In its summer newsletter, BBIA member OCEANIUM highlighted a series of positive developments in the last few months.

OCEANIUM secures IUK Grant for further R&D on Seaweed Proteins

OCEANIUM’s third IUK Smart Grant – called SMART III – officially launched on 1 July. Funded by Innovate UK, the key aim is to develop functional protein from sustainably farmed kelp and from harmful algae blooms of sea lettuce. This will be an important step for OCEANIUM in further developing a seaweed protein to replace resource-intensive protein and expanding its work into new species.

Supporting UN SDG 14 Life Before Water

OCEANIUM was delighted to attend the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon (27 June – 1 July) and connect with people and organisations all working to propel much-needed science-based innovative solutions to meet SDG14 Life Below Water.

Karen Scofield Seal, OCEANIUM CEO, spoke during the ‘Minimizing and addressing ocean acidification, deoxygenation and ocean warming’ Interactive Dialogue and urged focus on nature-based solutions and the potential of seaweed.

Safe Seaweed Coalition, which has been pivotal in raising awareness and putting seaweed on the agenda with key stakeholders across the globe hosted a panel: Seaweed: A Revolution to Achieve SDG 14. Karen joined the panel discussion, focusing on how seaweed can help meet many of the UN SDGs and how OCEANIUM’s biorefinery model will jumpstart this growing industry in the western hemisphere.

Oceanium Bio-refinery Pilot Processing

OCEANIUM’s Ops and R&D teams have been dedicated to setting up our pilot processing equipment stack in a food-safe facility in the UK. First, they will fine tune the highly technical, 45-step process to achieve maximum value from the seaweed, then move into production mode! The teams have sourced seaweed for this pilot run from The Faroes, Norway, UK and France.

UK KTN: Getting serious about seaweed

The government-funded Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), the network which originally brought OCEANIUM’s founders together, produced a seaweed education and networking event which was attended by well over 300 people.

OCEANIUM has kicked off its Seed III Fundraising!

OCEANIUM has kicked off its Seed III Fundraise. This round will help it to build the first OCEANIUM biorefinery which will increase the amount of seaweed the company can purchase from farmers, increase the number of OCEANIUM products that replace resource-intensive products, and create ‘blue’ jobs across rural coastal regions.