Balancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability in the European aquaculture industry (Aquabalance)

Short description of the project: AQUABALANCE is a three-year project funded by the EU Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership aimed at  supporting the transition toward sustainable aquaculture systems by identifying barriers and drivers, ensuring a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social dimensions, and leveraging policy to guide change.

Tangible results: The project will deliver new knowledge on how aquaculture can evolve in economically viable, environmentally responsible, and socially inclusive ways, using a pan-European approach across diverse sea basins. It will map existing and emerging solutions, provide actionable insights for industry and policy, and develop a policy roadmap adaptable to regional contexts. Some materials (such as reports and databases) are already available on the project website.

Application/relevance: Through stakeholder engagement and multi-actor collaboration, AQUABALANCE will generate research-based recommendations that support EU strategies such as Farm to Fork, address climate and social challenges, and enable sustainable growth and value creation at local, national, and international levels.