News

SeaDyes, a pioneering startup developing seaweed-based fabric dyes, has entered the Company Creation phase of Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spinout Programme, securing £200,000 in funding.

For Holdfast and Stipe, seaweed is not just a natural plant stimulant — it is the foundation of a fully circular production process.

Newport-based artist Mary Chatowski Jameson is transforming seaweed into intricate and colorful artworks, using techniques such as pressed collages and cyanotype printing. She collects seaweed from local shorelines and preserves it to create pieces that resemble botanical illustrations and floral designs, highlighting the natural beauty of marine plants.

Jameson is taking her work internationally through a cultural exchange with Kinsale, Ireland, Newport’s sister city. She will host a solo exhibition, workshops, and a sold-out art retreat, while also aiming to establish an artist-in-residence exchange program between the two cities to strengthen artistic collaboration.

Her interest in seaweed began from personal exploration and grew through studying historical practices, including Victorian seaweed collections and early photographic techniques by botanist Anna Atkins. Over time, she developed her own methods and tools, and now shares her knowledge through workshops and teaching.

Beyond art, her work bridges science, history, and creativity, showing how seaweed can be appreciated beyond its common perception as waste. Through exhibitions, products, and educational activities, Jameson is helping audiences rediscover seaweed as a versatile and aesthetically rich natural material.

Irish seaweeds are gaining attention as a valuable resource for developing health and wellness ingredients, with strong potential for marine processors to diversify into food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets. Speaking at an international conference at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Dublin, Professor Pat Dillon highlighted opportunities to integrate seaweed ingredients into sectors such as dairy and prepared foods.

A key focus is the Algae4IBD project, a Horizon 2020 initiative aimed at transforming algae research into next generation health solutions. The project is developing algae derived ingredients and product prototypes targeting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and related conditions, with benefits including anti-inflammatory effects, gut health improvement, microbiome modulation and pain management.

The initiative involves 21 partners across Europe, spanning academia, healthcare and industry, and covers the full value chain from seaweed cultivation to product formulation. Over four years, researchers at Teagasc and partner organisations have developed scientifically validated, scalable bioactive ingredients.

This work builds on broader research efforts such as the U-Protein project, which explores alternative proteins from plant sources including seaweed. The conference brought together over 180 stakeholders, including companies, research institutions and government agencies, highlighting growing collaboration and momentum in unlocking seaweed’s potential as a functional ingredient for health, nutrition and therapeutic applications.

Barry is the first author of a study published last year, funded by the Russell L. Rustici Rangeland and Cattle Research Endowment at the University of California, Davis. The authors concluded that additional research – with improved equipment and methods – was needed to better understand how seaweed additives could realistically be incorporated into grazing systems.

Marine Biologics will debut a patent-pending, high-performance seaweed powder designed for protein stabilization at Future Food-Tech San Francisco, US, this week (Mar 19–20). The California-based firm says single-ingredient seaweed powder, branded SeaTex, “dramatically simplifies” product formulations with zero additives or synthetic ingredients.

Pune-based sustainable packaging solutions startup Zerocircle has onboarded deeptech-focused venture capital firm 3one4 Capital in a new funding round. In an announcement on Thursday, the company said its total funding has now reached ₹25 crore, with existing investors Zerodha’s Rainmatter Capital, 1Crowd, LNB Group and 7th Gen also participating in the round.