Nordic Algae Network Newsletter February 2013

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1 Welcome to the fourth newsletter from Nordic Algae Network In this newsletter you can read about: Nordic Algae Network workshop in Ås, Norway The next Nordic Algae Network workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden Blue Bio conference in Gothenburg, Sweden Wetland, Algae & Biogas conference in Trelleborg, Sweden Hopefully, you will find the newsletter interesting and you are more than welcome to contribute to the next newsletter on Nordic Algae Network Workshop in Gothenburg February 28 th The program is now finalized and the registration deadline is approaching for the 4 th Nordic Algae Network workshop about algae activities in the Nordic countries. The special focus of this workshop is on Swedish industrial and academic algae activities. However, comprehensive overviews over activities in Iceland, Norway and Denmark will also be given. The workshop will be held at Chalmersvillan in Gothenburg, February 28 th, Registration is open until February 14th, and can be made at: Please help us to distribute this invitation to people you think might be interested in participating! Welcome to Chalmers and Gothenburg in February 2013! The next Nordic Algae Network workshops are: In Gothenburg, Sweden. February 28 th 2013 In Grenaa, Denmark, Final conference October 9 th and 10 th 2013 Photo: Peter Bondo Christensen Aarhus University European Biomass Conference, Copenhagen The largest biomass event in Europe takes place in Bella Center in Copenhagen on June 3 rd -7 th 2013 Algae has become more prominent in the program in the last years and the conference is a good way of meeting all major experts on Nordic ground 2000 delegates from 70 countries are expected to participate in the conference. Read more on: Would you like to subscribe to the newsletter or has material for the next newsletter, please contact: Karin Svane Bech (kasb@dti.dk)

2 Nordic Algae Network. Workshop Norwegian University of Life Science, Ås, Norway 15 th and 16 th November, 2012 This is the 3 rd workshop in the Nordic Algae network. The first and second workshop was in Iceland and in Denmark. The main focus in the workshop was on opportunities and problems connected to development of a viable algae industry in Norway. The workshop covered both micro and macro algae. The workshop was organized jointly between the Nordic Algae Network and the Intereg project Blue Bio where Gothenburg University and Marelife in Oslo are the lead partners. The workshop at Ås was an excellent opportunity for companies, institutions and individuals to make new acquaintances and discuss possible cooperation in field of algae. There were 79 delegates on the list of participants, mainly from Norway but also from the other Nordic countries. The workshop was organized with presentations on the 15th of November, short presentations by various companies on the 16th November followed by a SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) carried out in discussion groups. Presentations were in English and the discussion groups about SWOT analysis were in both Norwegian and English. The presentations and the summary of the SWOT discussions can be found on Nordic Innovation homepage, More info about the workshop to: Colin Murphy, Deputy Director of Research, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, colin.murphy@umb.no Audience at the norwegian workshop Leiv M. Mortensen, UMB, leader of the SWOT discussion about microalgae utilization in Norway Project status: Novel bioactive seaweed based ingredients and products By Rósa Jónsdóttir, Matís The project Novel bioactive seaweed based ingredients and products funded by NICe and run by Matís has been progressing well. Several different extraction methods have been developed to extract bioactive compounds from the brown macro algae Fucus vesiculosus. These extracts have been characterized for their composition and antioxidative activity, which is very high. Studies are on-going to examine the antioxidative properties of the extracts in different model systems, with results indicating high activity for some of the extracts. Development work has started on three products containing the bioactive extracts, namely cosmetics, food supplements and seafoods.

3 Call for abstracts The 3 rd Danish Macro Algae Conference will be held at Kystvejens Hotel and Conference Centre in Grenaa Denmark on October 9 th and 10 th Abstract for a presentation at the event can be submitted to: kasb@dti.dk. Deadline April 1 st 2013 Among confirmed speakers is: Job Schippers, Hortimare, Netherlands Inez Linke, Oceanwell, Germany Karsten Dahl, Aarhus University, Denmark The abstract must not exceed one page (A4) including pictures, charts etc. To be considered the abstract must contain a short introduction of the speaker. Photo: Michael Bo Rasmussen Århus University, Denmark Photo: Peter Bondo Christensen Århus University, Denmark Project status: Enriched Convenience Seafood Products By Rósa Jónsdóttir, Matís Currently, seaweed extracts are broadly studied in Iceland, e.g. consumer attitudes, bioactivity and effects on food product stability. Enriched Convenience Seafood Products is a project funded by Nordic Innovation. The Icelandic partners are Grímur Kokkur ehf, a seafood producer, Matis ltd an Icelandic Food and Biotech R&D Company, Marinox, a producer of seaweed extracts and Norður, a producer of fish concentrates. The main overall goal is successful product development of enriched seafood dishes with bioactive compounds from the ocean, such as seaweed, and an increase in variety of seafood products with functional properties for consumers. A concept testing among Icelandic consumers via web-based questionnaire has been conducted to study various effects of information about the enrichment of seafood with seaweed extract. The results were very interesting and showed that generally, information about functional properties positively affected buying intention, but depended very much on demographic factors and attitudes. A similar study was performed doing the autumn in Finland within the project. The results from the concept test are now being used to support the product development of convenience seafood products with bioactive compounds. Within the same project, the effects of different seaweed extracts on the stability and quality of the seafood products are being studied, e.g. effects on oxidation during cooking and storage.

4 EU-project Blue Biotechnology for sustainable innovations was concluded with a conference By Annika Söderpalm, Communicator, Blue Bio Water covers as much as 70 percent of the earth s surface. In the numerous unexplored habitats of the ocean there is a potential goldmine of new species, resources and compounds, which could potentially be used for development of novel drugs. This was the subject of Peter J Schupp s talk, professor at the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University of Oldenburg. He was one of many invited speakers at the concluding conference for the EU project Blue Biotechnology for sustainable innovations at Marstrand Havshotell north of Gothenburg on November 29th. Camilla Pettersson, project leader, opened the conference by briefly presenting scope and results of the two-year Blue Bio project, which was a cross-border project in the Kattegatt-Skagerack region. The scope has been development and integration of research and industry in the field of marine biotechnology. Different aspects of micro algae have been in focus. One of the results is the formation of a marine biotechnology cluster that will secure further collaboration in the area. Another result is an extensive report on the current state and suggestions for future strategies for industrial use of microalgae in the Nordic countries. A different type of project outcome is the Handbook in Marine Innovation which is actually not a book at all. Bo Norrman, innovation advisor at Innovationskontor Väst, named it the the World s largest power point presentation and demonstrated parts of it. It consists of more than 130 slides, but the idea is to only use selected parts of it for tailor-made presentations in order to teach and inspire different audiences in the field of marine innovation. For easy-access, the Handbook also comes in a short version in the form of an ibook. Anders Carlberg, Maritime affairs, Region Västra Götaland (VGR), talked about different aspects of marine biotechnology, which is considered an area of strength in the region. The foundation is the broad research competence and outstanding infrastructure at the marine research stations within the Sven Lovén centre. However, he also pointed out that a bottleneck for further industrial development is lack of capital. His colleague Susanne Hammarström, Research and development, VGR, talked about the new proposed EU funding program, Horizon It addresses the economic crisis and people s concern about the environment. The aim is to simplify and increase SME participation, which opens up new possibilities for cross-sectoral collaborations and possible financing. Talks given by researchers, innovators and industry representatives were a major part of the conference. The fact that the field of marine biotechnology is a prospering one was clearly shown by their ideas and activities in new innovative companies. Their topics ranged from how the chemical industries of the Stenungsund chemistry cluster work towards reaching their goal of fossil free production in 2030, to how microfungi can be used as sustainable fish feed and how shrimp shells can protect plants. For more information about the actors in and the results of the Blue Bio-project, including the report on current state and strategies for industrial use of microalgae, and the Handbook in Marine Innovation (when finalized), visit the project website:

5 WAB-conference in Trelleborg 28th of November 2012 By Ellinor Tjernström, Trelleborg Municipal In Trelleborg (Sweden) and Sopot (Poland) municipality algae often appear in great masses along the beaches during peak tourism season, June to September. When the algae decomposes at the beach, hydrogen sulfide is produced which smells terrible and makes the shallow waters by the beach unfit to bathe in. This is a symptom of eutrophication and a major problem to the costal marine ecosystem as well as residents living close to the sea, recreational values and tourism industry. Within the Southern Baltic programme project WAB (Wetlands, Algae and Biogas), Trelleborg municipality as lead partner together with ten other partners from Sweden and the Pomorski Region in Poland has created a cycle of nutrients to reduce eutrophication in three different stages. 1. Reduction of nutrient leakage and cultivation of biomass for biogas production by building algae cultivation wetlands. 2. Collection of the beach cast algae to extract nutrients from the sea. 3. Biogas production from the algae to produce renewable energy and concentrate the nutrients in the residue that can be used as fertilizer on farmland again. Audience at WAB final conference By spreading the concept of nutrient retention and recycling around the Baltic Sea Regions eutrophication can be counteracted at the same time as renewable energy is being produced. The 28 th of November the WAB-project held a final conference in Trelleborg with 70 persons that were listening to presentations and taking part in the discussions about the results achieved within the project. The WAB-report that sums up the achieved results is available in Pdf at Trelleborg municipalities webpage ( The WAB-project ended in 2012 but the networks and partnership created will live on and new measurements for up scaling of the efforts is planned to take off during If there is any questions regarding the WAB-project results or Trelleborg municipalities future plans, please don t hesitate to contact Matilda Gradin (matilda.gradin@trelleborg.se) or Annika Hansson (annika.e.hansson@trelleborg.se). Discussions during vegetarian mingle lunch. From the left: Lena Svensson, Rasmus Fredriksson and Annika Hansson. Download the final report here: