| Resumo: | Aquaponics represents nowadays an innovation in agricultural systems of production and supply food which combines aquaculture fish production with hydroponic production of vegetables, that can contribute to feed an increasing population at the world level, with less inputs in a sustainable way of production and supply. Besides the high development in this scientific area, there are not still enough commercial firms at European level, that allow us to know how this activity is evolving in society in general, as well as, to know the role played by Aquaponics Hub from COST FA 1305 - The EU Aquaponics Hub - Realising Sustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU is supported for Horizon 2020 (The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, 2017), in promoting the development of this activity in Europe. That occurs because aquaponics is a new and innovative production system in development. Thus, we used Google Trends data and a quantitative methodology, namely, multivariate analysis and econometric models in order to nowcast and forecast new insights about the importance, the role and the new trends about aquaponics in European countries. The results show an interesting development and an increasing trend in aquaponics search terms as a proxi of aquaponics development in Europe, mainly in all the European countries belonging to this Hub. However, we conclude that there is still a long way to go for aquaponics to become a commercial activity at economic level. Hence, public European and national decisionmakers are urged to be more concerned about legislation and the allocation of funds for research and for the commercial investment of companies and for their promotion and development. The paper reviews these discussions, maps scientific and technological progress over the aquaponics in Europe and presents new ideas on how to foster and accelerate scientific and technological advancement in aquaponics in Europe and across the world.
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