RECORD NUMBER OF APPLICANTS FOR AQUA NOR INNOVATION AWARD

Record number of applicants for Aqua Nor Innovation Award. There is great interest in the Innovation Award at the forthcoming Aqua Nor, with the Nor-Fishing Foundation having received 30 applications, three more than for the previous Aqua Nor in 2017.

Project Manager for Aqua Nor 2019, Kari Steinsbø, has confirmed that there is an “all time high” interest for applications to the prestigious Innovation Award.

“The jury is now examining the applications received and will be submitting its recommendation on three final candidates to the Board of the Nor-Fishing Foundation in June. The Board makes its final decision on the final winner of the Award, which consists of of NOK 100,000 and a diploma. The final decision is made on Monday, August 19, 2019,” says Steinsbø.

The winner will receive the Award on the opening day of this year’s aquaculture exhibition on August 20th. The exhibition is held in Trondheim Spektrum from 20 to 23 August.

A total of 40% of this year’s applications are from foreign applicants. These come from Tasmania, Taiwan, the United States, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Scotland, England, Denmark (three) and Finland.

There is great professional variety among this year’s applicants and several applications are about the development and use of AI (artificial intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things).

The technology described will, among other things, control processes on the fish farm, and organise and collect information from a number of information providers in relation to the plant. The technology will also be used in combination with human experience to create environmental improvements, good animal welfare and a healthy economy in the aquaculture industry.

Among the applications are also RAS plants and components for such, electrical operation of work vessels, commercial utilization of waste from fish farms and HSE equipment included in work clothes.

Other applications focus on the hiding places and transport equipment for lumpfish – which will eat lice from the salmon, temperature control in the transport chain for farmed fish, and language and vocational training adapted to foreign operators entering the Norwegian aquaculture industry.

“The Innovation Award has been awarded for more than two decades and has been important for research and development in the supplier companies, which in turn has contributed to further growth in the aquaculture industry both nationally and internationally,” concludes Steinsbø.