Leading academics from universities and research organisations across Europe and America, and companies and SMEs interested in developing foods, supplements and pharmaceuticals targeting pain and inflammation will gather for the Algae4IBD Conference and Industry Summit, taking place at the Conference Centre, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15 from March 4^th-6^th, 2026.

Organised by the Algae4IBD Consortium, of which Teagasc Ashtown are the Irish partners, this event will present findings from Algae4IBD Project that focused on the development and formulation of functional ingredients for health from algae and seaweeds, and their formulation into functional foods/nutraceuticals, pharma, and supplements. The Teagasc Algae4IBD team at Ashtown includes Dr Maria Hayes, Dr Dilip Rai, Dr Dolly Bhati, and Dr Oyenike Olatunji.

There are over three hundred different species of seaweeds found in Irish waters currently, and over 20,000 known microalgae. Some, like Kelp, form ocean forests and help to sequester carbon dioxide from the environment, while others are microscopic and provide a source of nutrition to fish and marine species and are also rich in nutrients like Polyunsaturated fatty acids like Omega-3 often found in food supplements.

Commenting ahead of the gathering, which will also bring together stakeholders from government organisations and policy makers from Ireland and Europe, Dr. Maria Hayes, Natural Products Chemistry Research Officer in the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, said:

“Seaweeds are a largely untapped Irish resource that could be used to create new products and markets for sectors impacted negatively by Brexit and recent EU quota negotiations for fish. They can be harvested and grown sustainably and could form a key resource for the Irish and European Bioeconomy.

“The key focus of the Algae4IBD Project was specifically generation, isolation and characterisation of these ingredients specifically to target pain and inflammation associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which affects greater than 3 million people in Europe including over 40,000 people in Ireland.

“The problem of inflammation is an ever growing one, and is also associated with aging, and the results from the project are also relevant to the development of products to prevent inflammation associated with other metabolic diseases and aging as well as inflammation in animal health,” Dr. Hayes added.

To find out more about the Algae4IBD Conference and Industry Summit, visit here: www.algae4IBD.eu

Register to attend the event via the following links:

• Register for the conference, conference dinner, social event here: https://algae4.clr.events/event/139540#registration

• Register for an exhibition booth (companies, industry) here: https://algae4.clr.events/event/139576

• Register to submit an abstract here: https://algae4.clr.events/event/139569

For further insights, watch a video on the Algae4IBD Project here: https://youtu.be/HaEMqKfHIn0