Early warning systems that can provide extreme sensitivity with exquisite selectivity are required to assess chemical contamination of estuarine and coastal areas. Chemical contamination of estuarine and coastal areas is very complex and have negative implications for the environment and human health (through the food chain) and associated coastal industries (fisheries and aquaculture). Since the quantification of chemical compounds at ultra-trace concentrations in the marine environment is carried by chemical analysis, which involve sampling that wastes time and financial resources and being impractical for continuous monitoring (the results are known only after several days), there is a need to develop early warning reliable, sensitive and selective systems.
SEA-on-a-CHIP aims to develop a miniaturized, autonomous, remote and flexible immune-sensor platform based on a fully integrated array of micro/nano-electrodes and a microfluidic system in a lab-on-a-chip configuration combined with electrochemical detection for real time analysis of marine waters in multi-stressor conditions.

Through ten work packages, it will be developed a system for a concrete application in aquaculture facilities, including the rapid assessment of 8 selected contaminants from 5 groups of compounds that affect aquaculture production (compounds which are toxic, bioaccumulative and endocrine disruptors) and also those produced by this industry that affect environment and human health (antibiotics and pesticides). This system will be easily adaptable to other target compounds or other situations like coastal water contamination analysis. Each device will be able to perform 8 simultaneous measures in duplicates and will be built in order to work with one-month autonomy and measuring in real time at least once per hour. As many devices as needed could be connected simultaneously to the same platform resulting in a very flexible and inexpensive system. The 10 work packages design for this project are:

• WP1: Coordination and Management (leader: Damià Barceló; dbcqam@cid.csic.es);
• WP2: Immunoassays and Immobilization (leader: M. Pilar Marco; pilar.marco@cid.csic.es);
• WP3: Lab-on-a-chip (leader: Abdelhamid Errachid; abdelhamid.errachid@univ-lyon1.fr);
• WP4: Fluidics management and robotics (leader: Cecilia Laschi;    cecilia.laschi@sssup.it);
• WP5: Data processing and management - transmission to the central mode (leader: Manel López de Miguel; manel.lopez@ub.edu, mlopez@el.ub.es);
• WP6: Electronic surface sink system (Gateway) – signal transmission, data collection and remote control (leader: Spiros Peristeris; spiros.peristeris@gmail.com);
• WP7: System integration (leader: Bo Mattiasson; bo.mattiasson@biotek.lu.se);
• WP8: Remote applications software (leader: Josep M. Riera; jmriera@oqpbcn.com);
• WP9: Verification and Validation – case studies (leader: James Readman; JWRE@pml.ac.uk);
• WP10: Dissemination and exploitation plan (leader: Cecilia Laschi; cecilia.laschi@sssup.it).

The units will be tested throughout the lifetime of the project and calibrated to state-of-the-art of chemical analytics: first in laboratory studies, second under artificial ecosystems and finally during 3 field experiments in the installation of 2 aquaculture SME facilities. The last test phase will be performed in a way that will include dissemination of the findings with a clear view of commercializing the devices.

The SEA-on-a-CHIP project consortium comprises 17 institutions from nine European member states (Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) and one associated country (Norway). The partners reflect Research and Technical Development (RTD) organizations and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), selected according to their expertise and competence, in order to provide an equitable balance of complementary partners and resources required to undertake a multidisciplinary project such as this.