Significant advances in algae innovation
This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 3 2025.
Global demand for sustainable, biobased products is skyrocketing. Algae offer unparalleled opportunities to meet this demand without placing undue pressure on terrestrial ecosystems or freshwater supplies.
The AlgaeProBANOS (APB) project, funded under the Horizon Europe framework and the EU Mission Ocean, was designed to harness the potential of algae as a sustainable and versatile biomass resource for the Baltic and North Sea regions (BANOS).
Contributing to growth and sustainability goals
By 2030, the EU Mission Ocean aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments. The Mission’s new, systemic approach addresses the ocean and waters as one and plays a key role in achieving climate neutrality and restoring nature. APB leverages regional strengths to build integrated and sustainable value chains for eight algae-based products across six pilot partners. With a focus on applications in food, feed, nutraceuticals, textiles, cosmetics, and plant biostimulants, APB aims to accelerate the launch of algae-derived products on the market. These innovations promote economic growth and support the EU’s environmental and social sustainability goals.
With 26 partners in the consortium, APB is on track to deliver impactful solutions that balance economic, environmental, and social imperatives, ensuring long-term benefits for the BANOS region and beyond. The objective is to have a thriving algae-based bioeconomy in the BANOS region by 2050. In the first two years, APB has made substantial progress in developing an interdisciplinary framework to assess algae value chains and address ecological, economic, and social dimensions. This framework supports informed decision-making and ensures alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Advances in algae cultivation strategies to improve biomass yield and reduce production costs are ongoing. Efforts include nutrient recycling, low-energy harvesting, and the development of a sustainable wild harvesting framework. The first iterations of digital platforms that integrate data and provide decision-support tools for stakeholders across the algae value chain have been developed for testing by stakeholders. Let us dive into each to understand better where we are headed.
Pilots and products
The six startups and SMEs implementing the AlgaeProBANOS pilots are moving forward in the development of eight innovative algae-based products, which include food, feed, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, biostimulants, and textile agents. The products use Baltic and North Sea algae, microalgae from carbon capture and utilisation, and harmful algal blooms. First product prototypes are currently under review, and feedback from potential customers and end users is being collected, with initial go-to-market strategies in place. By the end of the project, pilots aim to reach a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 7-9, meaning that the products are close to market. Internal commercialisation and go-to-market strategies will be adapted to create broader blueprints, which will be made available to algae businesses and support the growth of the wider sector.
Marimekko fabric produced using Origin by Ocean’s biorefinery ingredients derived from seaweed.
Monitoring frameworks for micro- and macroalgal value chains
The monitoring framework developed in the AlgaeProBANOS project focuses on the sustainable performance of algae products across environmental, economic, social, and governance dimensions. The process of developing this framework consisted of several smaller steps. To collect and use the current best practices and knowledge, we drew from for many different existing sustainability frameworks and academic publications focusing on sustainable performance. We recognise that natural environments have inherent limitations essential to ecosystem functioning and maintaining vital conditions for the biosphere and its subsystems. These non-negotiable thresholds highlight the urgent need for cross-disciplinary dialogue to foster an integrated approach to sustainability assessment. Tools such as social life cycle assessments (LCA) will be used to integrate different dimensions.
Life cycle assessments
Progress on the pilot systems’ LCAs is advancing nicely. Detailed system diagrams are being developed to comprehensively represent the processes and material flows. These diagrams are critical for identifying key inputs, outputs, and environmental impact categories. Value chains have been established for each pilot, ensuring a clear understanding of the ecological connections from raw material sourcing to final product outputs. This phase has involved setting tentative functional units and determining the system boundaries and baselines for comparison to ensure that the assessments accurately reflect the environmental impacts across the entire lifecycle. Collaboration with algae LCA experts from across a range of EU-funded projects and beyond is ongoing, with the aim of developing a standardised methodology.
Wild harvesting
In the EU, wild harvesting is still the most important method of seaweed biomass production, although only Estonia permits large-scale wild harvesting in the Baltic region. Recommendations for monitoring sustainable wild harvesting developed under APB include assessing the standing stock as the first step to establishing the baseline. Then, basic macroalgae features and aquatic environment indicators should be applied as monitoring parameters. Joint projects and cost-sharing between stakeholders could reduce monitoring costs. National policies regarding wild seaweed harvesting could be strengthened by linking wild harvesting sites and national MSPs and by sharing governance of local seaweed resources.
The Algae Accelerator
After receiving over 40 applications, the AlgaeProBANOS project selected ten dynamic startups to receive €10,000 worth of mentoring services. The Algae Accelerator is a six-month mentorship programme that supports startups and SMEs in the algae value chain in upscaling their business strategies. The initiative aims to introduce new, sustainable alternatives to the market, address key challenges, and boost the development and uptake of innovative algae-based products.
The selected startups and SMEs are AlgaePhos4X, Algamol, Amelia Space Technologies, Anaula, Biopharmia, CLASH Algaeproducts, ER LAB, Jordà Food Group, Kybeles Garden, and Palgae. They come from across Europe—including Latvia, Turkey, Norway, and France, and work on various innovations, from algae-based leather and rubber replacements to satellite observation of algal blooms. In the Algae Accelerator programme, start-ups are matched with expert mentors who support the entrepreneurs in tackling the business challenges set out in their applications. The second Algae Accelerator call, which will support up to ten more start-ups and SMEs, will be launched in late 2025.
Digital tools Blue Bio Match and the Algae Business Club
The Blue Bio Match platform was developed as a collaborative initiative between the APB project and the Blue Bio Clusters, Baltic Muppets and SeaMark projects. This online hub aims to bring together diverse stakeholders in the blue bioeconomy, including startups, SMEs, industry, researchers, policymakers, and funders. The platform facilitates knowledge exchange, fosters collaboration, and promotes sustainable innovation within the blue economy.
As part of the AlgaeProBANOS project, the Algae Business Club (ABC) has been successfully integrated into the SUBMARINER Algae Working Group, which is now hosted on the Blue Bio Match platform, offering an interactive space where people in the algae sector can connect and collaborate. As part of the SUBMARINER Algae Working Group, the ABC provides a structured environment for stakeholders to network and exchange ideas, access major algae marketplaces, and participate in quarterly online meetups, during which members discuss the latest industry trends, challenges, and innovations. These meetups provide a valuable platform for sharing experiences and exploring collaborative solutions.
By leveraging the pre-existing SUBMARINER Algae Working Group, integrating the Algae Business Club into Blue Bio Match has reached over 200 active members at the time of writing, amplifying engagement with key algae industry stakeholders. This strategic move avoids the challenges of creating a new network from scratch while connecting ABC with a broad community within the blue bioeconomy.
A further digital tool under development in the AlgaeProBANOS project is the Algae Economist biorefinery tool. This tool aims to help algae businesses assess the economic impacts of key choices in biorefinery process configurations and performance parameters. Partners are working on an initial draft for potential integration into various algae valorisation processes.
Algae knowledge base
Experiments have begun with AI-driven methods for querying and extracting relevant information to support the APB farming dashboard with insightful, context-specific data. Using the algae knowledge base, we are testing advanced prompting techniques to retrieve specific data on farms, algae species, and related environmental conditions. While this approach is still experimental, results have been promising. Although this integration is still under development, and results are not yet guaranteed, these AI-enhanced data collection methods will ultimately enhance the dashboard’s value for end users. This process holds significant potential for providing farmers and researchers with streamlined access to critical information and advancing data-driven decision making across the project. The front end of the algae farming dashboard features an embedded map integrated with a faceted browsing interface. Based on their headquarters locations, the dashboard offers users a dynamic view of algae-related companies and organisations across Europe.
Product showcase in Tromsø
In March of this year, APB partners gathered in Tromsø to showcase and discuss the project’s development. The mayor of Tromsø, Gunnar Wilhelmsen, opened the meeting and participated in a tasting session in which fishcakes containing algae were compared with a second version of the same fishcake without the added algae. “Seaweed and algae are versatile and sustainable renewable resources with great potential for use in a wide range of product applications, but it doesn’t happen without effort,” stated Dagbjørn Skipnes, Senior Scientist at Nofima, a project partner. “If seaweed and algae are going to be used as food ingredients, they should be processed so that the health benefits and culinary experience are realised. In this project, we use complicated technologies ranging from simple processing like cooking and drying to advanced technologies such as ultrasound and pulsed electric fields”.
Harvesting Baltic red algae for use in biostimulants
APB’s upcoming workshops
Ideation workshops drive product innovation and market exploration. The first workshops, held in 2023, focused on internal AlgaeProBANOS pilot projects and helped to identify challenges and solutions for product development within the consortium. In 2025, look out for ideation workshops targeting SMEs and startups involved in the Algae Accelerator. These sessions will help participants refine their business models and identify opportunities for market growth. In 2026, more extensive ideation workshops will be held with industry leaders, encouraging collaboration between SMEs and established enterprises to scale algae-based innovations. Interested parties are invited to contact the project coordinator via the project website at https://algaeprobanos.eu.
Nicole NeSmith, Submariner Network, nn@submariner-network.eu
The wild harvesting recommendations and monitoring frameworks for micro- and macroalgal value chains are available for the public at submariner-network.eu/.