Baltic Muppets is dedicated to develop a refined value chain for small mussels in the Baltic Sea region, focussing on innovative techniques for their cultivation, harvesting and processing. Our aim is to utilize mussels that are too small for human consumption in high-quality animal feed products and thus strengthen the blue bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea region.

In Germany, seaweed-based food is mainly known in Asian cuisine. The AlgaeFood project aims to establish algae as a healthy and sustainable food in regional culinary culture. Through a variety of activities, such as cookery workshops and tastings at markets, the aim is to familiarise consumers with the use of algae as a foodstuff. Furthermore, educational programmes for children and young people are to be developed and implemented in order to introduce algae cuisine to a younger audience.

AQUATOR aims to advance the blue bioeconomy in general and regional sustainable aquaculture in particular. In the BMBF-funded project, the research groups involved in AQUATOR are working on material flows, environmental assessments and market analyses, as well as evaluating social acceptance and developing potential new business areas using various aquatic example systems. With the help of this extensive competence portfolio and broad network, founders will be supported financially, administratively, and prospectively in the future in order to realize their business ideas in the bioeconomic aquatic sector and especially in the field of aquaculture.

Commodities such as fish, seafood and algae have long been cultivated for human consumption in aquacultures. They are used as food, dietary supplements, in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and medicine. However, the farmed animals and plants are often only partially used. The LaMuOpt project aims at a holistic utilization of mussels and algae to make farms more ecological and economical.

Land-based aquaculture facilities with marine species have so far been complex and cost-intensive due to the high technical effort required for wastewater treatment. The use of flow-through systems with seawater or saline groundwater requires the efficient treatment of the resulting wastewater, for which no conclusive concepts exist yet. For the development of a wastewater treatment plant for saline wastewater, halophytes (salt plants) are used because they can contribute to nutrient reduction and contain promising ingredients for human nutrition.

In this project, we aim to develop a biorefinery concept that allows the economic and sustainable use of regional algal biomasses. We propose a cascade utilization of algal biomasses that allows the exploitation of (i) classical fatty acids, (ii) new marine sugars and (iii) bioactive secondary metabolites. The combined extraction and biotechnological utilization of different algal ingredients ensures improved value chains of these marine renewable resources.

The aim of the REA project is to develop a marketable algal-based marker enzyme that is superior to previous solutions such as horseradish peroxidase. The project is based on innovative approaches to extraction, enrichment, characterization, recombinant expression, bioinformatic analysis and chemical / genetic coupling to antibodies.

The goal of GoJelly is to use jellyfish as an innovative solution to combat marine litter. Jellyfish can bind microplastics with their mucous constituents and help to rid waters of microplastics. We will therefore address two sets of problems: commercially and ecologically destructive marine and coastal litter from jellyfish, and microplastics.

Recent studies of microalgae indicate substances that have a protective effect on brain cells and are thus suitable for preventive or possibly therapeutic use against neurodegeneration. Thus, the main objective of this project is to develop a formulated, high quality neuroprotective dietary supplement from algae that combines optimal concentrations of nutritive and bioactive compounds from different types of algae (microalgae and macroalgae) in a single “high quality” product.

FucoSan – Health from the Sea (FucoSan – Sundhed fra havet) is a German-Danish project funded by the EU regional development program Interreg Va for three years since March 2017. Under the leadership of the Eye Clinic of UKSH (Kiel), cross-border expertise from research to commercial-sustainable use has been brought together with seven other partners. The aim is to identify potential applications of the valuable marine bioresource of fucoidans for health and well-being.