12/06/2026
The OCEOMICS project has officially started!
The Kick-Off Meeting of the project HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-CIRCBIO-14 OCEOMICS – OCEAN COMPUTATIONAL EXPLORATION AND ANALYTICS FOR THE NOVEL BIOACTIVE MOLECULES’ DISCOVERY AND THEIR EXPLOITATION IN COSMETICS, coordinated by AINIA, took place in Valencia on 4 and 5 June 2026.
The project involves the BlueTekna group of the BLUEBIO Department at SZN, coordinated by Donatella de Pascale, together with Daniela Coppola, Nadia Ruocco, Gerardo Della Sala, Pietro Tedesco, Christian Galasso and Fortunato Palma Esposito, in collaboration with Simonepietro Canese from the RIMAR Department.
OCEOMICS launches an ambitious research and innovation journey that looks at the sea as an extraordinary resource for the discovery of new compounds integrating AI-based computational screening and advanced biotechnologies. The molecules identified and produced at large scale will be investigated through in vitro assays on preclinical models to assess their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-UV effects, with the aim of developing new cosmetic formulations.
The KOM brought together the 12 consortium partners: AINIA (Spain), KVeloce (Spain), Innovarum (Spain), Deeplab.ai (Greece), Wageningen University (the Netherlands), Particula Group (Croatia), Idener AI (Spain), SZN (Italy), Callaghan Innovation (New Zealand), Cawthron Institute (New Zealand), Celabor (Belgium) and Unilever (UK).
During the meeting, partners shared expertise, visions, and priorities, defining the first steps of the activities planned for the next 48 months. The consortium brings together companies, research organizations and universities in a multidisciplinary collaboration that connects marine research, genomics, AI, metabolic engineering, metabolomics, chemistry of natural products, in vitro validation, cosmetic formulation and impact assessment.
The KOM in Valencia therefore laid the foundations for an international collaboration in which science, technology and industry work side by side to transform marine biodiversity into sustainable innovation.