The second annual meeting of the Horizon Europe project “SmartAqua4FuturE” (SAFE) was held in Logroño in La Rioja region of Spain in November 2023. This was attended by the full team from the University of Stirling - Jens-Arne Subke, Richard Newton, John Bostock, Wesley Malcorps and Steph Horn. The meeting was hosted by Centro Tecnológico de Investigación del Champiñon de La Rioja (The Mushroom Technological Research Center of La Rioja) (CTICH).

Alongside the meeting were visits to CTICH research facilities, two mushroom compost producers and two mushroom growers. This was a great opportunity to start exploring the potential for circular economy linkages between mushroom and fish production as organic waste from aquaculture might be a useful ingredient for mushroom compost production and by-products from mushroom production might provide micronutrients or probiotics for fish feeds for instance.

Button mushrooms at one of the farms visited

Different types of compost are needed for different species of mushroom, but primarily involve agricultural by-products

The meeting also provided an opportunity to discuss in detail data collection plans for value chain analysis and lifecycle assessment for other components of the project including mealworm and redworm production and carp and trout production systems.