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SEAFOODplus passed scientific evaluation successfully!


July 28. 2003

The good news has been received: The SEAFOODplus proposal passed the scientific evaluation by the EU Commission with very high scores. Out of 30 possible points, the proposal received 27! Within the area of Priority 5, Food Quality and Safety, 69 proposals for Integrated Projects (IP) were received, requesting a total amount of grants of 81.4 million euro.

 

SEAFOODplus was selected as one out of six proposals for IPs to be granted under the food priority. Further, another six proposals for Networks of Excellence (NoE) were also selected, making it a total of 12 projects to be financed as New Instrument projects.



 

SEAFOODplus - project overview

 

What the evaluation panel said

A very positive Evaluation Summary Report was received from the 12-member panel having evaluated the SEAFOODplus proposal. Some of the statements were:

- "The panel agreed this was an exceptionally good project, large and ambitious"
- "The participants are of extremely high quality, well experienced in their various fields and used to working in large projects and this is clearly demonstrated in convincing and credible ways"
- "Partners are experienced in previous EU projects and the lead partner has a long and successful history in this area"
- "There is no doubt about the fact that much reliable information will arise from this project that will serve to coordinate much effort in Europe and ensure its lead position in the world in this field"

Regarding the potential impact the project will have, the panel expressed the following:

"The impact will be in establishing Europe at the forefront of investigations into preventive medicine through consumption of fish products. The results of the studies will benefit consumers by helping provide sound advice on seafoods and their role in the diet. Commerce will benefit through efficiencies gained in traceability and in knowledge of better means of prevention of deterioration of product. There is a high degree of innovation at all levels in the RTD work and dissemination and demonstration plans are well worked out. The work on improving overall quality of seafoods is necessary to halt the declines in its consumption."

The next step

An invitation to negotiate a contract for SEAFOODplus has been received, and the first introductory meeting has been held. The total grant from the EU Commission will be 14.4 million euro. Adding to this the partner's own contributions, a total budget of 20-25 million euro is anticipated. It is foreseen that the negotiations, including redrafting the work programme will be conducted during the fall of 2003, and the project will officially commence January 2004.

The granted amount of money provided by the EU Commission under Priority 5 for SEAFOODplus will be lower than proposed. However, it is anticipated to attract more funds from other sources, such that as much as possible of the original programme can be fulfilled.

 

A challenging future!

SEAFOODplus will be the hub of most seafood research in Europe in the years to come. For the first time it has been possible to integrate research interests spanning from human nutrition, consumer research and food safety to processing and fish farming, to provide the best possible background for releasing the potential of using seafood for promoting human health and well-being.

The management of SEAFOODplus will set up a number of networks and communication webs within the area, particularly encouraging the participation of SME's. Anyone interested in taking part in this new, exiting development should thus contact us. For contact details, please consult the corresponding page on this website.








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