Norwegian aquaculture scientists are in the process of establishing a national centre for sea-based aquaculture technology - in the very waters in which modern fish farming was born in the 70s. The Norwegian scientists are also hoping that the centre will form the basis of a joint European full-scale research centre for aquaculture technology.

The institutions behind the initiative are SINTEF - the largest independent research institute in Scandinavia, and NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

The two institutions have already presented their joint European plans to the European Union, and the response that has emerged from Brussels is that the European Commission sees a great need for this type of research infrastructure in aquaculture.

New concepts and new technology

Although Europe already has several major centres dedicated to fish biology, the European fish-farming industry still lacks a joint large-scale research facility for marine-based aquaculture technology.

The plan is to establish an independent experimental centre that will complement and collaborate with existing European research infrastructures. Its facilities will be offered to international teams who wish to develop and test new equipment, materials, methods and processes at sea. "Cage concepts, boats for fish farms and monitoring equipment are some of the technologies the centre wishes to focus on," say Alexandra Neyts and Leif Magne Sunde, research scientists at NTNU and SINTEF respectively.

Mapping requirements

The European Commission has already given SINTEF and NTNU half a million euros to carry out a survey of the requirements and wishes of the European aquaculture industry regarding a large-scale research facility for marine-based technology.

"There has been a good response to our study, which suggests that there is a great deal of interest in setting up a joint European large-scale facility," say Neyts and Sunde.

The preliminary results of the survey of requirements will be presented at the Aqua 2006 conference in Florence in May.

Several advantages

The Norwegian scientists point out that there would be a number of advantages for European research and industrial groups in setting up a joint European facility in mid-Norway.

• Suitable premises: The Norwegian national centre will be built at Valsneset in Bjugn in mid-Norway - just a few tens of kilometres from the spot where the world's first modern fish farm was established in the early 1970s. In Valsneset, it will be possible to test sea-cages both in sheltered waters and in more open, rough-weather areas beyond the protection of the archipelago.
  
  

• Easy to measure environmental effects: The centre will lie about 30 kilometres from a protected area of the Norwegian coast. By comparing data from this area, it will be easy to measure any environmental effects of prototype systems set up at the centre itself.
  
  

• New research vessel: This summer will see the hand-over of the brand-new €5 million research vessel "Gunnerus" to NTNU. The vessel has been specially designed for aquaculture technology research purposes.
  
  

• Closeness to the "capital" of Norwegian aquaculture technology: Valsneset is only a two-hour drive from Trondheim, the "capital" of Norwegian aquaculture, and is half an hour from the nearest airport. The twin institutions SINTEF and NTNU lie in Trondheim. Together, they make up Norway's centre of gravity in R & D on technology for marine-based aquaculture. The physical closeness makes it a simple matter to exploit expertise located here in Trondheim when experiments are being carried out in Valsneset.
  
  

• Centre of Outstanding Research: The Research Council of Norway finances a national Centre of Outstanding Research at NTNU's Institute of Marine Technology. The Centre focuses on ship design and ocean structures, and it would play an important role in support of a joint European aquaculture centre on the Norwegian coast.
  
  

• World's largest aquaculture exhibition: Trondheim is the host city of Aquanor, the largest trade fair in the world in the field of aquaculture technology, which is held every two years. Several leading international manufacturers of aquaculture technology products are located in mid-Norway.
  
  

• Experience of running joint European facilities: Both NTNU and SINTEF have previous experience of operating joint European large-scale research facilities.