Introduction

Fish products are vital to the world’s supply of animal proteins and aquaculture will be increasingly important in meeting the growing gap between supply and demand for seafood products. The FAO recognizes that technological development will play a major role in future expansion of the industry. New technologies must improve the efficiency of production and operations, the safety of handling fish farming gear and the economics of production. They must also minimize social conflict with other users of the marine environment and reduce environmental impacts such as escapes, diseases and nutrient pollution.

CREATE

CREATE will focus research and development within the following three main research pillars and integrate knowledge between them:

• Equipment and constructions The physical equipment used to farm fish.
• Operation and handling The process of executing and carrying out operations necessary to farm fish.
• Farming intelligence Control of the total process of farming by understanding the integrated use of equipment and the process of operations and combining this with knowledge of biological issues and the physical environment.

SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture are the host institution for the centre. The centre was established spring 2007 and is sponsored by The Research Council of Norway with NOK 80 million over eight years.

Industry/user partneres

• AKVA Group ASA,
• Egersund Net AS
• PolarCirkel AS
• Erling Haug AS

Research partners

• SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture
• The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Centre for Ships and Ocean Structure)
• The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Department of Engineering Cybernetics)
• The Institute of Marine Research (IMR)
• NOFIMA Marin
• SINTEF Information and Communication Technology

International partners

• University of New Hampshire (USA)