ActFast is a Horizon Europe Innovation Action (Grant Agreement No. 101181159) dedicated to identifying, validating, and demonstrating climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions tailored for European aquaculture. ActFast aims to identify, validate, and demonstrate climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions tailored for European aquaculture, alongside opportunities to increase sustainable production. Targeting regions where aquaculture is deeply integrated into the socio-economic fabric, the project will map climate hazards across the Mediterranean Sea, deltas, Central-Eastern European inland waters, and North-east Atlantic Ocean, utilising historical data, predictions, stakeholder insights, and satellite surveys. Integrating this comprehensive data analysis, the project will develop a user-friendly early warning system for the Mediterranean region empowering aquafarmers to proactively manage and mitigate climate risks. ActFast will promote the development of fast and replicable climate solutions for marine, transitional, and freshwater aquaculture by integrating climate prediction models with targeted solutions in four target regions. Given the unique impacts and sensitivities of the targeted areas and aquaculture systems, ActFast aims to design mitigation strategies that consider both regional and species-specific characteristics, boosting the productive efficiency, health, and well-being of farmed fish and molluscs struggling against climate change's impacts, increasing and diversifying production in coastal and rural areas, promoting economic growth and community resilience, and minimising environmental impact and shrinking European aquaculture's carbon footprint. The proposed innovations will be shared through an inclusive dissemination and communication plan, while the market uptake of the results and outputs will be ensured by a detailed exploitation strategy. To achieve maximum exploitation, dissemination, and knowledge transfer, ActFast will develop and implement a "Virtual ActFast Lighthouse", an immersive demo-training virtual reality collecting data from diverse experiments and field operations conducted across multiple work packages.

1. Develop climate-smart aquaculture solutions. Create and demonstrate tailored adaptation and mitigation solutions for aquaculture under diverse European climate regimes.
2. Enhance fish and shellfish health. Improve survival and productivity by advancing disease prevention tools, reducing antibiotic use, and supporting resilient husbandry practices.
3. Boost sustainable production. Leverage climate conditions to shorten production cycles, improve mollusc survival, and develop innovative feeds to support sustainable growth.
4. Advance circularity and low-impact practice. Implement dietary innovations, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, and circular systems to reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact.
5. Strengthen internationalization efforts by advancing international scientific cooperation focused on the life cycle of agri-food processes, fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing on a global scale.
6. Deliver early warning systems. Provide AI-driven climate predictions and a user-friendly early warning system to help aquaculture farmers to anticipate and manage risk.
7. Mobilise knowledge and skills. Share results widely through training, outreach, and the Virtual ActFast Lighthouse, empowering aquaculture operators across Europe and beyond.

• Mediterranean. Focus on seabass and seabream farms, particularly vulnerable to heatwaves and fish diseases. The Po Delta (Italy) and other Mediterranean sites test adaptive feeds and health solutions
• North-east Atlantic. In Norway and Scotland, the focus is on salmon aquaculture, testing functional feeds and genetic approaches to reduce complex gill disease and improve smolt quality.
• River deltas. In the Ebro Delta (Spain), Po Delta (Italy), and Nile Delta (Egypt), ActFast addresses mussel thermotolerance, invasive blue crab threats to clams, and develops innovative Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems with fish, shellfish, algae, and rice.
• Inland waters. Demonstrations in Hungary and Slovenia focus on carp, trout, and catfish farming. The case studies include new wintering feeds, biosensors for pathogens, and duckweed-based IMTA to improve resilience in cold freshwater systems.

CIHEAM will coordinate the WP – Competence development and knowledge mobilisation whose objective is to ensure the widest possible dissemination of project findings, conclusions, and recommendations to both relevant stakeholders and the general public. CIHEAM Bari and CIHEAM Zaragoza will develop the following activities:

• Two 5-day in-person advanced multidisciplinary courses to equip stakeholders with the knowledge and skills needed to adopt the new solutions developed in WP1 to WP6.
• Two in-person training workshops focus on specific knowledge, tools, and skills needed for stakeholders to adopt the innovative solutions developed in WP1 to WP6.
• Online Transfer Knowledge. Webinar series. Webinars will be designed and developed to transfer selected and specific knowledge, conclusions and recommendations generated from all WPs.
• Mobilisation of Advisory Board Management and other Stakeholders. The AB members will provide their expert opinions in form of inputs, feedback and recommendations and will support the outreach project results through their professional networks.