CLIMALG-SN aims at seaweed habitats and their potential to foster blue growth and to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in Senegal and neighbouring countries. The project will provide a road map to policy makers to encourage both exploitation (cultivation and harvest) of seaweed and preservation of natural seaweeds habitats as a tool for fisheries management and as refuge and habitat for exploited fish. Seaweed aquaculture cannot only be a profitable and sustainable source of income, but also a tool for carbon fixation and for nutrient recovery from over-fertilized coastal waters. Natural and sustainably harvested and cultivated seaweed habitats can stabilize, conserve and restore marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. CLIMALG-SN will update the current seaweed inventory in Senegal, and assess their influence on biodiversity, interactions with ecological and biogeochemical cycles and bottlenecks for their recent exploitation. Existing knowledge will be gathered, socio-economic interviews and taxonomic identification will be conducted, and use of genomics and metagenomics as novel methodologies, relevant for the identification of seaweeds and the associated species biodiversity, will be introduced. All knowledge will be developed and shared in meetings and workshops with relevant stakeholders, which include institutions and organisations with an emphasis on policy and decision-making, including both maritime economy and environmental directorates, potential stakeholders of seaweed production, small-scale fishermen, women associations, as well as local and sub-regional fishing commissions, academic partners, and non-governmental organisations. Overall, the planned activities in CLIMALG-SN directly target United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) through the increase of scientific knowledge and research capacity for the sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems and support further Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1, 2, & 8). In all stages of the project, we will place a particular emphasis on capacity building of Senegalese direct and indirect partners, at technical, academic and institutional levels.