CSIC (Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spanish National Research Council) is the largest public research institution in Spain and the third largest in Europe. CSIC has 10.940 employees and 123 Institutes. Its overall mission is to develop and promote research that will help to bring about scientific and technological progress. CSIC covers all fields of knowledge from basic to applied research, produces 20% of the national scientific output and is the leading patent filer in Spain.
CSIC participates in AquaIMPACT through the Instituto de Acuicultura Torre de la Sal (IATS).
IATS belongs to the area of Agricultural Sciences, and it is the only CSIC institute devoted exclusively to aquaculture research. IATS deals with all the fields of marine aquaculture, from basic to applied aspects, with permanent contact with the aquaculture industry. Two groups are involved: the Nutrigenomics and Fish Growth Endocrinology (NFGE) and the Fish Pathology (FP) groups. Both groups have a strong experience in EU projects related to fish pathology, fish nutrition and aquaculture. They also have a strong connection with the aquaculture industry through contacts with fish farms, aquafeed, veterinary and consultancy companies.
“Main tasks of IATS in AquaIMPACT is to share expertise in fish nutrition and growth, pathology, immune response, genomics, nutrigenomics and microbiomics. IATS will participate in WP2 (Nutritional innovations – precision nutrition for superior genotypes) using integrative omic approaches for underscoring nutritional programming and functional interactions between gut microbiota and host metabolism in farmed sea bream” says Jaume Perez-Sanchez, who works as a research professor in CSIC.