VALIAS aims to match the need for managing the marine Invasive Alien Species (IAS) populations with the growing demand for marine derived-products. Under the frame of circular economy, the valorization of unexploited IAS feedstocks can represent a sustainable strategy for the realization of a circular bio-economy, with the production of stable and safe food, fish feed and cosmetic ingredients. Various compounds with high commercial value obtained from fish and other invasive aquatic species byproducts, including collagen, enzymes, bioactive peptides, minerals and functional fatty acids will be valorized in VALIAS. VALIAS proposal can turn the current problem represented by marine IAS into a "WinWin" solution both for the European fisheries and for the companies active in the sector of aquaculture, nutrition and cosmetology. Specifically, VALIAS will contribute to the limitation of IAS stocks and of their negative ecological and economic impact on marine life, fisheries, human welfare, and health in European seas. Finally, VALIAS will contribute to the enrichment of the knowledge of the biology of IAS, a key objective of European Directive 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of introduction and spread of alien species. VALIAS will bring together experts from industry and academia specialized in interdisciplinary/inter-sectorial, yet highly complementary, research areas of Marine-Maritime Research, Aquaculture, Feed-Food technology and safety and Cosmetology. As a joint research and innovation project, it will develop a strong partnership involving 8 partners from 5 EU countries (EL, CY, IT, IE and BG) and with different technical backgrounds from the academic and non-academic sectors. The execution of the project and the knowledge sharing will be based on secondments (exchanges) of research and innovation staff with an in-built return mechanism strengthening collaborative research among the different countries and sectors.

The overall objective of Stance4Health is to develop a complete Smart Personalised Nutrition (SPN) service based on the use of mobile technologies as well as tailored food production that will optimize the gut microbiota activity and long-term consumer engagement. The Stance4Health consortium consists of 19 partners from 8 European countries (Spain, Germany, Denmark, Romania, Italy, Greece, Belgium, UK). Six SMEs will be in charge of the development and future commercialisation of the novel SPN service, including 2 new apps for personalised nutrition, integration of a wearable device for daily analysis of one’s body composition, 9 tailored cereal-derived foods for specific (vulnerable) consumer groups (overweight, coeliac disease or food allergy, adults, children), 6 individualised dietary supplements for adults, and 1 nutraceutical and 1 in vitro diagnostic test to control the gut microbiota activity. These novel tools and services have the potential to directly impact more than 67 million European adults and 8 million children by 2022, at a monthly cost of only 0.99€ (for the app).

The world is facing the daunting challenge of increasing and improving the quality of its food production to match its population growth, and simultaneously of making its food production system more sustainable if it wants to reach the goals set in the Paris Agreement on climate change (more than a quarter of greenhouse gases are generated by the food production system). In the EU, an additional challenge comes up since about 75% of protein production is imported. This dependence on imports represents a weakness as supply chain disruptions have become much more common, due to pandemic crises or geopolitical upheavals. ARB has developed a high-quality protein ingredient, called SylPro, that addresses all these challenges. It valorises under-used feedstock (such as agricultural or forestry residues) as raw material and harnesses the power of a proprietary yeast to produce a protein rich ingredient that can be used directly for human food or animal feed. ARB’s technology can thus produce proteins both locally and on a very large scale since lignocellulosic material and agricultural side streams are available in huge quantities. Thanks to a robust and efficient process, it also has a low environmental footprint, making its product one of the protein ingredients with the lowest CO2 emissions. SYLPLANT is building on the success of its demonstration program SYLFEED, a 4-years innovative collaborative project financed by BBI-JU (2017-2021).For this project, ARB proposes to move to the next step, building its first-of-a-kind commercial plant with a capacity of 10 kt/year of SylPro and developing market applications with various partners. Upon completion, SYLPLANT will then deliver an industrial plant producing a high-quality protein ingredient, innovative market products in the food, petfood and aquafeed sectors, and a roadmap for building larger plants combining ARB and FIB’s technologies, making the vision of creating food from under-used and local resources a reality.