In June 2026, susaquastirling.net members led on the organisation of a 3-session online Summer School - ”Researching circular bio-economy solutions for sustainable aquaculture in Europe”. This was organised under the SmartAqua4FuturE (SAFE) project in partnership with the similarly EU-funded AWARE and INNOAQUA projects.

The series consisted of three online half-day sessions held in June 2026, bringing together researchers, students, early-career professionals, aquaculture practitioners, industry stakeholders and policy-oriented audiences interested in circularity, resource efficiency, waste valorisation, aquafeeds, aquaponics, sustainability assessment and innovation uptake in aquaculture systems.

Across the three sessions, speakers from the SAFE, AWARE and INNOAQUA projects presented examples of how aquaculture waste streams, by-products, water, nutrients and biological resources can be better recovered, reused and valorised. The programme also addressed the broader enabling conditions required to scale circular aquaculture innovations, including policy frameworks, patent landscaping, economic viability, sustainability assessment and value-chain resilience. The Stirling involvement was mainly in the final session, which was chaired by Richard Newton and featured presentations by John Bostock and Wesley Malcorps.

The Summer School attracted considerable interest with over 500 registrations and up to 150 participants in each session. Whilst the focus of the Summer School was very much on Europe, participants from around the world joined the sessions. As anticipated, most participants were students or were employed in academic and research organisations, but there was also significant interest from other parts of the public sector and also the private sector.

Follow these links for further details of the programme for each session and for the SAFE Summer School Webpage with links to the session video recordings.