This two-year project aims at developing fully automated and robust systems for routine ageing. It will comprise four workpackages in addition to project management (WP0): the collation of the otolith material and the creation of bases of annotated otolith images (WP1), the development of algorithms for fish ageing automation from otolith features (WP2), the implementation these automated ageing modules in a software platform dedicated to otolith imaging (WP3), the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed automated ageing systems (WP4). The whole processing chain from the acquisition of otolith data to the actual ageing issue using pattern recognition or statistical inference will be coped with. The demonstration component will include the demonstration of the degree of automation of the proposed systems and a cost-benefit analysis of these automated solutions for three case studies: cod from Faeroes, North Sea and North East Artic, plaice from the Eastern English Channel (VIId) and Iceland, and anchovy from the Bay of Biscay. The focus will be on demonstrating the consistency of automated age estimation with respect to the major steps of the processing chain and to the joint analysis of ageing precision and acquisition costs with respect to stock assessment objectives.