Industry partners

The inclusion of the specific industry partners were motivated by the importance of covering the entire range of technology used in modern industrial marine fish farming. The five industry partners are all major stakeholders and market leaders in their fields, and have gained their positions trough a strong focus on technology research and development.

AKVA Group AS is a leading supplier of technology to the world’s fish farming industry. The technology supplied comprises products ranging from steel and plastic cage systems for fish farms to feeding- and information systems. The Company’s headquarter is in Bryne, Norway. AKVA group also has offices in Trondheim, Brønnøysund, Averøy and Mo i Rana (all located in Norway) in addition to offices in Denmark, Scotland, Canada, Chile, Turkey and Thailand. AKVA group has organized its technology and product offering into two business areas, Farm Operations Technology, comprising centralized feed systems, sensors and camera systems, recirculation systems and process control-, planning and operations software, and Infrastructure Technology, comprising steel and plastic cages as well as certain other related products such as feed barges and floating rafts. AKVA group is targeting fish farming companies worldwide with main focus on the present main salmon farming countries, Norway and Chile, as well as other salmon producing countries and the Mediterranean region.

Erling Haug AS is located in offices in Trondheim, Kristiansund, Harstad, Ålesund, Florø and Puerto Montt, Chile. Our business areas range from the offshore industry, land based industry, retailers, the maritime industry and the aquaculture industry. Erling Haug provide the aquaculture industry with products related to complete mooring systems, components for mooring systems, lifting equipment and life saving equipment as well as several other product groups.

Erling Haug AS is part of the Axel Johnson Group. Customers range from private consumers to international companies, and products range from groceries to high-tech products. Foresight, entrepreneurship and creativity have been the watchwords of their past and will be the lights of the future. The group has around 15000 employees. Innovation has been part of the Erling Haug AS philosophy from the beginning. Key components in mooring systems are self-made based on experience and research. In the last 15 years the company have had an ongoing development of the EH Quick Coupling and the EH Plough Anchors. The latest generation plough anchor is the EH Megahold ® (pat.pend.)


Egersund Net AS has since the early 1970’s, been one of the leading producer and supplier of nets for the fish farming industry in Europe, with modern production plants in Norway and Lithuania. Product development has always been a very important activity in Egersund Net. Their goal is to be a front leader of any technical development in manufacturing nets and netting, and also in design and testing of new models. Research and development in collaboration with customers and partners, like Create, makes the company able to continue its work for a better product, better quality and a better result for the fish farmers. 

CREATE research partners

The combined knowledge of the partners is the key to success of the centre. It is vital that research involves close collaboration between the industry and research partners.

SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFH) has knowledge and broad competence in the field of the utilization of renewable marine resources. The institute contributes to solutions along the whole value chain - from biological and marine production, aquaculture and fisheries to processing and distribution. SFH perform basic and applied research for commercial customers as well as governmental institutions and bodies, the Norwegian Research Council, the European Union, the United Nations (FAO), and others – more than 80% of revenue come from research contracts and among those, contract research for industry dominates

Centre for Ships and ocean Structures, CeSOS, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, integrate theoretical and experimental research in marine hydrodynamics, structural mechanics and automatic control. Research at CeSOS aims to develop fundamental knowledge about how ships and other structures behave in the ocean environment, using analytical, numerical and experimental studies. This knowledge is vital, both now and in the future, for the design of safe, cost effective and environmentally friendly structures as well as in the planning and execution of marine operations.

The scientific and engineering research carried out in the Centre takes account of future needs, and extends current knowledge in relevant disciplines. The emphasis is on hydrodynamics, structural mechanics and automatic control, and in the synergy between them. In each of the past years, the research projects of CeSOS have proved valuable basis for the innovative design of structures, risers and automatic control systems.

The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) is with a staff of almost 700, Norway’s largest centre of marine science. The main task is to provide advice to Norwegian authorities on aquaculture and the ecosystems of the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea and the Norwegian coastal zone. For this reason, about fifty percent of the activities are financed by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs. IMR’s headquarters is in Bergen, but important activities are also carried out at departments in Tromsø, at the research stations in Matre, Austevoll and Flødevigen and on board IMR’s research vessels, which are at sea for a total of 1600 days a year. IMR is also heavily engaged in development aid activities through the Centre for Development Cooperation in Fisheries.

IMR has high competence in the fields of aquaculture, fish behaviour, and fish physiology, including modelling and fisheries acoustics. The team has access to facilities at Matre and Austevoll Aquaculture Research Stations, including all life stages of Atlantic salmon and cod. This includes freshwater and seawater tank facilities with extensive control of water quality, photoperiod and waste feed, as well as a cage-environment laboratory with high temporal and spatial screening of environmental parameter and behaviour.


NOFIMA is an industry focused research corporation which aims to increase the competiveness of the food industry, including aquaculture, catch based fishing and the agriculture sector. The corporation is organized into four business areas: Marin, Food, Ingredients and Market. NOFIMA has its head office in Tromsø with research centres at Ås, Stavanger, Bergen, Sunndalsøra and Averøy.

Nofima Marin (www.nofima.no) engage in R & D, innovation and knowledge transfer for the national and international fisheries and aquaculture industry. The primary professional areas cover breeding and genetics, feed and nutrition, fish health, sustainable and effective production as well as capture, slaughtering and primary processing. 

Department of Engineering Cybernetics (DEC), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is responsible for the Master of Science and doctoral education in engineering cybernetics at NTNU. DEC is also the dominant national contributor to both theoretical and applied research in engineering cybernetics. The Department currently employs an academic staff of 23 professors and a techn./adm. staff of 13. In a typical year approximately 80 MSc’s and 5-10 PhDs graduate from the DEC, with specializations in control systems engineering and industrial computer systems. The students apply their specialized knowledge to a multitude of application areas. In keeping with the department’s tradition of performing research in areas of national importance, researchers at DEC have been targeting a wide variety of scientific and technological challenges present in the fisheries and aquaculture sector over the last 35 years. Based on this activity, DEC offers educational specialization and research opportunities for its candidates on the application of cybernetic principles and technology to the fisheries and aquaculture industry (fisheries and aquaculture cybernetics).

SINTEF Information and Communication Technology (SINTEF ICT) provides contract research-based expertise, services and products within the fields of micro technology, sensor and instrumentation systems, communication and software technology, computational software, information systems and security and safety. Contracts for industry and the public sector generate more than 90% of our income, while 7% comes in the form of basic grants from the Research Council of Norway.