management tools and advice which can be applied immediately. The work will be done in collaboration of scientists, policy makers, resource users and other stakeholders aimed to improve fisheries management competences. FarFish will provide a better knowledge base of these fisheries and encourage resource users to actively take part in the management, thus empowering them, generating a sense of ownership and enhancing compliance. Blue Resource leads the WP on the evaluation of management recommendations developed for the various case studies.
EU 2020 Research Project AquaVitae
june 2019 - november 2021
AquaVitae aims to increase aquaculture production in and around the Atlantic Ocean by developing new species, processes and products. The focus of the project is placed on low trophic species (e.g. algae, echinoderms, shellfish), contributing to the circular economy and the Belém Statement.
AquaVitae will offer new opportunities to enhance the environmental, societal and economical wealth of aquacultures communities. The project will implement 11 case studies across the Atlantic basin (Europe, Africa, South America) taking into account several cross-cutting issues: biosensors, Internet of Things, market potential, sustainability, business and socio-economic analysis, policy framework and training.
The project will work to create real and meaningful collaboration between researchers, industry and other aquaculture stakeholders in the Atlantic area.
Blue Resource is responsible for leading the WP on Business and socio-economic analysis, profitability and exploitation.
Project on the effects of Covid-19 on Faroese fisheries and aquaculture producers, and the implications for the Faroese economy
may - september 2020
We are grateful to the Faroese Research Council for funding a project to explore the effects of covid-19 on Faroese fisheries and aquaculture and the subsequent implications for the Faroese economy. The project is coordinated by Unn Laksá at Blue Resource, and is a collaboration between Blue Resource and the University of the Faroe Islands. The other researchers working on the project will be Zvonko Mrdalo and Magni Laksáfoss. The projects runs from May 2020 to September 2020. The findings will be presented at a seminar on the 7th of October