Ana Paula Mucha has a Degree in Aquatic Sciences (1993), a MSc in Ecology, Management and Modelling of Aquatic Resources (1997) and a PhD in Aquatic Sciences (2002). She has a research position at CIIMAR, University of Porto, Portugal, being member of the Board of Directors and the Principal Investigator of the ECOBIOTEC Team (Bioremediation and Ecosystems Functioning).

Also, she is an Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology of Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto. She focuses her research on the relation between microorganisms and contaminants, aiming the development of bioremediation technologies for ecosystems recovery and environmental sustainability. She also explores the microbe-plant associations for the development of nature-based solutions for water management, and the microbe-animal interactions to increase environmental sustainability of aquaculture production.

She authored ca. 90 SCI papers including high profile journals in the field of Marine and Environmental Sciences. She has been involved in multiple regional, national and international projects, and presently coordinates CIIMAR participation in the European project “BIOSYSMO – BIOremediation systems exploiting SYnergieS for improved removal of Mixed pOllutants” (GAP-101060211). Also she coordinates the project “Ocean3R – Reduce pressures, restore and regenerate the NW-Portuguese ocean and waters” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000064), and the Research Line 4 (Marine biobanks as tools for marine biotechnology) in the structured program of R&D ATLANTIDA – Platform for the monitoring of the North Atlantic Ocean and tools for the sustainable exploitation of the marine resources” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000040). In addition, she has been involved as supervisor in several national and European Master and PhD programmes, and presently she co-coordinates the FCUP team responsible for the M2ex-European Joint Doctorate “Exploiting metal-microbe applications to expand the circular economy” (European Union; Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 861088).

Filipe Castro is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and PI of the team in Animal Genetics and Evolution. Among the group’s various research focuses are Comparative Genomics, Physiology and Evolution, Bioinformatics and the Anthropocene.

Luísa M.P. Valente (Ph.D.) is a biologist with over 25 years of research experience in fish nutrition and sustainable aquaculture focusing on: Fish robustness; Environmental impact; Muscle growth and flesh quality; Functional feeds; Circular economy, One Health.

Senior scientist and Full Professor at ICBAS, University of Porto. Director of the Animal Science Doctoral programme. Member of the Directive Board of CIIMAR, coordinator of the Biology, Aquaculture and Seafood Quality thematic line. Member of the Directive Board of B2E- Collaborative Laboratory for the Blue Bioeconomy. Member of the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) having served as board member during 4 years.

Rodrigo Ozorio (RO) has more than 20 years of experience in Aquaculture, special emphasis on the fish nutrition. He holds MSc and PhD degrees from Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), The Netherlands. RO is the expert in the nutritional dynamics of fish and the economic potential of new aquaculture species based on a set of husbandry and physiological criteria. He participated in 15 national and international projects (overall budget of 2.0 million euros), including four projects as scientific leader dealing with new aquaculture systems and sustainable alternative for intensive marine aquaculture. He supervised 8 PhD theses and 15 MSc theses and he authored over 56 scientific publications.