#EU4Algae - List of social aspects relevant to the growth of the European algae industry

The following report is a deliverable of the first iteration of the EU4Algae stakeholder platform, part of Task 1.7 – Supporting A Sustainable Development Of The Industry. It was compiled predominantly through desk research and professional networking for European blue bioeconomy projects (e.g. COOL BLUE, SeaMark, BlueBioClusters, REALM, CircAlgae, EU4Algae working groups). The document is intended as a list of aspects to be considered while developing strategies for the upscaling of the European algae industry. The target audience of this report is predominantly policymakers from local to transnational levels, but also EU4Algae stakeholders, especially those in charge of stakeholder outreach in their respective networks or organisations, to raise awareness of social considerations to ensure a fair development of the algae industry in Europe. Other social aspects will also be taken in consideration, as for example, supporting gender balance, fair redistribution of value created, inclusive involvement of local communities, reorientation programmes, etc. A pool of possible indicators will be selected to assess [the social] sustainability dimension of a growing algae industry. Emphasis is placed on the production and consumption of macroalgae, though many of the topics explored are equally relevant to microalgae (e.g. education, social acceptance of new products, wages, market structures and so on).