ASTRAL Networking Friday
ASTRAL is a Horizon 2020 collaborative project (2020-2024) that focuses on Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) farming. Our aims include defining, supporting, and promoting this type of sustainable aquaculture production across the Atlantic area. The overall objective of ASTRAL is to develop new, sustainable, profitable, and resilient value chains for IMTA production within the framework of existing, emerging, and potential Atlantic markets. The consortium operates across the Atlantic Ocean, on three different continents, including five IMTA labs conducting practical scientific research: ‘open offshore’ labs in Ireland and Scotland, ‘recirculating land based’ labs in South Africa and Brazil and hosts a ‘prospective IMTA’ lab in Argentina. Click here to learn more.
What are Networking Fridays? Networking Fridays are interactive sessions hosted by our partner organisation, the Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) in Portugal. It is an international networked institution that aims to address global challenges and local priorities within the Atlantic Ocean. The Networking Fridays appoint various speakers to moderate and promote relative, thought-provoking discussions amongst thousands of proactive attendees joining from several areas including academia, governments, companies, multilateral organizations, entrepreneurship and civil society from several countries across the globe.
Networking Friday with ASTRAL: On May 28th, 2021, the AIR Centre dedicated their popular Networking Friday session entirely to the ASTRAL project. The consortium was given the opportunity to present key activities in the project, covering many different areas of expertise. This was followed by a Q&A session, where all attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the speakers. The ASTRAL session was one of the most attended sessions, with participants from more than 25 countries. Below is an outline of the event programme. To watch the event recording, click here.
Elisa Ravagnan, ASTRAL Project Coordinator (NORCE, Norway), welcomed all attendees and introduced both the session itself and the ASTRAL Project. Joanne Casserly (MI, Ireland) presented an overview of the ASTRAL Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) labs and discussed the peculiarities of each one across the Atlantic Ocean. Dominique Durand (NORCE) later presented the Innovation trends within Aquaculture from an ASTRAL perspective. Patricia Anyanwu (NIOMR, Nigeria) discussed human capacity development within the field of Aquaculture. Finally, the session ended with two PhD students presenting their current research, funded by ASTRAL project: Bruna Guterres (FURG, Brazil) presented Aquaculture 4.0: Computer-vision techniques towards harmful algae bloom (HAB) classification and, Andrezza Carvalho (FURG) presented the influences of macroalgae in reducing nutrients in shrimp integrated systems. The event concluded with a Q&A Session for all participants, followed by closing remarks from the coordinator.
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