CERES advances a cause-and-effect understanding of how future climate change will influence Europe’s most important fish and shellfish populations, their habitats, and the economic activities dependent on these species. CERES will involve and closely cooperate with industry and policy stakeholders to define policy, environment, social, technological, law and environmental climate change scenarios to be tested. This four-year project will: 1. Provide regionally relevant short-, medium- and long-term future, high resolution projections of key environmental variables for European marine and freshwater ecosystems; 2. Integrate the resulting knowledge on changes in productivity, biology and ecology of wild and cultured animals (including key indirect / food web interactions), and ‘scale up’ to consequences for shellfish and fish populations, assemblages as well as their ecosystems and economic sectors; 3. Utilize innovative risk-assessment methodologies that encompass drivers of change, threats to fishery and aquaculture resources, expert knowledge, barriers to adaptation and likely consequences if mitigation measures are not put in place; 4. Anticipate responses and assist in the adaptation of aquatic food production industries to underlying biophysical changes, including developing new operating procedures, early warning methods, infrastructures, location choice, and markets; 5. Create short-, medium- and long-term projections tools for the industry fisheries as well as policy makers to more effectively promote blue growth of aquaculture and fisheries in different regions; 6. Consider market-level responses to changes (both positive and negative) in commodity availability as a result of climate change; 7. Formulate viable autonomous adaptation strategies within the industries and for policy to circumvent/prevent perceived risks or to access future opportunities; 8. Effectively communicate these findings and tools to potential end-users and relevant stakeholders.

Farmed seafood is an important source of protein for food and feeds with a low-carbon footprint which has an important role to play in helping to build a sustainable food system. A strategic and long-term approach for the sustainable growth of a resilient EU aquaculture is, therefore, more relevant today than ever. However, the efficient and cost-effective control of pathogens remains among the main challenges for the sector, particularly relevant for Europe, where there is a great variety of species and production systems, which hinders the implementation of good husbandry practices tailored to each aquatic species. Through active engagement with key stakeholders, Cure4Aqua aims to jointly improve the resilience of EU aquaculture under environmental, biological, and socio-economic stress, by improving aquatic animal health and welfare and supporting the environmentally friendly, inclusive, safe, and healthy production of seafood. Cure4Aqua will do so by 1) developing cost-effective vaccines to prevent disease caused by 5 pathogens of economic significance to EU aquaculture; 2) Identifying markers with diagnostic capacity to be integrated to selective breeding programs to improve stress and disease management; 3) Developing innovative, bio-based and sustainable solutions as an alternative to antibiotics for controlling fish pathogens at various life stages and alleviate the pressure of global antimicrobial resistance; 4) Developing new tools and technology to improve health and welfare monitoring at the fish farm level and diagnostics of fish pathogens both at the laboratory and the fish farm levels; 5) Placing fish welfare at the foreground of aquaculture production, through the development of high welfare standards that consider different life-stages, production systems, and knowledge of welfare needs, and 6) Ensuring effective external communication, dissemination and exploitation of project activities and results to all relevant target groups.