Through our research and development (R&D) endevours, we seek knowledge to develop and strengthen our processes, operations, products as well as better utiliseing technologies and solutions available in the market.

In most of our projects we team up with research institutions, like universities and research institutes, as well as industrial partners. The scope of the projects varies from extensive strategic research programs with many different collaborating entrants, to limited improvement projects with direct impact on our farming operations. Grieg Seafood has over the last couple of years strengthen our internal capability to tease through our own production datasets by in-house analytical competency. This way we form in -house project groups that team up with corporate competency in areas like fish health and nutrition to improve our farming operations.

At present, we perform or are involved in, projects covering our entire operational value chain. Here are som examples from our activites with open sources:

Low missions value chain for offshore aquaculture

This project is part of the Norwegian Research Council organised national “Green Platform” initiative, with the purpose to provide funding for enterprises and research institutions to engage in R&D to facilitate «Green growth». Green growth is about fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that the natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies.To do this it must catalyse investment and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities..

Offshore salmon farming represents a shole set of challenges, including novel rearing conditions for our salmon, rough weather conditions and long distances to infrastructure.The project activity aims to lead to innovation and knowledge that offers good rearing conditions for the salmon, lower energy use and reduces CO2 footprint.The research activity covers novel production methods like closed floating farming conditions for post-smolt, floating fish feed, electrification in all areas of the production, multi-operational vessels and semi-autonomous operation and digital tools. Grieg Seafood has taken the lead in projects that covers the latter topic.

The project will contribute to enable offshore aquaculture to become a sustainable addition to other protein- producing sectors focusing on reduced CO2 emissions, environmental impact and production costs and produce in accordance with EU’s Green Deal and taxonomy.The project will be a dialog arena for public- and private actors with interest and knowledge to share in the open sea space.The aim for this activity is to contribute to responsible development of public regulations and monitoring that have not been established previously for salmon production.

BIOSIRKEL

The project BIOSIRKEL main objective is to unleash the completeness and value creation of the western Norway region by building capacity, strengthen competence and accelerate bio-circular interactions. The project lead is NORCE and Grieg Seafood is the salmon aquaculture industrial partner. The objectives are to be achieved by serving the region as a competence platform for circular innovation and interaction between research, business, public sector and education. The platform will initiate and facilitate scaling of novel circular, bioeconomic opportunities by connecting partners within areas like waste streams and bioeconomic opportunities like new feed ingredients. It will be mandatory to identify and develop specific value chains and business models that provide the most significant potential for completeness with local and regional resources and business structures. This, in combination with projects that show promise in implying the least climate- and environmental footprint.

CtrAQUA

CtrAQUA is a Centre for Research-based Innovation appointed by the Research Council Norway. CtrlAQUA's main goal is to develop technological and biological innovations that will make closed facilities a reliable and economically viable technology. The main research focus is the strategic parts of the farmed salmon production cycle, such as the post-smolt stage. Nofima is the host for the center and among other scientific partners are University of Bergen, NTNU, Freshwater Institute (USA) and University of Gothenburg. Grieg Seafood is part of this strong consortium together with the other major salmon farming industrial players in Norway.

Complex Gill Disease Initiative

Over the last decade gill health and associated disease has been a growing challenge in salmon farming operations in both the Pacific and North Atlantic where Grieg Seafood operates. Complex gill disease is a multifactorial condition resulting from the interaction of environmental and husbandry conditions as well as infection by pathogens and parasites to create proliferative lesions, particularly during the summer and fall months. This project will validate biomarkers of healthy and compromised gills of Atlantic salmon and use these to develop an early warning system for the development of gill disease on Atlantic salmon production sites across Canada. The resulting genomics-enabled tools for fish health will guide the management and intervention strategies for complex gill disease in Atlantic salmon. Project lead is University of Prince Edward Island, other research institutions are Memorial University and University of British Columbia. The founding bodies are Genome Atlantic and Genome British Columbia. Grieg Seafood Canada BC, Cargill and Cermacq Canada are the industrial partners in the consortium.

ILA-SAFE

Together with the other salmon producing companies in Finnmark, Grieg Seafood is a partner in the ILA-SAFE project. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute is project lead and the Institute of Marine Research is another scientific partner. The project started in January 2021 and runs until June 2024. The two main objectives of the project are to increase the knowledge base on prevalence of the non-pathogenic ISA variant HPR0 in hatcheries and map out factors that initiates mutations to the virus into the pathogen variant of ISA virus; HPR-del. Based on available information, next phase of the project aims to implement biosecurity measures in the smolt production to lower the risk for future incidences of clinical ISA.

SeaLice Control (LuseKontroll)

The overall objective of the project is to provide knowledge for improved empirical based strategies for controlling sea lice. By analysing datasets on sea lice levels, effect of treatments and integrated pest management tools, the researchers aim to identify and evaluate effect of measures against salmon lice on site level and in zones. Additionally, a model for sea lice development will be developed based on statistical analysis of field data. Grieg Seafood provides data sets from our farming operations in Rogaland and Finnmark, in addition to sharing our experience on operational fish health by participation in the project reference group. The Norwegian Veterinary Institute runs the project together with the Norwegian Computing Center. The project period is from 2020 to 2023.

POCOplast

Grieg Seafood is a partner in the POCOplast project initiated in 2019. POCOplast is short for: “Pathways to sustainable use of post-consumer plastics in aquaculture”. The aim of the project is to increase the value of recycled plastics, by utilizing used plastic from the aquaculture industry in new products, thereby reducing the demand for new plastic. This will also increase knowledge of recyclability in the supply chain and reduce the loss of the material value that many high-value plastics exhibits today. ​Scope of the project is 2020-2023, and project lead is SINTEF in collaboration with the other scientific partner NTNU. The consortium consist of a panel of members reflecting the value chain: Grieg Seafood , NCE Aquatech, Plasto, Empower, Norwegian Plastic Recycling (NOPREC), Flokk and the NGO Bellona.