Business trip report, Slovenia, Koushik

Koushik Roy, Ph.D. from the Laboratory of Nutrition, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, chaired the session “Nature-based Solutions and Regenerative Farming” at Aquaculture Europe 2026, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 28 September to 1 October 2026. The session brought together researchers from Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and France, with nine of its 12 oral presentations focused on European pond aquaculture. Two of these were delivered by PhD students from the Laboratory of Nutrition, Bidipta Mandal and Md. Foysul Hossain.

A key outcome of the session was the launch of the “Pond Alliance” initiative, which aims to develop a future COST Action proposal dedicated to European pond aquaculture. Czechia is expected to serve as the main proposer, supported by international partners as co-proposers. Koushik Roy also presented one oral contribution and three e-posters in other conference sessions. The contributions highlighted results from ongoing national projects (OPJAK CZ.02.01.01/00/23_021/0012616 Mraz; NAZV QL25020009 Policar) and international projects (Horizon Europe 101286791 DIVERSIFY4Future Roy; INTERREG ATCZ00278 CARMA Roy). Participation in the conference was supported by the INTERREG CARMA project.