The second transnational meeting of the CIRCU-TECH project took place in Porto, Portugal, on 11-12 September 2025, hosted by Associação Portuguesa de Aquacultores (APA).
A total of 17 participants, both in person and online, gathered to review the project progress, and start planning the development of the next tasks and deliverables.
Advancing the Circular Aquaculture Training Programme in Waste Management
The first day of the meeting focused on on the project phase dedicated to developing the Circular Aquaculture Training Programme in Waste Management.
First of all, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) presented the structure of the Training Handbook, which will serve as a comprehensive guide for aquaculture farm workers, including best practices and lessons learned from Spain, Italy and Portugal to inspire action for implementing sustainable and circular practices in aquaculture. Afterwards, partners discussed methodologies for identifying these best practices and lessons learned.
Later, the development of the training modules content has been discussed, jointly with the design of potential VR/AR scenarios that will form part of the training. Ole shared several virtual and augmented reality scenarios to be integrated into the training and the consortium agreed that the VR/AR scenarios will support experiential learning, be accessible, relatable, consistent with the content, and relevant in order to be applied to different types of aquaculture and across different types of producing companies.
The day concluded with an evaluation session led by SGS, covering monitoring indicators, and follow-up mechanisms for quality assurance and evaluation. Afterwards, partners enjoyed networking activities at the Calem Port Wine Cellars and during the social dinner.
Strengthening Communication and Coordination
The second day focused on administrative, financial, and communication aspects of the project. OnProjects (OnP) provided an overview of the project’s budget.
Afterwards, during the session dedicated to Communication, Dissemination, and Towards Social Acceptance in Aquaculture, partners agreed to launch a new website section which will include Useful Contacts from the aquaculture sector in order to grow engagement. The leaflet has been uploaded on the website and an event card has been created for upcoming conferences and events!
The first newsletter and technical article will be out in October 2025! And partners also discussed the main topics for the factsheet and the promotional video!
What ‘s next?
The Porto meeting strengthened collaboration among partners and provided clear direction for the next phase of CIRCU-TECH. The consortium will now focus on recollecting the best practices and lessons learned for the training handbook, developing the VR/AR learning scenarios, and launching new dissemination materials to raise awareness about sustainability in aquaculture.
The next meeting will be online and held on 3 December 2025!
Stay tuned for upcoming news and updates by following CIRCU-TECH on LinkedIn!