The Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre is to fund eight new innovation projects that will support the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector in Scotland and beyond.
SAIC will supply more than £900,000 of the total investment of more than £2.2 million. The collaborations between industry and academia will focus on a number of areas key to the sector’s growth such as enhancing fish health, welfare and environmental monitoring.
“The aquaculture sector is well placed to help meet the growing demand for high-quality protein, and innovation continues to play a crucial role in expanding the sector’s capacity and unlocking new opportunities,” commented Heather Jones, chief executive of SAIC.
“Finding answers to some of the sector’s most pressing challenges has seldom been more important, particularly in the wake of Covid-19,” she added.
Projects selected will explore new methods for sea lice control, managing gill health and environmental impact modelling, among other areas. They concentrate on a variety of species including salmon, trout, and wrasse and at least one of the projects will support shellfish production.
The projects are expected to commence in 2021 and will last between five months and three years. Proposals were assessed by SAIC’s Independent Scientific Panel against a range of criteria, including long-term commercial impacts and opportunities for sharing knowledge and applying outcomes across the entire sector.
