AQUAEXCEL started in 2011 with funding under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme. It was a 4-year project during which the Institute of Aquaculture hosted nine TNA projects involving eight different research partner institutions from Portugal, Spain, Hungary and Ireland. The topics covered a range of disease and nutritional issues, through bioinformatics and behavioural studies relating to health and welfare to trophic pathways in an aquaponic system. Species focus included tilapia, African catfish, Atlantic salmon, gilthead seabream, turbot, and bluefin tuna.