The aim of the MRSEI-CLIMAQS project is to set up a network of partners to prepare a project in response to the "HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-02-7-two-stage: Minimising climate impact on aquaculture: mitigation and adaptation solutions for future climate regimes" call for projects, which is of the "Innovative Action" type. Two projects will be funded for an overall budget of 9 million euros, and we would like to request 4.5 million euros for our CLIMAQS proposal. The evaluation will take place in two stages, the first of which will be blind, with a submission date of February 22, 2024. For the second stage, the complete project must be submitted by September 17, 2024. The CLIMAQS consortium plans to deploy multiple solutions around 6 workpackages to address the challenges of aquaculture in the context of climate change. The workpackages include solutions for diversification (WP1), innovative aquaculture systems and IMTA (Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture, WP2), genetic selection (WP3), species nutrition (WP4), environmental monitoring and risk prevention (WP5) and aquaculture spatial planning (WP6). The various solutions proposed by the project partners will be tested through the implementation of case studies, and evaluated in terms of circular economy, economic, social and environmental sustainability, notably through socio-economic assessments (SHS) and life-cycle analyses in a 7th workpackage (WP7). The consortium currently comprises 7 organizations from 5 different European countries, with the French partner acting as coordinator. The coordinating group, comprising two researchers and a project engineer, has already been involved in a number of European projects at various levels of responsibility. More generally, the partners already identified are currently collaborating or have already collaborated in several European projects. However, to test and evaluate certain solutions, the network has identified a lack of skills in socio-economics, sociology, sustainable development and spatial planning, which we are seeking to identify and involve in our European project as part of this proposal to set up a European network. CLIMAQS will be designed to contribute to the expectations of the targeted call (Expected outcomes) and to the broader objectives (Expected impacts) of Cluster 6's Destination "Fair, healthy and environment-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption". The consortium has already identified a number of scientific and technical spin-offs, as well as economic, social, public policy and public perception impacts. Target groups have been identified, including aquaculture businesses, associations of professionals, environmental monitoring agencies, local authorities, European and national political players, civil society and consumers, and the scientific community. Indicators to measure these benefits are planned. All of this will be developed and specified in the plan for disseminating, exploiting and communicating the project's results. Following an initial video conference meeting in May 2023, two further face-to-face meetings are planned, mainly to optimize relations between partners and workpackages, the budget, and finalize the writing of the project to be submitted in February 2024. Expenditure for these two events is the most significant (missions, room hire and catering), to which have been added the costs of proofreading documents by an English-speaking scientist and the production of iconographies.

BARRIER is a proof of concept project with multidisciplinary expertise for demonstrating, from the laboratory to a pilot process, that selected bacteria can protect microalgae when growing in various waters including produced water, seawater or wastewaters containing toxic compounds, providing higher algal resilience, productivity and bioremediation efficiency in saline wastewater treatments. Saline wastewater is a stubborn pollution source representing one of the most serious environmental problems occurring on land formations and in water reservoirs. In BARRIER project, natural microalgae and associated bacteria will be selected on organic and metallic toxic compounds. Microalgae-bacteria assemblages will be built, optimized through modeling and tested in large-scale mass culture processes using industrial wastewaters. Microalgae are promising organisms for producing a wide range of commodities (biofuel, bioplastics, …) including recycling and valuation of liquid and gaseous effluents. However, this is hindered by the difficulty to grow microalgae in contaminated waters, where various toxic may reduce their growth, and can even contribute to dramatic crash of the culture. Recent advances have shown that, when associated with a specific cluster of bacterial species, the resilience of assemblage can be significantly stronger than the microalgae alone. Microalgae-bacteria consortia are shaped by complex interactions. Microalgae stimulate bacterial growth by the release of carbon exudates, whereas bacteria supply algae with vitamins and nutrients. Although the microalgae-bacteria relationships through metabolite exchanges are well studied, little is known however regarding the impact of chemical contaminants on the interactions between both microalgae and bacteria. Further experimental studies are required to understand the algae-bacteria interactions in the context of chemical pollution pressure in order to propose innovative strategies for improving the resilience of microalgae assemblage in contaminated effluents. Four objectives in BARRIER project: • To evidence the role of bacteria in the protection of microalgae against contamination, by analyzing physiological responses of microalgae under controlled exposure to toxic chemicals. • To characterize the fate of toxic chemicals and organic matrix during the biodegradation/immobilization processes. • To model and predict the role of interactions between microalgae and associated bacteria when exposed to combined toxic chemicals. • To demonstrate in realistic outdoor pilot conditions that a selected microalgae-bacteria association provides a better resilience of the mass culture process and thus increases the yearly microalgal productivity and bioremediation processing in saline wastewaters with toxic contaminants. BARRIER will perform complementary laboratory experiments in controlled and outdoor conditions with an upscaling approach using cultures of microalgae species and bacteria isolated from a contaminated environment. BARRIER proposes a multidisciplinary approach relying on a consortium associating five academic laboratories and one industrial company developing bioremediation strategies, in order to obtain competencies in microbial ecology, ecotoxicology, organic and inorganic chemistry, molecular biology, modeling and process engineering and microalgae cultivation on oil and gas wastewater. BARRIER will allow a better understanding of the interactions between microalgae and bacteria. The methodological approach will help in characterizing the role of the bacteria in the protection of microalgae against chemical contamination. Lastly, BARRIER will propose innovative approaches with the manipulation of algae-bacteria consortia to use the effective algae-bacteria interactions, approaches that will be tested in realistic outdoor conditions with the support facilities and competences of the industrial Partner.

The objective of the SargAlert project is to significantly improve the forecasts of the strandings of the invasive algal species Sargassum in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, in the Caribbean Sea and on the Brazilian coast. The synergy between satellite data / ocean transport modeling / in-situ measurements will be used for that purpose. SargAlert will provide alert bulletins to end-users such as territorial authority, tourism, fishers. The challenges that will be addressed by SargAlert are as follows: - detection and monitoring of at different time (hour to daily) and spatial (20 m to 5 km) scales using a multi-sensor satellite data analysis (Low Earth and GEOstationary orbits), - improvement of Sargassum stranding forecasts by combining physical transport models with artificial intelligence approaches, - validation of satellite data products and forecast models using in-situ measurements, - production of alert bulletins to address societal issues. The innovative developments of the project will enable an integrative approach of the Sargassum stranding issues: synergy between satellite data, understanding of Sargassum spatio-temporal distribution, transport forecast. Improvements of ocean modeling of dynamics will benefit societal authorities to better respond to the risks induced by the more frequent and intense Sargassum blooms in the Atlantic Ocean. The operational Sargassum forecast center will thus have all required inputs to provide reliable forecasts in near real time. This federative and interdisciplinary project includes complementary partners from academic laboratories, including a human science team (AEM, IRISA, LATMOS, LC2S, LIS, Marbec, MIO, UFPE/UFRPE), from an operational forecast center (Météo-France) and from a national satellite data center (AERIS/ICARE).

The CHLOR2NOU project aims to develop new monitoring tools for CLD and its TPs, to provide new knowledge on the fate and risk of CLD TPs, and to explore realistic alternative approaches for pollution remediation. The postulate of the non-degradability of CLDs commonly admitted for several decades has had a strong negative impact on pollution management by ruling out the possibility of CLD degradation. The representation of CLD in the FWI society and in the scientific community is therefore of paramount importance. The CHLOR2NOU project is divided into 7 Work Packages that bring together scientists from various background: the WP1 with the synthesis of CLD TPs, CLD baits and fluorescent macromolecular cages; the WP2 that deals with innovative analytical methods: (i) routine laboratory method for the detection of CLD TPs in environmental and food matrices, (ii) immunoassay using a CLD-selective antibody, (iii) a semi-high-throughput detection protocol based on the recognition of CLD by a fluorescent macromolecular cage; the WP3 dedicated to toxicological and ecotoxicological studies in order to define the toxicity profile of CLD TPs; the WP4 with several analytical campaigns to obtain a first estimate of the possible exposure to CLD TPs; the WP5 that aims at studying the fate of CLD TPs, in particular in FWI soils, while defining degradation indicators; the WP6 that is focused on the study of realistic agronomic and environmental conditions capable to favor CLD degradation; the last WP centered on the representation of CLD in the FWI society at large. A co-construction method will be used to help the population and stakeholders to better assimilate the scientific results.

Phytoplankton is an essential component in the functioning of marine ecosystems and in the carbon cycle. It is therefore essential to assess its variability and its main drivers. However, unlike seasonal and interannual variations, fluctuations of phytoplanktonic biomass and communities on decadal to multi-decadal timescales remain hampered by the lack of long-term observations at global scale and the uncertainties related to the complex balance of the processes that control their fate. These processes are imperfectly and diversely parameterized in biogeochemical models, limiting their use to document long-term phytoplankton variability. Yet, it is crucial to detect natural low-frequency cycles in phytoplankton biomass (and thus carbon fluxes) because they can enhance, weaken or even mask climate-related trends. In this context, the inter/transdisciplinary DREAM project proposes to investigate and benchmark different deep learning (DL) frameworks (learned from satellite and in situ observations) to emulate past and future multi-decadal time-series of surface phytoplankton biomass and communities. This approach will allow us to assess the relative contribution of the different processes (e.g. physical, predation, community structures) involved in phytoplankton dynamics over the last decades in response to natural climate low-frequency variability but also to past and future anthropogenic forcing. Ultimately, DREAM will also contribute to characterizing and better constraining the uncertainties in the climate projections of the different Earth System Models gathered in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6).