January 11, 2019 - From the Institute of Marine Biology (IBM), they have announced EUR 700,000 for the international “Food for Health” project to be implemented in cooperation with Italian and Albanian colleagues.
Milica Mandić, a scientific associate of the Institute for Marine Biology, told Radio Kotor that the goal of the "Food for Health" project was to build multifunctional centers in all three countries, whose work would contribute to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of agriculture, fisheries, and marine aquaculture, depending on the interests of individual countries.
"The essence of this project is what we have proposed and was accepted at the IPA Fund Governing Body meeting. It is about upgrading part of the Institute of Marine Biology in a total area of about 260 squares that will represent a new and modern marine aquaculture laboratory, in which numerous experimental studies will be possible which until now, because of the lack of equipment, we could not conduct," said Milica Mandic.
She states that the Institute for Marine Biology has carried out numerous scientific-research projects in the field of marine aquaculture, as well as marine waste issues, which is more and more current in recent years, in the Research and Marine Aquaculture Laboratory.
"At the invitation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Montenegro, during 2018, our laboratory worked actively on the application of the thematic project involving three ministries from Albania, Italy and Montenegro and four scientific research institutions including our," Mandic said.
The project also aims at internationalization, market development and branding of local traditional products, through the development of science, linking the results of scientific research with the non-scientific sector, in our case to marine aquaculture.
"This is a project of national significance, with a total budget of about 700,000 euros, with our participation of 15%. In addition to the support we received from the University of Montenegro, I must mention that because of the importance of the project, we got the support of the Government of Montenegro or the Ministry of Science. Within the last session in 2018, the Government adopted a Decision on the co-financing of part of the project in the total amount of about 90.000 Euros. We have already received the funds because the project realization begins in March this year. We will talk more about this big project in the coming period," Mandić said.
"What we are planning at the marine aquaculture laboratory is the formation of two experimental parts. In one part we will be working on the formation of oysters in experimental conditions and production of young oysters. The second part of the laboratory will be devoted to experimental microalga cultivation as a basic oyster meal. Through partnership we have with several marine aquaculture producers from Boka Bay, we will bring these individuals to increase their production. For the beginning, we will base our activities on two partner farms in the Bay, and later on, we will be there for all others who will be interested in cooperation with the Institute of Marine Biology. I hope that besides the current project of the construction of the first aquarium in Montenegro, this project will also contribute to the scientific and developmental significance of the Institute for Biology as one of the leading institutions not only in the region but also in the wider area" Mandić said.
Source: Radio Kotor
