Wageningen University (WU) is one of the leading international universities in the field of healthy food and living environment. The top quality of research at WU is crowned with WU’s position within the top 6 of the important citation indexes of its domain. WU consists of one faculty which covers Animal, Plant, Environmental, Agro technology and Food and Social Sciences. Within Animal Sciences the Aquaculture and Fisheries group (WU-AFI) hold expertise in: (1) growth (& growth modelling), nutrient and energy metabolism using metabolic chambers; (2) health, welfare and wellbeing of fish using carp inbred lines (from one line the complete genome is sequenced),(3) water quality management in RAS using replicated RAS systems and (4) offering MSc courses in Aquaculture, Fish Health and Immunology and intensive courses in Recirculation technology and Fish Immunology and Vaccination. The involved WU teams hold expertise in:

• Fish Nutrition and Behaviour (Dr. Johan Schrama).

• Fish Health and Immunology (Dr. Geert Wiegertjes).

• Fish Production Systems (RAS) (Ing. Ep Eding).

Role in the AQUAEXCEL3.0 project:

WU is involved in: Access management to EU aquaculture RIs (WP1), Innovation and sustainability (WP2), Training courses (WP3), Technological tools (WP4), Innovative biotechnologies to generate new biotechnological model (WP5), Improvement of fish welfare in experiments (WP6) and TNA.

Key persons involved:

Prof. Dr. Geert Wiegertjes, his research interests are cover immunogenetics, host-pathogen interaction in carp and the role of Toll-like receptors in innate immunity. He coordinated Targetfish, largest EC-project on fish health, and he organises the Fish Immunology and Vaccination course. Geert will lead Task 5.2.

Dr. Johan Schrama, his research interests include fish nutrition, energy metabolism and fish behavior with special attention for adaptive physiology, intestinal ecology and welfare of fish in intensive farming conditions where water quality is stressful. He will participate in Task 4.1 and 6.3.

Ing. Ep Eding, his research interest focuses on fish-water quality interaction in RAS. He has 30 years of experience in RAS design, engineering and operation of WU-MRU. He (co)organized national and international RAS workshops/courses. He will participate in Task 4.1 and 6.3.