AlgiNet - Final Meeting
SAMS, Oban, January 26th and 27th 2006
The final AlgiNet meeting will be held at the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory (SAMS) on Thursday 26th January 2006, with the Friday comprising a workshop on 'Algae in Aquaculture'. Offers of papers/presentations are welcome. The meeting and workshop are open to anyone with an interest in algae, freshwater or marine.
Please download the registration form or contact Dr John Day or CCAP Administration for further information.
AlgiNet Registration Form  (pdf version)
If you wish to book accommodation at the Oban Caledonian Hotel, please contact Cristal Ancliffe on +44 (0)1631 563133 or by email to cancliffe@go2oban.co.uk stating that you wish to book for the John Day SAMS Group.
Introduction to the AlgiNet Project
AlgiNet is a Thematic Network funded by the European Commission under the 'Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme' Key Action 1: Food, Nutrition and Health. The Network integrates most of the key players in microalgal biotechnology and related areas in Europe and aims to gather all the key players in microalgae R&D and therefore to improve communication between researchers and manufacturers in the microalgal field, encouraging further development. See the Alginet website at www.algi-net.org.
The main goals of the project are:
• To improve communication between workers in the field of microalgae (and algology
generally)
• To focus the direction of European research, to open new markets for microalgal
products
• To provide a standard reference portal for workers in the field
• To enable more rapid dissemination of research results, to speed the uptake of new
technologies.
• To attract new interest in the field
• To develop an ongoing 'virtual institute' model and lay the groundwork for future RTD
projects
There are many centres of excellence throughout Europe specialising in the field of microalgae. However, whilst interesting results are often obtained, there have been cases of research being duplicated. This is a result of poor communication between workers in the field and evidently harms competitiveness in the field. There is also a lack of focus in the research performed. This may mean that some aspects of a problem are not considered, which can make commercialisation of novel products and technologies problematic.
There is clearly a need for a body to help co-ordinate European research and to make recommendations for its future direction. This thematic network proposes to accomplish these aims by bringing together experts from across Europe: academics, industrialists, end users and SMEs. These experts will discuss various aspects of research and development work in the field. They will survey the research currently being performed in the field through an in-depth literature and patent search. They will, based on their own experience and the results of this network, select the most promising areas for future development and will produce a report to the European Commission advising on the future direction of European research.
Communication between the members will be encouraged through the development of an advanced website. By the end of the network's funding period, the website will provide a large amount of data pertaining to microalgal research.
There is a plethora of information available on microalgae, both online and offline. Whilst comprehensive, some of this information is not always easily accessible, and it is very dispersed. There are a huge number of culture collections, for example, and finding the strain in which one is interested is often a time-consuming, tedious process. This thematic network will perform a comprehensive survey of European algae collections. This information will be added to an advanced database, either directly or through hyperlinks. This database will be accessible from the network website. The database will create a single portal (or 'one-stop shop') for users and potential users of microalgal strains.
Scottish Association for Marine Science, Dunstaffnage, by Oban
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