The project will receive €1.23 million in funding and is set to begin in September 2025
Universidad de Vigo
The Fish Physiology Group (PhysToFish) of the Marine Research Center (CIM) at the University of Vigo in Galicia, Spain, is leading a project aimed at producing more sustainable aquafeeds using proteins derived from filamentous fungi fermented with industrial macroalgae waste.
AlFunFeed has been selected in the Blue Biological Resources area of the prestigious Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP) call, an initiative under the European Union's HORIZON program that supports a sustainable blue economy.
“This is the first time these types of proteins are proposed for aquaculture using algae as a substrate for their production. It’s a completely new approach, developed at CIM and selected in a highly competitive European call,” said CIM researcher and project leader José Luis Soengas.
The project, which will receive €1.23 million in funding, is set to begin in September 2025 and will run for three years, until August 2028. It is the only project approved and led by Spanish researchers, with partners from Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Italy.
Using these proteins, the European consortium will develop experimental diets for European seabass, evaluating their effects on feeding behavior, the digestive system, nutritional value, microbiota composition, immune response, and animal welfare.
AlFunFeed will also assess the environmental and economic impact of this novel protein source, aligning with the sustainability goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Moreover, the project promotes circular economy principles by reusing macroalgae waste in the production of these proteins and introducing a new ingredient that could be extended to other key aquaculture species, such as turbot, gilthead seabream, and salmon.
The AlFunFeed consortium is led by the PhysToFish group at CIM in Spain and includes the Galician biotechnology company ODS PROTEIN SL, along with three additional research groups: from the Università Politecnica delle Marche (Italy), led by Ike Olivotto; CIIMAR (Portugal), led by Benjamin Costas; and the University of Thessaly (Greece), led by Kostas Kormas.
In addition, collaborators include Federpesca (Italian Federation of Fisheries and Aquaculture), representing civil society, and GAIN (Galician Innovation Agency), along with the Ministry of the Sea of the Xunta de Galicia, representing public administration.