Beneficiaries - Switchfloc

Main Responsibles

Dr. D.S. Peñaranda

Main Responsible of Universitat Politècnica de València and Project Coordinator

Professor at Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has more than 20 years of professional experience in the domains of aquaculture biotechnology, nutrition, reproduction, and molecular biology. Dr. Peñaranda has led four international projects, three from the Spanish Research Council and six from local government, and has participated in several international, national and regional projects.

He has been principal investigator of several projects related to BFT and target species, including individual and coordinated national research projects funded by the Spanish Research Council, and coordinates the Horizon Europe Doctoral Network SwitchFloc and the regional project “ThinkinAzul Program”.

Prof. Peñaranda has supervised several PhD students, four of them currently working with BFT and target species. Furthermore, he has supervised dozens of undergraduate and Master’s theses, with a significant proportion of these focusing on biofloc production systems and target species.

He has authored 77 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 25, >1700 citations, FWCI: 1.558), 54 of which were published in top journals, with 54% featuring international collaboration. In addition, he has contributed to 152 national and international conference proceedings, of which 10 were as invited speaker, and has authored 14 book chapters.

Dr. Aires Oliva-Teles

Main Responsible of Universidade do Porto

Full Professor at the University of Porto and coordinator of the Fish Nutrition and Welfare Group at CIIMAR. He has more than 30 years of experience in fish nutrition. He has co-authored more than 230 scientific papers and supervised 25 PhD students, 19 post-doctoral researchers, and 24 MSc students.

Prof. H.C. Bernstein

Main Responsible of UiT – The Arctic University of Norway

Prof. H.C. Bernstein has led six externally funded research projects (largest of which is ABSORB – Arctic Carbon Storage with Biomes, 29 million NOK) and co-led an additional five national and international projects.

He is currently WP leader of AlgScaleUp – Scaleup of the production of microalgae as a sustainable salmon feed raw material for the salmon industry (40 million NOK) and leader of the Microalgae & Microbiomes Research Group.

He has supervised 5 PhD students, 3 Postdoctoral Researchers and 8 Master students

Prof. Dr. Matt Slater

Main Responsible of Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)

Adjunct Professor of Invertebrate Aquaculture at the Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil, and Head of Aquaculture Research at AWI.

He has led national and European research projects (ERA-NET, FP7, H2020), supervised eight PhD students to date (seven international) and more than 40 MSc students.

He is the past Executive Editor of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society and has managed approximately 30 third-party funded research projects with a total funding of 15 million euros.

Prof. Dr. Gianluca Sarà

Main Responsible of Università degli Studi di Palermo

Full Professor of Ecology and author of more than 400 scientific articles, including over 203 ISI peer-reviewed articles.

Over 19 years, he has led national and international projects totaling 24 million euros and supervised 28 PhD students, 18 post-doctoral researchers, and over 220 undergraduate and graduate students.

Prof. Angela Trocino

Main Responsible of Università degli Studi di Padova

Full professor, SSD AGRI-09/D, Department of Agronomy Food Natural Resources Animals Environment, University of Padova (since 2022); PhD in Animal Science at the University of Padova (2000). Graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Bari (April 1995). In collaboration with Italian and international researchers, her research addresses rabbit and poultry science, and aquaculture, using a multidisciplinary approach. This has involved integrating diverse expertise and analytical methodologies to develop farming systems, feeding strategies, and management practices for rabbits, poultry, and aquatic species, in line with the One Welfare approach. This framework emphasizes animal welfare, the quality and value of animal products for human and societal benefit, besides environmental sustainability. As for Aquaculture, specific research focuses on: innovation in fish and mollusc farming systems and feeding strategies, addressing production efficiency, product quality and environmental impact; on farm and at slaughtering fish welfare and impacts on fish production and quality.

Dr. Maite Ferrando

Main Responsible of Senior Europa S.L.

PhD in Psychology, with extensive experience in academic supervision and research innovation. CEO of Kveloce and expert on Eu funding, innovation, wellbeing and impact assessment, she has worked in more than 60 international collaborative research projects in the last 15 years. She has supervised two PhD students and currently supervises two more.

Dr. Fabio Brambilla

Main Responsible of VRM SRL

Head of aquafeed formulation at Naturalleva and author and co-author of 28 scientific publications, with active participation in national and international aquaculture congresses.

Dr. Helena L. Galasso

Main Responsible of LISAQUA

R&D Manager at LISAQUA since 2019. She has worked in IMTA systems since 2014 and developed biofloc shrimp facilities scaling production from 10 to 500 tons.

She has supervised 15 Master’s theses and final degree projects.

Associated Partners

Dr. Luis Poersch

Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG)

Associate Professor with more than 100 published papers, editor of three books and author of more than 15 book chapters, with expertise in shrimp culture and multi-trophic systems.

Dr. Wilson Wasielesky

Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG)

Graduated in Oceanography (1991), MSc and PhD in Biological Oceanography at Federal University of Rio Grande – FURG (1994 and 2000). Post-Doctorate at the University of South Carolina / Waddell Mariculture Center in 2005. Authored over 200 scientific papers in indexed journals. Supervised more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree in area of Aquaculture and Biological Oceanography. In the last 25 years so far is a researcher and permanent professor at the Institute of Oceanography, FURG.