Provision of a Seaweed Hatchery Facility to an Bord Iascaigh Mhara

Tender description

The primary purpose of this tender is to Procure a Licensed Seaweed Hatchery Facility for BIM’s Seaweed Development Services Programme 2022. The facility will be used by a contactor (procured under a separate tender competition) to carry out a programme of work to cultivate seaweeds, and to undertake mentoring and technology transfer to the farmed seaweed sector as part of BIM’s services to the sector. BIM’s 2022 seaweed development programme requires access to a facility which is licensed for carrying out manipulation and handling of the chosen seaweeds to include hatchery manipulation of plants in the lab, sporulation, bulking up and holding of cultures and spraying onto collector string with grow-out in the hatchery-based tanks. In addition, the facility must cater for mentoring and technology transfer to seaweed farmers. It is imperative for the success of the programme of work on Irish seaweeds that the facility is located in Ireland to enable locally occurring seaweed plants to be used for cultivation purposes, and for the produce from this cultivation to be re-deployed to sea in Ireland as per best practice guidelines. In addition, it is vital that the facility is located in Ireland to facilitate mentoring of the Irish farmed seaweed sector. The cultivation, mentoring and technology transfer work itself will be carried out under a separate contract arrangement.