INSTM

The National Institute of Sea Sciences and Technologies (INSTM) is a non-profit, research public institute created in 1924, currently under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic resources, Fisheries and Aquaculture. The INSTM was charged to conduct aquatic research of strategic national importance and produce technologies, information, knowledge and approaches to support the fisheries and aquaculture sector. The scope, range of mandate, and the multidisciplinary of competencies allow INSTM to contribute significantly to the national development agenda through provision of scientific R&D within 5 Research Structure (RS) related to Aquaculture, Fisheries Sciences, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Environment, and Blue Biotechnology & Aquatic Bio-products (B3Aqua; LR16/INSTM/05). B3Aqua recently created (2016) within the framework of the IEVP-Italy-Tunisia projects BIOVecQ PS1.3-08 and SecurAqua PS1.03.02; initiated a set of activities to stimulate Tunisian aquatic biotechnology research and established a network of researchers and enterprises in the sector contributing to a sustainable bleu growth in the Mediterranean zone. INSTM has extensive experience with international projects (IP). For instance, in the 4 last years, the institute has participate to > 17 IP such as ChiBio, ST&MED, M3_HABs, COSAFIMED, PEER 128, RYSCMED, FAO/ELBIBAN, CLAIM and MedAid and was leader of 2 EU projects (BIOVecQ, SecurAqua). The Blue Biotechnology and Aquatic-products (B3Aqua) Laboratory at INSTM have proved its capacity to collaborate with enterprises, the development and validation of analytical methods and the elaboration of innovative and important answers for the aqua-food chain including traceability, shelf life extension, labelling, innovative products.