Reducing the vulnerability of aquaculture species and environments to phenomena such as rising temperatures, salinity, or loss of water quality while, at the same time, developing practical tools that allow producers, administrations, and local communities to anticipate and adapt to these challenges. These are the objectives of Cliraqua, a European research project led by the Universidade da Coruña through the Interdisciplinary Centre for Chemistry and Biology (CICA), with the Bioga cluster as one of its main partners.
The consortium, involving research centers and companies from Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and France, will create a repository of climate and ecological data, interactive vulnerability maps, and management protocols to optimize aquaculture in environments modified by climate change.
Additionally, an early warning system for diseases associated with changes in temperature and salinity will be implemented, and a Transnational Aquaculture Resilience Network will be created to establish the foundations and facilitate the adoption of best practices in this sector.
Aquaculture is a strategic sector in Galicia, a leader in production, with more than 2,600 companies employing over 5,000 people and a turnover that exceeded 200 million euros in 2023, according to data from the Consellería do Mar. Therefore, it is essential to provide tools so that aquaculture can face climate change with resilience.
All tools created within the Cliraqua project will be available to producers, policymakers, researchers, and local communities.
“We promote collaborative innovation projects, where applied research finds pathways for industrial development, both within Galicia and internationally,” explains Loli Pereiro Mato, manager of Bioga. Alongside Cliraqua, Bioga is participating in three other knowledge transfer projects this year.
“We are committed to collaboration between university and business”
Knowledge transfer has been one of Bioga’s pillars since the cluster’s inception. “With the aim of building a value ecosystem that allows us to attract investment and good ideas, we consistently bet on collaboration between university and business by creating common spaces,” explains José Manuel López Vilariño, president of Bioga.
“We work to ensure that ideas born in laboratories find their space in the market,” says Elena González Martín, project manager at the Galician life sciences cluster. One of the keys to Bioga’s work is precisely its ability to weave networks. Thanks to its presence in the national network of clusters and its international projection—with collaborations in Latin America, Ireland, or the United States—Bioga has become a meeting point between universities, technology centers, and companies.
“We promote events such as speed dating—fast-paced meetings to share potential projects—and talent days to present our companies and their job opportunities to young researchers. We also collaborate with the master’s programs of the three Galician universities, as well as their transfer offices, to ensure that good ideas are not lost along the way and to encourage the industrialization of knowledge,” states López Vilariño, who emphasizes that “the biotechnology sector is highly knowledge-intensive. Talent, research, and knowledge will be critical in the coming decades in Europe to ensure its economic model improves productivity.”
Article extracted from La Voz de Galicia: Acuicultura resiliente