The use of sustainable and innovative technology for dairy and fish by-products
In 2022, researchers from the Latvian University of Biosciences and Technology (LBTU), led by scientific supervisor Professor Jeļena Zagorska, applied to the Baltic Research Programme as part of the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Instrument for the period 2014-2021, under the "Research and Education" programme. The project, titled "Sustainable and Innovative Technologies for Efficient Use of Dairy and Fish By-Products," was developed with the collaboration of partners from Estonia, Lithuania, and Norway. This initiative aims to explore and implement advanced and sustainable technologies for the effective utilization of by-products from the dairy and fish industries.
The project will develop and submit an application to a research project call, bringing together partners from Norway, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These partners will assess the needs and current state of the global food industry, considering new processing technologies such as high-pressure processing, membrane processing, high-voltage pulsed current processing, and ultrasound to enhance the value of by-product natural ingredients. Other challenges, including reducing production costs and minimizing environmental impacts, will also be addressed.
The project will run from July 19, 2023, to April 30, 2024. Although the project application met the established quality criteria, the high number of submissions and limited funding resulted in the LBTU project application not receiving financial support.
However, after evaluating the available options, the Latvian Science Council issued a new call for projects with restricted selection. The aforementioned partners received funding for the project, with total eligible costs amounting to EUR 57,337.50, grant funding of EUR 48,736.88, and state co-financing of EUR 8,600.60. This funding was used to prepare new project applications involving the existing partners.
During the project implementation, LBTU, SINTEF Ocean (The Foundation for Industrial and Technical Research, Norway), TFTAK (Centre of Food and Fermentation Technologies, Estonia), and the Centre of Physical and Technological Sciences (Lithuania) prepared two project applications.
One of these applications was submitted to the European Union-funded Horizon Europe Framework Programme call for proposals, as well as to the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Programme, which receives funding from the United Nations Foundation. The applications are currently under evaluation, and we are awaiting the results.
Securing this funding will not only enhance cooperation with existing partners but also attract new partners from Israel and Spain. Additionally, it will contribute to the development of scientific perspectives across various fields, provide opportunities to share best practices, and foster further collaborations.
More information on the project can be found here.
The total cost of this project is €57,337.50, with €48,736.88 co-financed by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and €8,600.63 by the Latvian state budget.
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