Short biography of the presenter
Dr. Fabio Ugolini earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich in 2013. After that, he worked extensively as a consultant on drinking water projects for the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. In 2016, he joined INNOVA SRL as a project manager, leading communication, exploitation, and technology transfer activities in several international multi-actor research and innovation projects on water technologies, medical technologies, energy, nanomaterials, and the circular economy, including:
• POTENTIAL (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 101092901, €3M budget)
• HYSOLCHEM (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 101017928, €3M budget)
• PANIWATER (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 820718, €5M budget)
• DRIVE (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 645991, €9M budget)
• WATERSPOUTT (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 688928, €3M budget)
He is also the coordinator of AWARE (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N° 101084245, €5M budget).
Summary:
Reclaimed water aquaculture for food production exists outside Europe, particularly in emerging economies. In Europe, wastewater from industrial processes is primarily used to grow non-food products, such as ornamental fish in Bulgaria, juvenile fish in France, and bait and feed in the UK. Experimental wastewater-fed fish culture began in Germany in 1887, but today only one system remains in Munich, which as of 2006 was still used for tertiary treatment of activated sludge effluent and as a bird sanctuary. The limited application of such systems is due to high operational costs, the need for alternative treatment processes in winter, and low public acceptance.
Currently, there is no significant capacity for reclaimed water aquaculture or aquaponics in Europe. AWARE aims to innovate European aquaculture practices by opening the way for reclaimed-water aquaponics. This will be achieved by: a) integrating aquaponics with wastewater treatment, using reclaimed wastewater subjected to advanced tertiary treatment as a water source; b) advancing technology to improve resource efficiency; and c) creating a regulatory and policy roadmap to facilitate its scale-up and market uptake in one Member State, as a case-study result of the project.
Visit AWARE's website [ www.aware-eu.eu ]
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EAS talk consists of a series of webinars coordinated and moderated by Ana Visković, Project and Programme Manager at EAS. The series aims to present a wide range of subjects reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of EAS and the aquaculture community. This includes overviews of aquaculture research areas, production, and technologies (including from EAS Corporate members), but also mixed with presentations on our network and its benefits and specific topics for our large student community.
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'AQUACULTURE EUROPE 2025 “Aquaculture for/with Everyone” Valencia, Spain - September 22-25, 2025.
Please visit the website www.aquaeas.org for more information on our events.