Project Consortium 

The consortium is made up of;

5 SME partners: Deepdock (UK), Grainocean (FR), Neeltje Jans (NL), OPMEGA (ES) & AquaTT (Ireland)

 

1 other enterprise: Roem van Yerseke (Netherlands),

4 RTD partners: RIVO (NL), University of Wales, Bangor (UK), IFREMER (FR), CIMA (ES)

PICTURE: Blue Seed Partnership at the Start up meeting, 9-10th November 2005, RIVO, Yerseke, The Netherlands 

To see a description of any partner, select them from the drop down menu under consortium.  

SME Partners 

The SME partner group consists of 1 shellfish hatchery/farmer, 3 mussel farmers and an aquaculture network. The farmers are located in 4 European countries where different culture techniques to grow spat to seed size are used. It is the role of these SMEs to test the performance of hatchery produced mussel seed in comparison with their traditional method. The development of technology for a reliable supply of high quality blue mussel seed is beneficial to all SMEs of the project. In addition, by comparing different farming methods, knowledge will be exchanged between European mussel farmers.

The role of the AquaTT is to assist in the communication within the project and the dissemination of the results within and beyond the project. Participation in the project will enlarge AquaTT’s network of links for the industry.

Other Enterprise 

The “other” enterprise (RVY) is a company that both farm and sell mussels. As an end-user they have an interest in a year-round supply of high quality blue mussels. Part of their role is similar to that of the SMEs, grow spat to seed size in land based flow through basin and to test the performance of hatchery produced mussel seed in comparison with their traditional method. In addition, they have a crucial role in the determination of the maximum allowed costs for hatchery seed because of their insight in selling mussels. They will not become owner of the results. However, by participating they will benefit from early access to the new information generated by the project.

RTD Performers 

The RTD partners are a university, two government institutes, and a public organisation. This mix ensures a broad view on the scientific issues addressed in this proposal. The RTDs have a common interest in shellfish culture research. All RTDs were chosen because of their expertise of the different aspects of the project. UWB has expertise in the production of triploid mussel larvae and IFREMER has expertise in the production of tetraploid oyster broodstock. RIVO and CIMA are experts on the culture of, respectively, M. edulis and M. galloprovincialis. In addition, the selected RTDs already have established cooperation with their respective SME partners. Experienced personnel of specialised RTDs will train research assistants and technicians of both SMEs and RTDs in order to give each participant in the different workpackages the necessary skills to carry out the different tasks. This will enhance the expertise of all SMEs and RTDs.