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Cooperation of Baltic states and Norway for the extended use of agricultural and sea food by-products

The brief experience exchange project began in 2019 when colleagues from the Life Sciences University of Estonia (EMU) and Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology (NTNU) invited the Institute of Horticulture (LatHort) to participate in a joint project. The initial project followed directive set by the Europe Green Course strategy and intended to vitalize by-product processing within bio-economy. Upon evaluation of problems relevant to agriculture and fishing, scientific research was aimed at providing processing solutions for underutilized agro-industrial and fish product by-product valorisation, reducing food production waste.

Although the project was not approved for funding, the cooperation of the three partners continued. In 2020, the leading partner, LatHort, submitted a project, defining the goal and planning research on agro-industrial and fish processing by-product valorisation into functional food ingredients. The project was evaluated positively, but was not approved for funding due to strong competition. This did not reduce the partners’ aspiration for research cooperation.

The story and cooperation continued in the beginning of 2023, when a limited Baltic Research program project call was opened in Latvia. The goal of the call was to strengthen research organization cooperation in Latvia, donor countries, Estonia, and Lithuania and to improve research performance on an international level. The main objective was to write and submit a joint project for further funding. To achieve this result, support for scientists, including young scientists, post-doctoral students and doctoral students.

 By creating a team of experienced scientists and doctoral students, the project proposal submitted by LatHort was approved for financing this time. Considering the limited budget, the partners collectively defined an important objective – to organize experience exchange events get to know other colleagues and their infrastructure in-person. Additionally, each partner organized visits to innovative enterprise production facilities, historic locations and national cuisine.

Institute of Horticulture (LatHort) – the leading research centre of vegetable and fruit-growing in Latvia

LatHort began the implementation of project No. EEA-RESEARCH-170-RC with an experience exchange event in Latvia. Colleagues from NTNU and EMU arrived in the end of September and were introduced to the infrastructure of the institute, the fruit garden and diversity of fruit crops, research fields and research results, as well as visited the production facilities of SIA “Latekofood” and IK “DABAS GARDUMI”. These enterprises have had close cooperation with LatHort in several projects and the resulting products are still produced as part of their product line. Since the work of NTNU colleague sis related to fish processing and the valorization of by-products (rest raw material) as part of the Europe Green Course, an additional visit to SIA “Karavela” was organized for them as well, resulting in assurance of the need for the cooperation with scientists to meet sustainability goals.

The first discussions on joint project topics and proposal preparation were started, discussing open and approaching calls for European Union (EU) and innovation program Horizon Europe project calls.

Estonian University of Life Sciences and Polli Horticultural Research Centre

The experience exchange cycle continued in Polli and Tartu, Estonia. Event organizers from Estonia introduced colleagues to the research activities at the Polli Horticultural Research centre laboratories. We were also introduced to colleagues from EMU Chair of Food Science and Technology and the Food Hygiene and Safety division from the Chair of Veterinary Biomedicine and Food Hygiene. We also visited the largest and most modern meat processing plant in Estonia – Nõo Lihatööstus, and a business cooperation event “Mulgimaa Toscana” at the Karksi-Nuia cultural centre. Visiting parties also continued brainstorming activities within the joint project proposal and chose to submit to the ERA4Health open project call NutriBrain2024. Its goal is to support international research projects investigating reduction of aging-related cognitive ability loss through dietary and lifestyle changes. Partner research fields and capabilities were evaluated, and technical and expertise deficiencies were filled by attracting partners from Italy, Germany and Lithuania. Work began on the project proposal.

Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Ålesund

During the experience exchange event at NTNU campus in Ålesund, visiting parties were introduced to the research fields, study program activities and experiments in laboratories. We visited the largest fish processors in Norway, EPAX AS, which produces fish oil, and Brødrene Sperre AS, which produces frozen and chilled archipelagic fish and traditional salted cod. Additionally, the opportunity was taken to visit the Atlantic Sea park and open-air history museum in Sunnmøre, including the historical boat and ship exhibition. During the visit, project partners from NTNU organized a brainstorm meeting on further joint project proposal preparation activities for Horizon Europe (Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership 2024, SBEP).

Results

We can end the story of our small project with the results, which exceeded what was initially planned: we visited partner facilities in-person, and submitted two joint project proposals. The financing of the Europe Economic Zone (EEZ) instrument Baltic Research program allowed us a rounded impression of our partners, meeting different specialists from scientific institutions, share experiences and global problem perspective with colleagues, allowing to plan for new project proposal addressing these problems.

The Baltic research program was realized using EEZ support grant program “Research and Education”, which is implemented and monitored by the Ministry of Science and Education and Latvian Council of Science. The total budget for the project was 8 676 084 EUR, of which the national budget co-financing constituted 15% or 1 301 413 EUR and EEZ co-financed 85% or 7 374 671 EUR. A total of 9 research projects and 5 small cooperation were implemented in Latvia under the Baltic Research program.

The Baltic Research program project (INTEREST – INnovative TEchnologies for REcovery of valuable compounds from agri-food and seafood side STreams for food applications) was implemented by the Institute of Horticulture (Latvia) in cooperation with the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Estonia) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway).