Tuesday: Seminars on KTH Food and Blue Ocean Seafarms
This seminars will be delivered by Professor Francisco Javier Vilaplana and Associate Professor Fredrik Gröndahl, both from KTH.
When: 12:15 to 13:00 (CET). 45 minutes of seminars followed by a short break, allowing those who need to depart to do so. We will then continue with a Q&A session until 13:30.
Where: Teknikringen 1, KTH Campus.
Click to watch this recorded seminar on Youtube
"KTH FOOD: A Research Centre for Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems"
Food systems have a huge impact on the environment, as they contribute largely to greenhouse gas emissions, water use and the decline of biodiversity. KTH FOOD is a research centre for sustainable and healthy food systems, which aims to engage and align the education, research, and outreach competencies at KTH towards a sustainable and healthy food system. The centre covers four main research and impact areas: functional food products and health, logistics and consumption, sustainable food production and circular food processes.
The strategy for the centre is to integrate not only technical solutions but also the sustainability, social responsibility, and business model aspects. We aim to establish collaborations with similar initiatives in African countries to contribute together to the sustainable transformation of the food systems.
About
Francisco Javier Vilaplana's research deals with the biochemistry of complex carbohydrates, which are one of the fundamental building blocks of life. Complex carbohydrates, also known as polysaccharides, are natural polymers built by small sugar molecules as building blocks, which are responsible for essential metabolic, structural and regulatory processes in life sciences.
Since November 2022 he is director of KTH FOOD, a new research centre for sustainable and healthy food systems which aims to engage and align the education, research, and outreach competences at KTH towards a sustainable and healthy food system.
"The development of a Seaweed cultivation called "Blue Ocean Seafarm" at Diani Beach, Southern Kenya, Africa"
In collaboration with researcher from KTH and KMFRI (Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research) the intention is to establish a modern seaweed farm south of Mombasa in Kenya. The idea is to develop a more sustainable and profitable seaweed farm than the current farms in e.g., Zanzibar and Southern Kenya. The Swedish partners from KTH will facilitate the contacts with potential customers in Sweden and the Nordic countries and thus cutting several of the middle man that today makes it difficult to earn money for the local seaweed cultivators.
About
Fredrik Gröndahl is the Head of Department for Sustainable Development Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED) at KTH. His research is focusing on the sustainable use of marine resources for food, feed, chemicals and energy. The work is focused on the development of methods for evaluating the process chains from a sustainability perspective. During the last years he have been in charge of the macro algae work in the Baltic Sea Region project SUBMARINER . From the 1 July 2013 he is the project leader of the project SEAFARM. SEAFARM is a strategic Swedish Research project for a bio-based economy. He is also the author of several textbooks in Sustainable Development, Ecology and environmental effects.
Moderator
Erika Svensson Rössner
Erika Svensson Rössner, MSc is a Senior Adviser of International Projects for the region of Africa at KTH’s International Relations Office (IRO). In this role, she initiated KTH in Africa – a step towards a strategic work with partners on the African continent. She is responsible for creating and managing liaising with foreign HEI-partners, innovation hubs, International Relations Office co-partners, local Swedish administration, alumni-groups etc.