The EU is investing in the future of seaweed and OCEANIUM is delighted to be part of a project which aims to lay the foundations for an entirely new European maritime industry to meet the growing demand for seaweed-based products and attract investment from multiple sectors by upscaling seaweed production and market applications across Europe.
SeaMark, which stands for Seaweed-Based Market Applications, is a consortium comprising 25 international, cross-disciplinary partners which has been awarded a prestigious €9 million Horizon Europe grant to upscale seaweed production and market applications across Europe.
Seaweed has long been recognised as a versatile raw material with multiple uses; they are among the fastest growing crops on the planet, requiring no cleared land, no freshwater and no fertilizer.
The significance of this four-year project that will allow for important scientific developments cannot be overstated to truly scale up the industry in a sustainable way. “Due to the need to build more resilient food systems and decrease reliance on fossil-based products, it is necessary to grow the blue bio-economy through seaweed cultivation and product innovation,” states SeaMark.
SeaMark’s interdisciplinary team has a goal to produce and market twelve innovative seaweed-based products for European consumers. These will consist of a range of products from medicine to cosmetics, human food and animal feed.
As one of the work package leaders, OCEANIUM will be focusing on producing food ingredients including fiber and protein, natural bioactive ingredients for health and cosmetics and a bio-packaging material to replace resource intensive materials. We will be working closely with Ocean Rainforest, one of Europe’s foremost seaweed farmers, on sourcing high quality seaweed as well as research partners DTU, Matís and Lund University.
Karen Scofield Seal, CEO and Co-Founder, OCEANIUM
“OCEANIUM is proud to be part of SeaMark alongside a fantastic, knowledgeable group of consortium members. This is an important project showing how collaboration across the whole seaweed value chain can catalyse the European seaweed farming industry for the benefit of people and planet. We look forward to continuing our work on producing high-quality food ingredients and nutraceuticals, and proving the market viability of seaweed-based products with SeaMark partners.”
From 30 August to 1 September, the OCEANIUM team joined the SeaMark partners kick-off meeting which took place in the beautiful Faroe Islands, home to Ocean Rainforest, the lead coordinator of the SeaMark project.
