SEAMPHONI is dedicated to bringing visibility and safeguarding the vast and largely unprotected offshore marine areas. Current approaches to offshore biodiversity mapping are highly dependent on research vessels and are therefore costly and do not allow for continuous monitoring. SEAMPHONI is structured to promote the testing, coupling, and validation of three innovative monitoring solutions (environmental DNA (eDNA), acoustics, and imaging) and to build a shared observing system for scientists, decision-makers, MPA managers, and citizens in the form of an Intelligent Marine Digital Twin interoperable with the European Digital Twin Ocean. By leveraging and adapting these cutting-edge tools for offshore areas, SEAMPHONI will provide significant advancement towards a broader, more accurate mapping of European seas with baselines for understudied areas; faster, more continuous biodiversity monitoring; and more accurate, predictive, and sustainable models. This will help identify and prioritize areas to be protected and improve evidence-based assessments of i) the health of marine ecosystems and ii) the effects of various levels of protection and restoration measures on their functioning and services. SEAMPHONI will also tackle the complexity of the regulatory framework governing marine conservation and the fragmentation of rights within these zones, by evaluating limitations and underlining the need for clearer frameworks and improved coordination. The project will support the enforcement of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs), and advance the 2030 GBF targets. Finally, SEAMPHONI will address the “emotional disconnect between society and aquatic ecosystems” (EC report, 2021) especially in offshore areas where the principle of "out of sight, out of mind" is most pronounced. Confronted with the challenges of engaging citizens in remote offshore areas, where traditional citizen science approaches are impractical, SEAMPHONI has embraced an artistic strategy.

PROTEIN4IMPACT aims at evaluating the nutritional, health, safety and quality aspects together with the environmental and socio-economic impacts of protein novel foods (NFs) obtained from unconventional sources. In order to close the project loop by maximizing the positive impact on the transition towards healthier, protein NFs, the overall approach to alternative protein production in PROTEIN4IMPACT is based on utilization of selected agri-food and fisheries & acquaculture by-products as primary feedstock as well as on the utilization of natural protein producers, i.e. fungi, bacteria, insects micro- and macroalgae. The secondary by-products formed along the value chain will be up-cycled for their use in the food production cycle or for the production of process energy. The obtained proteins will undergo modification and functionalization followed by a sensory evaluation and testing in food human trials and in aquaculture as feed ingredients. The project will also test the feasibility of producing NF products by simulating realistic industrial scale, using different methods and tools such as LCA, LCC, RA, and TEA as well as Digital Twins and real time AI-driven monitoring and DSS tools. The optimization of parameters affecting the protein NF production will be evaluated at the end to increase protein content and the impact assessment evaluated on each single stage (extraction, characterization, modification/functionalization of protein rich fraction, production of NFs) and on the integrated processes. PROTEIN4IMPACT NF acceptance and social relevance –also through sensory evaluation actions- will be assessed in four markets (Europe, USA, Africa and Asia) to benchmark the European scenario with the rest of the world. Only by using an integrated approach like the one proposed in PROTEIN4IMPACT will it be possible to evaluate the correct feasibility in the use of alternative proteins in the food sector with a realistic sustainable approach.