Over 50 major players in the European seaweed industry convened in Tórshavn last week to officially launch the SeaMark Horizon Europe project. Over four years, partners will deliver 12 seaweed-based products for commercial exploitation.

Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, 7. September 2022 - Hosted by Ocean Rainforest, the SeaMark public-private partnership comprising 25 multi-disciplinary partners met in Tórshavn to kick off the Horizon Europe project “SeaMark”.

SeaMark is the first Horizon project to be hosted by a Faroese company. The meeting was opened by Magnus Rasmussen, the Faroese Minister of Environment, Industry and Trade, who welcomed the project as a beacon of hope for the future of Europe, strengthening collaboration between the Faroes and its neighbours. The project coordinator, Olavur Gregersen, gave an inspirational speech calling on partners to prove the seaweed sceptics wrong by delivering the ambitious scale and quality of results promised in the proposal. Guest speakers Lena Lange of LLa-Bioeconomy Research & Advisory, Linn-Anne Bjelland-Brunborg of Orkla Foods, Adrien Vincent of Seaweed for Europe, Simon Freeman of ARPA-e USA and Paul Dobbins of WWF USA applauded the project and gave the consortium tips on how to maximise their impact and get seaweed on a level playing field with more established industries.

SeaMark’s cross-disciplinary team will scale up macroalgae cultivation and processing techniques to develop 12 innovative products in the first seaweed biorefinery plant for cultivated seaweed. The innovations will show that macroalgae – a zero-carbon crop – can be used in multiple industries, with multiple concurrent socioeconomic and environmental benefits compared to other industrial feedstocks such as terrestrial crops or petrochemicals. Alongside market applications, SeaMark will quantify ecosystem services provided by seaweed farms, contributing to a body of evidence justifying large-scale seaweed cultivation as a bioremediation tool and key element of a new circular bioeconomy.

Ocean Rainforest is a pioneering blue growth company located in the Faroe Islands and California, USA growing seaweed for feed, food and cosmetic producers, collaborating with a number of international partners. Their ambition is to improve people’s wellbeing and to leave a unique legacy to our blue planet. They do this by applying science, innovation and expertise to grow premium quality seaweed for sale and research.

For further information:

Project Coordinator: olavur[at]oceanrainforest.com

Media contact: fb[at]submariner-network.eu

Tipping the scales in favour of seaweed: SeaMark seeks to turn the tide for bio-based industries