April 2025: Launch of eelgras restauration research project

In the MRA we work to facilitate cross institutional and interdisciplinary maritime research. We are therefore extremely happy to announce the launch of the LASER (LArge Scale Ealgrass Restauration) Project which is supported by AAGE V. JENSEN NATURFOND. The aim of the project is to develop automated solutions to plant eelgrass.

Since 1900, Denmark has lost 80-90 % of the eelgrass. This is bad for fish and other animals that need the eelgrass as a habitat. Today, the restoration of eelgrass beds is largely conducted as manual labor by divers – plant-by-plant. If this can be automated, it will be possible to restore eelgrass beds faster, cheaper, and at a much larger scale than today.

This project is the perfect example of how cross institutional, interdisciplinary research between academia and industry can help tackling societal challenges.

In the project engineers, biologists, law scholars, and environmental economists from Technical University of Denmark, Aalborg University, University of Southern Denmark, and University of Copenhagen collaborate with the Danish marine contractor Rohde Nielsen to develop the new solutions.

The project is headed by Josef Oehmen (DTU) and involves:
Roberto Galeazzi, Andy M. Filipovic, Yaqub Aris Prabowo, and Matteo Fumagalli (from DTU)
Eva roth, Mogens Flindt, and Paula Canal Vergés (from SDU)
Simon Pedersen, Jannic Schurmann Larsen, and Jesper Liniger (AAU)
Maxim Usynin (KU)
Christopher Skotte Rohde, Ingolf Gudjonsson, and Esther Yue Li Sim (Rohde Nielsen)
Thomas Roslyng Olesen (MRA)