The Iceland Ocean Cluster celebrated the opening of its third phase on April 1st finalizing the renovation and formal opening of the second floor at Grandagardur 16 in Reykjavik. The aquaponicsunit at the Ocean Cluster was well presented to the many guests. Fresh tilapia was offered for testing and the different plants in the production were presented. It now includes okra, tomatoes, basil and a mix of salads. People are especially asking for the big and beatiful aquaponics basil being the most successful product so far. The okra is growing well providing excellent products. Okra is not a well known product on the Icelandic market so far, but further tests on concumer acceptance will be carried out.

The Leonardo group visited the IGFF aquaponics test plant placed at the innovation center of AgroTech and CPH University. The test plant is based on decoupled aquaponics technology and designed in collaboration with AkvaGroup. It opens up new possibilities for research and development for up-scaling towards commercial aquaponics.

Lasse Carlsen a young entrepreneur in Copenhagen presented the ideas behind the aquaponics system at Plant Lab placed at the old Osram Factory for bulb production now turned into a culture house. The aquaponics system and its surroundings are well geared for various hands-on training and workshops in aquaponics. Several studies have been carried out already related to different setups of vertical and horizontal hydroponics, different fish species, insect production and different plants.

Erik Wulf-Steen Svendsen the initiator of Otillias Garden placed at the former compound of the Carlsberg breweries in Copenhagen introduced the ideas behind the concept. Otillias garden people are setting up a 60 m2 polytunnel with aquaponics this spring as a show case of urban farming.

Dr. Paul Rye Kledal IGFF welcomed the Leonardo Europonics group to Copenhagen to a Europonics seminar on March 17th 2015. A large group of students from Dahlske Highschool in Grimstad Norway and the University of Iceland participated in the seminar together with aquaponics people from Denmark and Spain. The good mix of interested people with different backgrounds resulted in fruitful discussions about several aspects of aquaponics related to different challenges as for example technology, biology and markets.

COST Action FA1305 ‘The EU Aquaponics Hub  – Realising Sustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU’ is holding a competition to award funding to two PhD students or Postdocs to attend the 3rd  Management Committee meeting at the University of Gran Canaria, Spain, 22-24 April 2015.

Applicants should send a CV and a one page letter of motivation outlining what they would hope to gain from attending the meeting, and what they would be able to contribute.  The deadline for applications is 15 March 2015. Further information can be found in the link below.

Competition flyer

Photographer: Erling Stubhaug

The EcoPonics group was well presented at the Aquaponics seminar held at Bioforsk in Grimstad, Norway. Bioforsk has built an aquaponics pilot unit and their researchers are testing cold water fish species, brown trout and rainbow trout together with different salad species in the hydroponics unit. The seminar was very successful gathering young people, researchers and people from the different industries, suppliers of equipment for both aquaculture and growers and people from aquaculture and horticulture businesses.

Breen is now running the second aquaponics vocational training programme for unemployed people. The training programme is a 170 hour programme and includes 15 trainees. The last training programme was very successful and presently two of the former trainees work at Breen.

The first aquaponics session of Aquaculture Europe received a lot of interest. All the seats were taken, and people stood at the rear of the hall.
The EcoPonics group had three oral presentations at the aquaponics session of Aquculture Europe 14 held in San Sebastian in Basque country; AQUAPONICS AND THE PROSPECTS OF LARGE SCALE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION, IMPLEMENTING COMMERCIAL AQUAPONICS IN EUROPE – FIRST RESULTS FROM THE ECOINNOVATION PROJECT ECOPONICS and MODELLING THE SYMBIOTIC EFFECTS IN AQUAPONICS.

After the aquaponics seminar at Tknika the group visited Breens aquaponics pilot station. Breen is currently testing a range of different plants. All of them are growing well. The fish species used is tilapia. Breen also uses the pilot station for vocational training of young people and unemployed people in close collaboration with Tknika.