Seaweeds represent a largely untapped resource for food, fuel and useful chemicals, but can also form nuisance blooms and contribute to biofouling on boats and power stations.

seaweed

The Coates lab at the University of Birmingham is part of a recently-funded EU-COST network set up to further understanding of basic growth and development in seaweeds, so that this knowledge can be applied to aquaculture in the future. The funding (total €400K) will cover exchange visits and training for early-career researchers. Participants include academics from France, UK, Spain, Germany and Greece, and industrial partners from the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.

For more information about the participants, see www.phycomorph.org. Juliet Coates is also a co-editor on a Research Topic on seaweed morphogenesis and development in Frontiers in Plant Science (http://journal.frontiersin.org/ResearchTopic/2598), where more articles are coming soon.