Aquaculture Directed Knowledge Exchange Fellowship
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Natural & Environmental Sciences
Abstract
With the global population expected to rise to 9.6 billion by 2050, there is increasing pressure for aquaculture to meet the rising demand, while maintaining sustainability and food security standards. While European aquaculture has been struggling to maintain competitiveness, at a UK level research investment has dropped considerably, until the recent joint BBSRC-NERC initiative. Prior funding has largely focused on salmonids and shellfish, mainly spanning the areas of disease or environmental impact, often focusing on Scotland but not fully covering the breadth of strategic needs of the sector. Furthermore, there is often a decoupling between basic research funded by research councils and industrially applied research. Moreover, the impact of basic research has been further limited by inadequate mechanisms for knowledge exchange between academia and industry. This KEF will build the know-how for effective information exchange and research translation by connecting the actors within the aquaculture value chain. The fellow will work closely with research and industry, to identify knowledge needs, promote collaborations, disseminate BBRSC-NERC funded research and improve public perception of aquaculture.
A key deliverable and enabling tool will be an innovative and intuitive web-based, user-friendly visual database that maps the UK aquaculture sector, thereby connecting stakeholders and their areas of activity and interest. Further, the Fellow will create and publish 'Research Profiles', on department/institute specific research track records, and 'Company Profiles', on company's key activities and research interests. Another key activity will be the development of an 'International research network map', based on academia's connections with international partners so contacts are easily identified. These tools will provide the industry with information on potential partners, which can answer its R&D needs and will also foster the development of networks to access to EU funding schemes and international expertise.
The Fellow will advance the development of the UK aquaculture network, by meeting and developing contacts with industry, trade/advisory bodies and academia, and will bring stakeholders together through innovative ways in a sector-wide conference 'Connecting UK Aquaculture'. The fellow will organise an industry-focused workshop 'UK Aquaculture: key knowledge needs and gaps' and develop a strategy document on aquaculture research and investment priorities from a stakeholder's perspective, to inform and engage funders and policymakers.
This KEF will support the dissemination of BBSRC-NERC research through 'Research Bulletins' to industry and the creation and public dissemination of a series of videos explaining BBSRC-NERC research '@UKAquacultureResearchExplained'. The third pillar of the fellowship is assessing the public attitudes and perception of aquaculture and the development of recommendations to enhance public appreciation, which will be disseminated to funders, policymakers and industry. UK aquaculture best practices and success stories will be promoted through press releases, media engagement, social media, and an interactive web-presence. A series of digital materials for education and outreach in aquaculture will be created and widely disseminated to schools throughout the UK.
By these combined approaches, the Fellow will promote collaboration opportunities between industry and academia, while facilitating informed governance and research funding, supporting the uptake of research by businesses and improving public perception of aquaculture. The impact of the activities started during this programme will extend post-fellowship, supporting the sector's competitiveness and internationalisation through an increased focus on innovation and industry-relevant research, enhanced synergy between industry and academia, and towards the sustainable development of UK aquaculture.
A key deliverable and enabling tool will be an innovative and intuitive web-based, user-friendly visual database that maps the UK aquaculture sector, thereby connecting stakeholders and their areas of activity and interest. Further, the Fellow will create and publish 'Research Profiles', on department/institute specific research track records, and 'Company Profiles', on company's key activities and research interests. Another key activity will be the development of an 'International research network map', based on academia's connections with international partners so contacts are easily identified. These tools will provide the industry with information on potential partners, which can answer its R&D needs and will also foster the development of networks to access to EU funding schemes and international expertise.
The Fellow will advance the development of the UK aquaculture network, by meeting and developing contacts with industry, trade/advisory bodies and academia, and will bring stakeholders together through innovative ways in a sector-wide conference 'Connecting UK Aquaculture'. The fellow will organise an industry-focused workshop 'UK Aquaculture: key knowledge needs and gaps' and develop a strategy document on aquaculture research and investment priorities from a stakeholder's perspective, to inform and engage funders and policymakers.
This KEF will support the dissemination of BBSRC-NERC research through 'Research Bulletins' to industry and the creation and public dissemination of a series of videos explaining BBSRC-NERC research '@UKAquacultureResearchExplained'. The third pillar of the fellowship is assessing the public attitudes and perception of aquaculture and the development of recommendations to enhance public appreciation, which will be disseminated to funders, policymakers and industry. UK aquaculture best practices and success stories will be promoted through press releases, media engagement, social media, and an interactive web-presence. A series of digital materials for education and outreach in aquaculture will be created and widely disseminated to schools throughout the UK.
By these combined approaches, the Fellow will promote collaboration opportunities between industry and academia, while facilitating informed governance and research funding, supporting the uptake of research by businesses and improving public perception of aquaculture. The impact of the activities started during this programme will extend post-fellowship, supporting the sector's competitiveness and internationalisation through an increased focus on innovation and industry-relevant research, enhanced synergy between industry and academia, and towards the sustainable development of UK aquaculture.
Organisations
- Newcastle University (Collaboration, Lead Research Organisation)
- Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (Collaboration)
- ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF READING (Collaboration)
- University of Stirling (Collaboration)
- The College of Exploration (Collaboration)
- University of Hull (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EXETER (Collaboration)
- Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (Collaboration)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- Seafish (Collaboration)
- University of Zagreb (Collaboration)
- SWANSEA UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Collaboration)
- Scottish Association For Marine Science (Fellow)
| Description | It should be noted that this is not a Research award, but a Knowledge Exchange Award. Nevertheless, over the first part of this fellowship award (before the award was transferred) there were the following key findings: (i) Identification of areas of improvement of the current MMO aquaculture model (to improve the mapping of areas of aquaculture potential) and definition of recommendations to consider aquaculture within marine spatial plans. This include a revision of the considered species, environmental requirements, ecosystem approach to aquaculture, amongst other.s (ii) Identification of wants and needs of early career researches (ECRs) working in aquaculture. ECRs have noted as challenges the access to funding, lack of available training opportunities (for both technical skills and soft skills) and lack of industry knowledge, having identified opportunities of interest for career development. (iii) Increased knowledge of factors affecting public perception and attitudes towards aquaculture (this work has continued post-transfer of the award from Newcastle University to SAMS; please refer to the part 2 of the fellowship, for findings post 2018). |
| Exploitation Route | Findings are being followed-up within the activities of this fellowship and in collaboration with other institutions and practitioners. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Environment |
| Description | Prioritisation of aquaculture within Marine Spatial Planning in England, through an Evidence Requirement issued by the Marine Management Organisation, which builds on current activity developed by the fellow in the Valuing Nature Placement |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664839/R002_-_Aquaculture_... |
| Description | COVID-19: Resilience of the UK seafood system to the Covid-19 disruption (RiseUp) |
| Amount | £320,742 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/V009907/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2020 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | GFS Food Systems Resilience Development 3rd call "Diverseafood: Evaluating the potential of multi-trophic aquaculture to improve nutrition and ecosystem sustainability in the UK" |
| Amount | £637,550 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/S014128/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 02/2021 |
| Description | GFS Policy Lab on Multifunctional Landscapes (Franco - PI) |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Global Food Security |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2017 |
| End | 04/2019 |
| Description | NERC Fellows leadership skills training bursary (Franco) |
| Amount | £8,550 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 10/2016 |
| Description | NERC Valuing Nature Placements (Franco) |
| Amount | £20,085 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Value Nature Programme |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2017 |
| End | 07/2017 |
| Description | Parliamentary Shadowing Scheme (Franco) |
| Amount | £708 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Ecological Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 11/2017 |
| Description | Pump-priming funding "Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes" (Franco & Kuznesof - PIs) |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | N8 Research Partnership |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2018 |
| End | 05/2019 |
| Description | ARCH-UK Network (BBSRC - ARCH) |
| Organisation | Swansea University |
| Department | Department of Biosciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the application to the BBSRC-NERC Aquaculture Networks call by the ARCH-UK consortium and post-award discussion/revisions. Since the award, the fellow has participated in the launch meeting (April 2017- London), contributed with feedback to the research priorities report produced for BBSRC-NERC and participated at relevant WG meetings (e.g. WG8 launch meeting, Aug 2017 - Stirling) and ARCH-UK meetings (e.g. ACIG-Seafish, 3rd July and 26th Oct 2017 - London; session at MASTS Annual Science Meeting, April 2017 - Glasgow; presence at the BBSRC-NERC call launch event, Dec 2017 - London). This initial collaboration has also resulted in a new collaboration with WG.8, as detailed under "Career development and training needs of early-career researchers (ECR) working in UK aquaculture". The Fellow has further engaged with the industry for contributions/feedback and to circulate ARCH-UK's announcements/ events/ outputs through established social media channels and professional network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Members of the network have contributed to the report on the research priorities produced for BBSRC-NERC and through the participation in the various meetings/workshops. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) Presentation by the follow at the ARCH-UK launch meeting (April 2017, London); (ii) Dissemination by the fellow of ARCH-UK related outputs/events through social media, with (by 14.Jan.2018) a total of 18 posts regarding ARCH-UK were shared on twitter @AquacultureKE gaining >25k impressions and >500 engagements, including 74 retweets and 188 link clicks. Some of this information was also shared by direct messaging through LinkedIn networks and posted on the 'UK Aquaculture industry' Group, as relevant |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | ARCH-UK Network (BBSRC - ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the application to the BBSRC-NERC Aquaculture Networks call by the ARCH-UK consortium and post-award discussion/revisions. Since the award, the fellow has participated in the launch meeting (April 2017- London), contributed with feedback to the research priorities report produced for BBSRC-NERC and participated at relevant WG meetings (e.g. WG8 launch meeting, Aug 2017 - Stirling) and ARCH-UK meetings (e.g. ACIG-Seafish, 3rd July and 26th Oct 2017 - London; session at MASTS Annual Science Meeting, April 2017 - Glasgow; presence at the BBSRC-NERC call launch event, Dec 2017 - London). This initial collaboration has also resulted in a new collaboration with WG.8, as detailed under "Career development and training needs of early-career researchers (ECR) working in UK aquaculture". The Fellow has further engaged with the industry for contributions/feedback and to circulate ARCH-UK's announcements/ events/ outputs through established social media channels and professional network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Members of the network have contributed to the report on the research priorities produced for BBSRC-NERC and through the participation in the various meetings/workshops. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) Presentation by the follow at the ARCH-UK launch meeting (April 2017, London); (ii) Dissemination by the fellow of ARCH-UK related outputs/events through social media, with (by 14.Jan.2018) a total of 18 posts regarding ARCH-UK were shared on twitter @AquacultureKE gaining >25k impressions and >500 engagements, including 74 retweets and 188 link clicks. Some of this information was also shared by direct messaging through LinkedIn networks and posted on the 'UK Aquaculture industry' Group, as relevant |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | ARCH-UK Network (BBSRC - ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Hull |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the application to the BBSRC-NERC Aquaculture Networks call by the ARCH-UK consortium and post-award discussion/revisions. Since the award, the fellow has participated in the launch meeting (April 2017- London), contributed with feedback to the research priorities report produced for BBSRC-NERC and participated at relevant WG meetings (e.g. WG8 launch meeting, Aug 2017 - Stirling) and ARCH-UK meetings (e.g. ACIG-Seafish, 3rd July and 26th Oct 2017 - London; session at MASTS Annual Science Meeting, April 2017 - Glasgow; presence at the BBSRC-NERC call launch event, Dec 2017 - London). This initial collaboration has also resulted in a new collaboration with WG.8, as detailed under "Career development and training needs of early-career researchers (ECR) working in UK aquaculture". The Fellow has further engaged with the industry for contributions/feedback and to circulate ARCH-UK's announcements/ events/ outputs through established social media channels and professional network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Members of the network have contributed to the report on the research priorities produced for BBSRC-NERC and through the participation in the various meetings/workshops. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) Presentation by the follow at the ARCH-UK launch meeting (April 2017, London); (ii) Dissemination by the fellow of ARCH-UK related outputs/events through social media, with (by 14.Jan.2018) a total of 18 posts regarding ARCH-UK were shared on twitter @AquacultureKE gaining >25k impressions and >500 engagements, including 74 retweets and 188 link clicks. Some of this information was also shared by direct messaging through LinkedIn networks and posted on the 'UK Aquaculture industry' Group, as relevant |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | ARCH-UK Network (BBSRC - ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Stirling |
| Department | Institute of Aquaculture |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the application to the BBSRC-NERC Aquaculture Networks call by the ARCH-UK consortium and post-award discussion/revisions. Since the award, the fellow has participated in the launch meeting (April 2017- London), contributed with feedback to the research priorities report produced for BBSRC-NERC and participated at relevant WG meetings (e.g. WG8 launch meeting, Aug 2017 - Stirling) and ARCH-UK meetings (e.g. ACIG-Seafish, 3rd July and 26th Oct 2017 - London; session at MASTS Annual Science Meeting, April 2017 - Glasgow; presence at the BBSRC-NERC call launch event, Dec 2017 - London). This initial collaboration has also resulted in a new collaboration with WG.8, as detailed under "Career development and training needs of early-career researchers (ECR) working in UK aquaculture". The Fellow has further engaged with the industry for contributions/feedback and to circulate ARCH-UK's announcements/ events/ outputs through established social media channels and professional network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Members of the network have contributed to the report on the research priorities produced for BBSRC-NERC and through the participation in the various meetings/workshops. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) Presentation by the follow at the ARCH-UK launch meeting (April 2017, London); (ii) Dissemination by the fellow of ARCH-UK related outputs/events through social media, with (by 14.Jan.2018) a total of 18 posts regarding ARCH-UK were shared on twitter @AquacultureKE gaining >25k impressions and >500 engagements, including 74 retweets and 188 link clicks. Some of this information was also shared by direct messaging through LinkedIn networks and posted on the 'UK Aquaculture industry' Group, as relevant |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Aquaculture suitability decision support tool for marine spatial planning (KEF-Aquamap) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Department | Marine Management Organisation (MMO) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration follows-up from the previous collaboration with the MMO. This grant application was led by the Fellow, with coIs from Newcastle University and the MMO as a partner; counting with an advisory board with representation from Cefas, DEFRA and Seafish. Unfortunately, this grant application was not sucessful (outcome received in August 2018). If successful, this project would have ran from Oct 2018 to Jan 2020 and translated the outcomes of the previous VN placement (£19k award) into an effective improvement of the MMO's capacity to identify areas of aquaculture potential, generating tools that will allow the industry to identify best areas for development. The project had the potential to generate effective policy impact, by changing how the MMO currently defines areas for aquaculture and prioritises them, having an impact in the marine spatial plans for England and current licencing procedures. The fellow and the research team wrote the grant application, gathered the relevant supporting information and submitted this £200K project application to the BBSRC/NERC Joint Call in Aquaculture - Innovation Projects (January 2018). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The MMO contributed to the creation of the proposal, provided all necessary supporting information and actively contributed to the review of the application pre-submission. |
| Impact | (i) Submission of a research proposal to NERC-BBSRC Joint Call in Aquaculture - Innovation Projects, including an in kind contribution from the MMO; (ii) Invitation from SEAFISH for the Fellow to present the concept of this project and results from previous partnerships at the Aquaculture Common Issues Group meeting (London, April 2018). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public (KEF - OceanSpeak) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Department | Dove Marine Laboratory |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the design a grant application "Ocean Speak: Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public" and application/budget review. I further advised on the engagement training programme on sustainable aquaculture that could be delivered to companies and ECR. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners from the Dove Marine Laboratory and College of Exploration (USA) contributed to the design of the other environmental topics within the grant and would be responsible for the delivery of workshops. The Dove Marine Laboratory partners was PI responsible for the writing and submission of the proposal. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Submission of grant application to NERC's call "Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science" (Nov 2016; £30k) entitled "Ocean Speak: Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public". |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public (KEF - OceanSpeak) |
| Organisation | The College of Exploration |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Contribution to the design a grant application "Ocean Speak: Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public" and application/budget review. I further advised on the engagement training programme on sustainable aquaculture that could be delivered to companies and ECR. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners from the Dove Marine Laboratory and College of Exploration (USA) contributed to the design of the other environmental topics within the grant and would be responsible for the delivery of workshops. The Dove Marine Laboratory partners was PI responsible for the writing and submission of the proposal. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Submission of grant application to NERC's call "Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science" (Nov 2016; £30k) entitled "Ocean Speak: Bridging the gap between marine environmental science researchers and the general public". |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Career development and training needs of early-career researchers working in UK aquaculture (KEF-ARCH) |
| Organisation | Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Multiple |
| PI Contribution | The need for this collaboration was initially identified at the WG.8 meeting (Aug 2017, Stirling), where ECR shared concerns over the lack of links with the industry, key skills and knowledge over industry needs, essential to answer to the current funding landscape and to assure future collaborations to address industry challenges. The Fellow has since established links with ECRs in UK aquaculture (Aug 2017) to start to address these issues. The Fellow worked with WG.8 leads to design an online questionnaire to identify current needs and how to best address them (Sep-Oct 2017), and disseminated this widely within the UK aquaculture community. The questionnaire gathered the views of 39 ECRs (Jan 2018). The fellow has processed the questionnaire results and created an infographic to share these results with stakeholders (Feb 2018). These results have now been widely disseminated. ECRs have noted as challenges the access to funding, lack of available training opportunities (for both technical skills and soft skills) and lack of industry knowledge, having identified opportunities of interest for career development. Action is being taken to start addressing these issues, in collaboration with ARCH-UK WG.8. An action plan to address the identified gaps has been devised by the team, with plans to organise a workshop with industry participation and a networking component, definition of recommendations over ECR funding, signposting/organisation opportunities to develop technical and soft skills of ECR, amongst others. Details over these activities will be released in upcoming months. This addresses current needs within the UK's research capabilities and builds academia-business links, with the potential to affect the future competitiveness of UK aquaculture research, to better answer to the industry's needs. This collaboration builds towards the first to third goals of the fellowship, to identify needs within the UK's research capabilities and areas for development and build a stakeholder-led platform beyond the life of this fellowship. In accordance to this an Early Career Researcher session was done, in collaboration with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Center and chaired by the Fellow, as part of SAIC's Aquavation sessions at Aquaculture UK (Aviemore, 23-24May2018), which allowed ECR to present their research directly to the aquaculture sector. The presentation line-up is available here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/news/2018/5/21/early-career-researchers-at-aquaculture-uk and the elevator pitches given by ERC can be seen here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/#/working-group-8/ This collaboration is ongoing, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The fellow has worked with staff from Stirling University to jointly design the questionnaire. Colleagues from Stirling, Hull and Exeter Universities have further contributed for the definition of the action plan and are helping to organise the proposed activities, with the assistance from ARCH-UK coordinator. SAIC kindly hosted the ERC workshop within their Aquavation session at Aquaculture UK. Ongoing collaboration, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) identification of training needs of ECR in UK aquaculture; (ii) infographic on the wants and needs of ECR in aquaculture (following a collaboration with ARCH-UK WG8 available here: http://goo.gl/Xvwq9s); (iii) organisation of ERC-Industry elevator pitch session within SAIC Aquavation at Aquaculture UK 2018. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Career development and training needs of early-career researchers working in UK aquaculture (KEF-ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The need for this collaboration was initially identified at the WG.8 meeting (Aug 2017, Stirling), where ECR shared concerns over the lack of links with the industry, key skills and knowledge over industry needs, essential to answer to the current funding landscape and to assure future collaborations to address industry challenges. The Fellow has since established links with ECRs in UK aquaculture (Aug 2017) to start to address these issues. The Fellow worked with WG.8 leads to design an online questionnaire to identify current needs and how to best address them (Sep-Oct 2017), and disseminated this widely within the UK aquaculture community. The questionnaire gathered the views of 39 ECRs (Jan 2018). The fellow has processed the questionnaire results and created an infographic to share these results with stakeholders (Feb 2018). These results have now been widely disseminated. ECRs have noted as challenges the access to funding, lack of available training opportunities (for both technical skills and soft skills) and lack of industry knowledge, having identified opportunities of interest for career development. Action is being taken to start addressing these issues, in collaboration with ARCH-UK WG.8. An action plan to address the identified gaps has been devised by the team, with plans to organise a workshop with industry participation and a networking component, definition of recommendations over ECR funding, signposting/organisation opportunities to develop technical and soft skills of ECR, amongst others. Details over these activities will be released in upcoming months. This addresses current needs within the UK's research capabilities and builds academia-business links, with the potential to affect the future competitiveness of UK aquaculture research, to better answer to the industry's needs. This collaboration builds towards the first to third goals of the fellowship, to identify needs within the UK's research capabilities and areas for development and build a stakeholder-led platform beyond the life of this fellowship. In accordance to this an Early Career Researcher session was done, in collaboration with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Center and chaired by the Fellow, as part of SAIC's Aquavation sessions at Aquaculture UK (Aviemore, 23-24May2018), which allowed ECR to present their research directly to the aquaculture sector. The presentation line-up is available here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/news/2018/5/21/early-career-researchers-at-aquaculture-uk and the elevator pitches given by ERC can be seen here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/#/working-group-8/ This collaboration is ongoing, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The fellow has worked with staff from Stirling University to jointly design the questionnaire. Colleagues from Stirling, Hull and Exeter Universities have further contributed for the definition of the action plan and are helping to organise the proposed activities, with the assistance from ARCH-UK coordinator. SAIC kindly hosted the ERC workshop within their Aquavation session at Aquaculture UK. Ongoing collaboration, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) identification of training needs of ECR in UK aquaculture; (ii) infographic on the wants and needs of ECR in aquaculture (following a collaboration with ARCH-UK WG8 available here: http://goo.gl/Xvwq9s); (iii) organisation of ERC-Industry elevator pitch session within SAIC Aquavation at Aquaculture UK 2018. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Career development and training needs of early-career researchers working in UK aquaculture (KEF-ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Hull |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The need for this collaboration was initially identified at the WG.8 meeting (Aug 2017, Stirling), where ECR shared concerns over the lack of links with the industry, key skills and knowledge over industry needs, essential to answer to the current funding landscape and to assure future collaborations to address industry challenges. The Fellow has since established links with ECRs in UK aquaculture (Aug 2017) to start to address these issues. The Fellow worked with WG.8 leads to design an online questionnaire to identify current needs and how to best address them (Sep-Oct 2017), and disseminated this widely within the UK aquaculture community. The questionnaire gathered the views of 39 ECRs (Jan 2018). The fellow has processed the questionnaire results and created an infographic to share these results with stakeholders (Feb 2018). These results have now been widely disseminated. ECRs have noted as challenges the access to funding, lack of available training opportunities (for both technical skills and soft skills) and lack of industry knowledge, having identified opportunities of interest for career development. Action is being taken to start addressing these issues, in collaboration with ARCH-UK WG.8. An action plan to address the identified gaps has been devised by the team, with plans to organise a workshop with industry participation and a networking component, definition of recommendations over ECR funding, signposting/organisation opportunities to develop technical and soft skills of ECR, amongst others. Details over these activities will be released in upcoming months. This addresses current needs within the UK's research capabilities and builds academia-business links, with the potential to affect the future competitiveness of UK aquaculture research, to better answer to the industry's needs. This collaboration builds towards the first to third goals of the fellowship, to identify needs within the UK's research capabilities and areas for development and build a stakeholder-led platform beyond the life of this fellowship. In accordance to this an Early Career Researcher session was done, in collaboration with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Center and chaired by the Fellow, as part of SAIC's Aquavation sessions at Aquaculture UK (Aviemore, 23-24May2018), which allowed ECR to present their research directly to the aquaculture sector. The presentation line-up is available here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/news/2018/5/21/early-career-researchers-at-aquaculture-uk and the elevator pitches given by ERC can be seen here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/#/working-group-8/ This collaboration is ongoing, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The fellow has worked with staff from Stirling University to jointly design the questionnaire. Colleagues from Stirling, Hull and Exeter Universities have further contributed for the definition of the action plan and are helping to organise the proposed activities, with the assistance from ARCH-UK coordinator. SAIC kindly hosted the ERC workshop within their Aquavation session at Aquaculture UK. Ongoing collaboration, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) identification of training needs of ECR in UK aquaculture; (ii) infographic on the wants and needs of ECR in aquaculture (following a collaboration with ARCH-UK WG8 available here: http://goo.gl/Xvwq9s); (iii) organisation of ERC-Industry elevator pitch session within SAIC Aquavation at Aquaculture UK 2018. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Career development and training needs of early-career researchers working in UK aquaculture (KEF-ARCH) |
| Organisation | University of Stirling |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The need for this collaboration was initially identified at the WG.8 meeting (Aug 2017, Stirling), where ECR shared concerns over the lack of links with the industry, key skills and knowledge over industry needs, essential to answer to the current funding landscape and to assure future collaborations to address industry challenges. The Fellow has since established links with ECRs in UK aquaculture (Aug 2017) to start to address these issues. The Fellow worked with WG.8 leads to design an online questionnaire to identify current needs and how to best address them (Sep-Oct 2017), and disseminated this widely within the UK aquaculture community. The questionnaire gathered the views of 39 ECRs (Jan 2018). The fellow has processed the questionnaire results and created an infographic to share these results with stakeholders (Feb 2018). These results have now been widely disseminated. ECRs have noted as challenges the access to funding, lack of available training opportunities (for both technical skills and soft skills) and lack of industry knowledge, having identified opportunities of interest for career development. Action is being taken to start addressing these issues, in collaboration with ARCH-UK WG.8. An action plan to address the identified gaps has been devised by the team, with plans to organise a workshop with industry participation and a networking component, definition of recommendations over ECR funding, signposting/organisation opportunities to develop technical and soft skills of ECR, amongst others. Details over these activities will be released in upcoming months. This addresses current needs within the UK's research capabilities and builds academia-business links, with the potential to affect the future competitiveness of UK aquaculture research, to better answer to the industry's needs. This collaboration builds towards the first to third goals of the fellowship, to identify needs within the UK's research capabilities and areas for development and build a stakeholder-led platform beyond the life of this fellowship. In accordance to this an Early Career Researcher session was done, in collaboration with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Center and chaired by the Fellow, as part of SAIC's Aquavation sessions at Aquaculture UK (Aviemore, 23-24May2018), which allowed ECR to present their research directly to the aquaculture sector. The presentation line-up is available here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/news/2018/5/21/early-career-researchers-at-aquaculture-uk and the elevator pitches given by ERC can be seen here: https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/#/working-group-8/ This collaboration is ongoing, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The fellow has worked with staff from Stirling University to jointly design the questionnaire. Colleagues from Stirling, Hull and Exeter Universities have further contributed for the definition of the action plan and are helping to organise the proposed activities, with the assistance from ARCH-UK coordinator. SAIC kindly hosted the ERC workshop within their Aquavation session at Aquaculture UK. Ongoing collaboration, as relevant to the development of joint initiatives. |
| Impact | Outputs: (I) identification of training needs of ECR in UK aquaculture; (ii) infographic on the wants and needs of ECR in aquaculture (following a collaboration with ARCH-UK WG8 available here: http://goo.gl/Xvwq9s); (iii) organisation of ERC-Industry elevator pitch session within SAIC Aquavation at Aquaculture UK 2018. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Factors affecting attitudes towards aquaculture (KEF-UPC) |
| Organisation | Polytechnic University of Catalonia |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration (since Dec. 2017) aims to compare attitudes towards aquaculture in the UK and Spain and which factors modulate these, in both informed and non-informed subjects. This research will gather information about consumers and which factors are used to shape attitudes towards aquaculture, and whether this varies according to knowledge of aquaculture. It has the potential to impact how businesses communicate with the public, towards a higher public understanding of aquaculture. The fellow has run focus groups in Newcastle and Oban, with results jointly analysed with UPCs and drafted for publication. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The collaborators have planned the study, ran another two focus group in Barcelona and processed the results, with joint data analysis and writing up. |
| Impact | Outputs: in progress |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Identifying evidence needs for modelling and valuing aquaculture potential in marine plan areas (KEF-VN) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Department | Marine Management Organisation (MMO) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration with the MMO focuses on addressing the marine planning needs from an aquaculture perspective and analysing partnership opportunities. Early 2017, I have analysed evidence needs and the MMO's aquaculture marine plans and approached the MMO for a placement, where these needs could be reviewed and the positive/negative impacts of aquaculture analysed to inform marine planning needs. I have developed a proposal and gathered the relevant documents to support a grant application to the Valuing Nature Placements scheme in January 2017. After notification of the award, I have conducted 4-month placement at the MMO from April to July 2017. During this time I have reviewed of the current MMO aquaculture model, to address critical information gaps and identify areas for improvement. An analysis was done of the factors leading to the model's underperformance in terms of estimation of areas for aquaculture development, followed by a literature review to address key information gaps. Issues around the valuation of aquaculture in marine plan areas were also briefly considered and the range of positive and negative impacts associated with bivalve aquaculture was synthesised. A series of recommendations were proposed for the improvement of the model, with outputs compiled in a report given to the MMO. Further details are given under "Placements". During this time, with the support of the MMO, I have generated a series of outputs described below, which extended beyond the period of the placement. In December 2017, after discussions with the MMO, a decision was made to write a follow-up grant application to translate the outcomes of this work. This is described in another partnership "Aquaculture suitability decision support tool for marine spatial planning". |
| Collaborator Contribution | The MMO partner (within the Evidence Team) has shared their needs and interest in collaborating, contributed to the definition of the study's objective and design, formally supported the application through support letters, budgeting, for both applications and has proposed to support links to DEFRA and CEFAS to maximise impact, as well as further connections within the MMO. They have fully supported the Fellow during the placement and are currently reviewing the submitted report, before its publication. |
| Impact | Outputs: This collaboration has resulted in the submission of a successful application to Valuing Nature Placements (30 Jan 2017; £20k), awarded by the NERC Valuing Nature Network for a 4 months placement at the MMO, which happened from April to July 2017. Further details are listed on "Funding" and a full description of activities and impacts generated is given on "Placements". This resulted in the production of an evidence report for the MMO [Franco S.C. (2017). Mapping areas of aquaculture potential for marine spatial planning in the UK: Analysis of the MMO 1040 aquaculture model and recommendations for future improvements. Report for the MMO. 63 pp. (Dec 2017)]. This is currently under review by the MMO, before publication online in the Marine Management Organisation evidence register (available at [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/evidence-register-and-reports]). This document highlights the gaps in the aquaculture model and reviews the literature regarding on key topics (e.g. environmental requirements for cultured species; consideration of the ecosystem approach to aquaculture). It has been circulated (both specific sections and the final draft) to collaborators at Seafish, DEFRA and Cefas, to be used as a source of information for different projects. This review work addresses the fourth fellowship goal, to disseminate aquaculture relevant research to end-users and support the translation of research and has the highest potential impact of the produced outputs. Further engagement activities/outputs resulting from this project include: 2 project presentations, a video-blog post, a presentation at a national conference (Valuing Nature) and three further participations/presentations at international conferences/meetings (MSP for Blue Growth, Aquaculture Europe 2017, JPI Oceans). This project has further resulted in a follow-up grant application to BBSRC-NERC (not sucessful). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Increasing the potential for seaweed consumption in the European market (KEF-NCL/UZA) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Department | School of Agriculture Food and Rural Development Newcastle |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration between the Fellow (at SAMS), Newcastle University (Panzone L; Lead Investigator) and the University of Zagreb has resulted in the submission of an application to the Independent Social Research Foundation - Flexible Grants for small groups competition (FG5) on "Achieving long-term growth in the market for algae (ALGAE)". This would have been a 10 month research project (from February 2019 to November 2019; £5k award), but it was not sucessful. It focuesed on exploring the potential of seaweed consumption in the European market. The project proposed to design and implement a behavioural intervention to nudge acceptance of dishes that contain seaweed, targeting consumers in two Croatian restaurants, at the point where they make binding decisions on over what to consume. If sucessful, the project would increase current knowledge on how consumers choose novel products, as well as on how consumers determine expected and actual taste when this is initially unknown, and how these change depending on the information provided during the assessment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | (see above) |
| Impact | Submission of research proposal to ISRF-FG5 on "Achieving long-term growth in the market for algae. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Increasing the potential for seaweed consumption in the European market (KEF-NCL/UZA) |
| Organisation | University of Zagreb |
| Country | Croatia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A collaboration between the Fellow (at SAMS), Newcastle University (Panzone L; Lead Investigator) and the University of Zagreb has resulted in the submission of an application to the Independent Social Research Foundation - Flexible Grants for small groups competition (FG5) on "Achieving long-term growth in the market for algae (ALGAE)". This would have been a 10 month research project (from February 2019 to November 2019; £5k award), but it was not sucessful. It focuesed on exploring the potential of seaweed consumption in the European market. The project proposed to design and implement a behavioural intervention to nudge acceptance of dishes that contain seaweed, targeting consumers in two Croatian restaurants, at the point where they make binding decisions on over what to consume. If sucessful, the project would increase current knowledge on how consumers choose novel products, as well as on how consumers determine expected and actual taste when this is initially unknown, and how these change depending on the information provided during the assessment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | (see above) |
| Impact | Submission of research proposal to ISRF-FG5 on "Achieving long-term growth in the market for algae. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Multi-functional landscapes: from theory to practice (KEF-MFL) |
| Organisation | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The Fellow participated in the Global Food Security Policy Lab on multi-functional landscapes (March 2017, London) and led the team of researchers, with Dr R O'Connor (University of Reading), Dr R Wade (University of Sheffield), Dr A Scott-Brown (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) and Dr B Keane (University of Sheffield) who won the sandpit and award to write a report for the GFS Programme, with the project "Multi-functional landscapes: making theory practice". This collaboration (started on May 2017) with colleagues from Sheffield and Reading Universities and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, resulted from a £5k award by the GFS programme (BBSRC funding). The team has produced a report for the GFS programme on multi-functional landscapes, that synthesise the latest evidence and develop a set of recommendations to help inform future UK policy. This report has been submitted to GFS in October 2018 and is pending review and publication by the funders. Results were also presented to the programme coordination group (GFS-PCG), which includes DEFRA, GFS, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, MRC, NERC, STFC, BEIS, DFID, DIT, FSA, GO-Science, Met Office, Public Health England, Scottish Government, Wellcome Trust, and Welsh Government (June 2018). |
| Collaborator Contribution | (see above) |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) £5k award; (ii) Report to GFS on MLF in the UK; (iii) Presentation to GFS-PCG. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Multi-functional landscapes: from theory to practice (KEF-MFL) |
| Organisation | University of Reading |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Fellow participated in the Global Food Security Policy Lab on multi-functional landscapes (March 2017, London) and led the team of researchers, with Dr R O'Connor (University of Reading), Dr R Wade (University of Sheffield), Dr A Scott-Brown (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) and Dr B Keane (University of Sheffield) who won the sandpit and award to write a report for the GFS Programme, with the project "Multi-functional landscapes: making theory practice". This collaboration (started on May 2017) with colleagues from Sheffield and Reading Universities and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, resulted from a £5k award by the GFS programme (BBSRC funding). The team has produced a report for the GFS programme on multi-functional landscapes, that synthesise the latest evidence and develop a set of recommendations to help inform future UK policy. This report has been submitted to GFS in October 2018 and is pending review and publication by the funders. Results were also presented to the programme coordination group (GFS-PCG), which includes DEFRA, GFS, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, MRC, NERC, STFC, BEIS, DFID, DIT, FSA, GO-Science, Met Office, Public Health England, Scottish Government, Wellcome Trust, and Welsh Government (June 2018). |
| Collaborator Contribution | (see above) |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) £5k award; (ii) Report to GFS on MLF in the UK; (iii) Presentation to GFS-PCG. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Multi-functional landscapes: from theory to practice (KEF-MFL) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Fellow participated in the Global Food Security Policy Lab on multi-functional landscapes (March 2017, London) and led the team of researchers, with Dr R O'Connor (University of Reading), Dr R Wade (University of Sheffield), Dr A Scott-Brown (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew) and Dr B Keane (University of Sheffield) who won the sandpit and award to write a report for the GFS Programme, with the project "Multi-functional landscapes: making theory practice". This collaboration (started on May 2017) with colleagues from Sheffield and Reading Universities and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, resulted from a £5k award by the GFS programme (BBSRC funding). The team has produced a report for the GFS programme on multi-functional landscapes, that synthesise the latest evidence and develop a set of recommendations to help inform future UK policy. This report has been submitted to GFS in October 2018 and is pending review and publication by the funders. Results were also presented to the programme coordination group (GFS-PCG), which includes DEFRA, GFS, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, MRC, NERC, STFC, BEIS, DFID, DIT, FSA, GO-Science, Met Office, Public Health England, Scottish Government, Wellcome Trust, and Welsh Government (June 2018). |
| Collaborator Contribution | (see above) |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) £5k award; (ii) Report to GFS on MLF in the UK; (iii) Presentation to GFS-PCG. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes (KEF-N8PP Percept) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Department | School of Agriculture Food and Rural Development Newcastle |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The fellow has been collaborating with a colleague from AFRD on the design of a study to investigate attitudes and public perception of UK aquaculture (inc. initial literature review and assessment of research gaps, framing of study within UK aquaculture, experimental design) and identify funding sources. A grant application was submitted to project proposal has been drafted for internal funding (May 2018) to the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership - Pump-priming funding for collaborative research with industry, on "Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes". This is an award for 12 months (June 2018 to May 2019) and £10k, led by the Fellow, with coIs from Newcastle University and Sheffield University and in partnership with Seafish. This work will contribute towards the fifth fellowship goal, to assess current public perception of the aquaculture sector, identify areas for improvement and determine how best to increase public acceptability of UK aquaculture. An ERASMUS traineeship has also been secured to support this award until June 2019. So far the project has produced a systematic literature review, currently being written for publication. Focus group and in-depth interviews with industry are now being planned for development over April 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The CoIs are experts in consumer attitudes, given important contributions towards the design of the study from a social-science perspective, suitable methods and identification of funding sources. The partner provides a direct link to the industry and has contributed with supporting market research and advise. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Pump priming research award (£10k) from the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes (KEF-N8PP Percept) |
| Organisation | Seafish |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The fellow has been collaborating with a colleague from AFRD on the design of a study to investigate attitudes and public perception of UK aquaculture (inc. initial literature review and assessment of research gaps, framing of study within UK aquaculture, experimental design) and identify funding sources. A grant application was submitted to project proposal has been drafted for internal funding (May 2018) to the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership - Pump-priming funding for collaborative research with industry, on "Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes". This is an award for 12 months (June 2018 to May 2019) and £10k, led by the Fellow, with coIs from Newcastle University and Sheffield University and in partnership with Seafish. This work will contribute towards the fifth fellowship goal, to assess current public perception of the aquaculture sector, identify areas for improvement and determine how best to increase public acceptability of UK aquaculture. An ERASMUS traineeship has also been secured to support this award until June 2019. So far the project has produced a systematic literature review, currently being written for publication. Focus group and in-depth interviews with industry are now being planned for development over April 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The CoIs are experts in consumer attitudes, given important contributions towards the design of the study from a social-science perspective, suitable methods and identification of funding sources. The partner provides a direct link to the industry and has contributed with supporting market research and advise. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Pump priming research award (£10k) from the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes (KEF-N8PP Percept) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The fellow has been collaborating with a colleague from AFRD on the design of a study to investigate attitudes and public perception of UK aquaculture (inc. initial literature review and assessment of research gaps, framing of study within UK aquaculture, experimental design) and identify funding sources. A grant application was submitted to project proposal has been drafted for internal funding (May 2018) to the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership - Pump-priming funding for collaborative research with industry, on "Towards improved communication in aquaculture: exploring consumers' perceptions and attitudes". This is an award for 12 months (June 2018 to May 2019) and £10k, led by the Fellow, with coIs from Newcastle University and Sheffield University and in partnership with Seafish. This work will contribute towards the fifth fellowship goal, to assess current public perception of the aquaculture sector, identify areas for improvement and determine how best to increase public acceptability of UK aquaculture. An ERASMUS traineeship has also been secured to support this award until June 2019. So far the project has produced a systematic literature review, currently being written for publication. Focus group and in-depth interviews with industry are now being planned for development over April 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The CoIs are experts in consumer attitudes, given important contributions towards the design of the study from a social-science perspective, suitable methods and identification of funding sources. The partner provides a direct link to the industry and has contributed with supporting market research and advise. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Pump priming research award (£10k) from the N8 Agri-food Research Partnership. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | UK Aquaculture database (NERC - KEF) |
| Organisation | Newcastle University |
| Department | Open Lab |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration concerns the creation of a visual database of UK aquaculture and was the only planned in the fellowship application. I have collaborated with the Open Lab to discuss award management, timelines and database requirements. I have worked extensively on the acquisition of data for the database and liaised with stakeholders to discuss priorities for database use, on a three-phase approach. Baseline collection of data on academic stakeholders (Phase I; from 25 Oct 2016 - 20 Dec 2016) was done from BBSRC-NERC contact lists from previous workshops and activities, delegate list AE 2016, SARF database, previous KE Fellow, databases provided by companies, etc. This process involved contacting stakeholders to verify data, complex-data cross-checking and merging, as well as lengthy online data collection process. The second phase of the database development involved the collection company data, using the Duedil company directory (Phase II; from 9 January 2017 - 10 Mar 2017), which houses UK company records (access granted by Business Support Team, Newcastle University). This was a lengthy process, as it involved the selection of data available on the database, complemented by free-search of company information. After this, the fellow has started the database development, which involves mapping links between researchers and companies, and requires data collection by one-on-one contact with academics and companies (Phase III; from April 2017 - given the interruption of work during the placement at the MMO). This is ongoing work of collection of data on existing links between researchers and industry for the development of visual database. This has been a lengthy process, dependent on one-on-one interviews with academics and business stakeholders to collect data, as previous methods have proven of limited usefulness. Contact has been made with BBSRC-NERC to facilitate access to some of this information, but this is yet to be followed-up. Once complete, this information will be converted to a visual database, in collaboration with Dr R Comber (Open Lab, Newcastle University). This contributes to the first and third fellowship goals, to identify and connect aquaculture stakeholders and determine the UK's research and innovation capabilities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner at the Open Lab, expert in data visualisation tools and user engagement, has met me to discuss how the database will be constructed, what are the data requirements, discuss staff/resource allocation needs and timelines based on new project start date. The construction of the database will be done by the partners, once all data is available and has been verified. |
| Impact | Outputs: (i) Live excel database of aquaculture companies and academics. This will also be extended to include data on academia-industry partnerships and is expected to be built to a visual database by the Open Lab. This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration, between aquaculture research and computing science. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Article in the BES Bulletin "Influencing policy in the European Parliament - A tale of two Brussels" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article in BES magazine, on the experience on the European Parliament: Franco 2018. Influencing policy in the European Parliament - A tale of two Brussels. The Bulletin. British Ecological Society (June 2018 edition; Vol 49.2). [https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/my-bes/the-bulletin/] |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/my-bes/the-bulletin/ |
| Description | Blog post (BES): "Policy in the European Parliament" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog post for the British Ecological Society reflecting in the MEP shadowing experience (published 8 March 2018). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/policy-european-parliament |
| Description | Chairing of the ERC session within SAIC Aquavation at Aquaculture UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Please see "Collaborations" for full details |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.aquaculturehub-uk.com/news/2018/5/21/early-career-researchers-at-aquaculture-uk |
| Description | Infographic 'Wants & needs of early career researchers working in UK aquaculture' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Infographic 'Wants & needs of early career researchers working in UK aquaculture' produced from the results of the questionnaire to ECR; published online (20 February 2018; in collaboration with ARCH-UK WG8). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://goo.gl/kkVa7C |
| Description | Invited lecture at Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (Portugal) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited open lecture "Aquaculture in the UK: development, R&D strategy and future perspectives" (4 Jan 2017, Peniche, Portugal) part of the MSc on Aquaculture, at the Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar (Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal) - the objective was to disseminate the UK aquaculture sector and create links with Portuguese students and researchers. After this talk, several students asked to be put in contact with UK ornamental aquaculture companies to pursue internship opportunities, with researchers further contacting for links with the trout and lobster aquaculture industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk at SEAFISH-ACIG meeting 'Improving the assessment of aquaculture suitability for marine spatial planning' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at SEAFISH-ACIG meeting '(London, 18 April 2018) on Improving the assessment of aquaculture suitability for marine spatial planning'. See "Collaborations" for further details. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.seafish.org/article/aquaculture-common-issues-group |
| Description | LinkedIn Group UK Aquaculture industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The social media presence on LinkedIn started on February 2017 with the addition of UK aquaculture professionals to the contact network. The LinkedIn group "UK Aquaculture industry" was created on March 2017 to connect stakeholders within the UK aquaculture industry and facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation, while providing a platform for new contacts and collaborations. Invitations have been initially sent to over 70 professionals within 30 UK companies related to aquaculture (from producers to retailers, consultants, trade bodies, etc.), but the more will be sent within the next few months. The group counts to date with the representation of >30 companies (e.g. Scottish Sea Farm, Scottish Salmon Co., Benchmark, Grieg Seafood Shetland, Cargill Aqua Nutrition, SEAFISH, Ocean Quality, Merck, etc.), with some companies already starting online discussions. The group provides a direct link to a range of industry stakeholders and will serve as a pathway to identify UK aquaculture businesses R&I needs and priorities, to inform research, funders and policy. Group members are encouraged to use it to share insights and experience across the sector, discuss industry issues, disseminate research and innovation projects, find new partners and promote collaboration opportunities. LinkedIn contacts with UK aquaculture reach a network of >100 professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12011465 |
| Description | Ongoing participation to the KE Network meetings and KE fellow training |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participation to the KE Network meetings (Egham, 3 Nov 2016; Glasgow 26 June 2018; Newcastle Upon Tyne, 22 November 2018) and KE fellow training (Birmingham, 18-19 Jan 2017). The KEN meetings allow for useful networking, with links made with colleagues who volunteered contacts of aquaculture companies academics within their network, and to discuss possibilities for funding of a larger study on public perception of UK aquaculture with NERC, as well as other partnership. The Training event was also used to present and get feedback on a poster "Aquaculture in the UK and the role of KE in advancing sustainable socio-economic development and internationalisation" designed to be used in future events with stakeholders (e.g. SEAFISH Aquaculture Common Issues Group) and for public engagement. The Fellow also hosted the Newcastle Upon Tyne, 22 November 2018, meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
| Description | Participation and presentation at the international conference Aquaculture Europe 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participation on the international conference Aquaculture Europe 2016 (Edinburgh, 20-23 Sep 2016), used for networking with both academic and industry stakeholders and introduction of the fellowship programme. Activities undertaken include: o Production of leaflets presenting the KE programme that were shared at the conference with business and academic stakeholders (also given to BBRSC-NERC); o Oral presentation during the session "Diversification and shellfish and invertebrate production"; o Meeting with NERC-BBSRC liaisons to discuss fellowship and work plan; o Attendance of presentations and introduction to several academics funded by BBSRC-NERC working within UK aquaculture, to build links with research base; o Introduction of the fellow/fellowship to other relevant academics within UK aquaculture research centres and Universities, trade organisations, companies, government and SAIC team, to facilitate future collaborations; o Meeting with PI from ARCH-UK network to discuss bid and links to the fellowship. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.aquaeas.eu/39-uncategorised/346-aquaculture-europe-2016 |
| Description | Participation and presentation at the international conference Aquaculture Europe 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This was used for networking within the fellowship programme, meetings with existing collaborators, contact with producers/companies and to establish of new research collaborations (e.g. DG Mare team). A poster was presented at the session "Governance, policy and planning": Franco S.C., Lanning A., & Sweeting C.J. (2017). Aquaculture within the marine spatial planning context: considering trade-offs and inter-sector interactions to support decision-making. Poster. Aquaculture Europe, 17-20 October, Dubrovnik (Croatia). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.aquaeas.eu/eas-magazine/36-news/news/363-ae2017 |
| Description | Participation at the international conference AQUA 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was used to discuss future actions, potential for collaboration with other institutions and learn from ongoing projects (notably on MSP, public perception, industry-academia collaborations and network mapping), with possible application within the fellowship context. A range of meetings with stakeholders were arranged in parallel to the meeting. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.was.org/meetings/default.aspx?code=aqua18 |
| Description | Participation at the international conference Marine Spatial Planning for Blue Growth (11th-12th October 2017, Brussels) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This allowed the discussion of project outcomes and networking with practitioners and influencers within the aquaculture industry, to explore opportunities for collaboration and learn from their experience in addressing industry challenges, as well as interactions with other sectors from a marine spatial planning context |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/en/node/4091 |
| Description | Participation on the JPI Oceans conference (25th - 26th October, Lisbon) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was used to discuss future actions, potential for collaboration with bodies with vast experience in communicating science to the public (e.g. Ciência Viva) and learn from successful engagement strategies developed internationally, with possible application within the fellowship context. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.jpi-oceans.eu/2nd-jpi-oceans-conference |
| Description | Participation on the networking workshop "Sustainable agriculture & food security" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participation on the networking workshop "Sustainable agriculture and food security" (organised by the Institute for Sustainability, Newcastle University, 2 Sept 2016) to identify collaboration opportunities with other researchers working on food security within Newcastle University. Two useful links have originated in this meeting: with a colleague from AFRD Newcastle University which has developed into a collaboration on the study of public attitudes and perception of UK aquaculture (listed in Partnerships), and another with a colleague from Biology Newcastle University which has allowed to exchange knowledge and build links with colleagues with the N8 Agri-food consortium across the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation at the Valuing Nature Placement warm-up and wrap-up meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The following presentations were given (followed by brief discussion and networking): Franco S.C. (2017). Identifying evidence needs for modelling and valuing aquaculture potential in marine plan areas: project plan. Oral presentation. VN Placement meeting. 18th April, London (UK). Available at [http://valuing-nature.net/placements-2017-sofia-franco]; and Franco S.C. (2017). Identifying evidence needs for modelling and valuing aquaculture potential in marine plan areas: progress on the review of evidence needs. Oral presentation. VN Placement meeting. 28th - 29th June, Canterbury (UK). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://valuing-nature.net/placements-2017-sofia-franco |
| Description | Presentation at the annual 2017 Valuing Nature Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Franco S.C. (2017). Marine spatial planning for British aquaculture: building on the Marine Management Organisation's aquaculture model. Poster. Valuing Nature annual meeting, 18th - 19th October, Edinburgh (UK). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://valuing-nature.net/sites/default/files/documents/AnnualConf/Final%20Programme_2017%20Valuing%... |
| Description | Presentation on the KEF fellowship at the ARCH-UK launch meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at the ARCH-UK launch meeting: Franco S.C. (2017). Aquaculture Knowledge Exchange Fellowship & ARCH-UK: what are the bridges between both projects? Oral presentation. ARCH-UK launch meeting, 24th April, London (UK). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation to GFS-PCG on "Implementing a multifunctional landscape approach in the UK". |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to GFS-PCG (London, 10 July 2018) which included DEFRA, GFS, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, Innovate UK, MRC, NERC, STFC, BEIS, DFID, DIT, FSA, GO-Science, Met Office, Public Health England, Scottish Government, Wellcome Trust, and Welsh Government) on "Implementing a multifunctional landscape approach in the UK". Please see "Collaborations" for further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Stakeholder visits/meetings: Glasgow University and SAMS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Visit to Glasgow University (Glasgow, 21 Nov 2016) and the Scottish Association of Marine Science (Oban 22 Nov 2016), with meetings with 8 academics, to gather researchers' views and discuss collaborations, though further skype meetings are planned with absent members of staff. Amongst the challenges faced by researchers were the lack of support in establishing international links, difficulty of new players in aquaculture to establish meaningful partnerships with industry and compete with established research centres and difficulties in engaging with trade-bodies to increase research impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Stakeholder visits/meetings: Institute of Aquaculture and SAIC (Stirling) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Visit to the Institute of Aquaculture (Stirling University) and Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (Stirling, 15 Nov 2016), with meetings with 5 academics working on aquaculture research and members of SAIC to gather researchers/industry views and discuss collaborations. Further skype meetings are planned with academics that were unavailable to meet that day and a second visit to talk to the full group is planned for later this year. Researchers were concerned with the importance of creating and sustaining international links in the awake of BREXIT as well as improving international visibility. Some researchers highlighted the mis-match between funding available and their research interests, as well as the lack of University support in terms of facilitating collaboration with companies and protecting IP. SAIC was keen to collaborate with the fellow and facilitate links with the Scottish aquaculture sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Twitter account @AquacultureKE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Ongoing management of social media account @AquacultureKE on twitter from Nov 2016 (account created in Sep 2016), to disseminate opportunities for research collaborations, training and funding within aquaculture, facilitate international links, share fellowship outputs and resources, and engage the wider public with aquaculture and aquaculture research. It currently counts with 1738 followers. The follower base includes mostly academics and general public, but also aquaculture companies, press and NGOs, with only 38% of followers from the UK. In spite the short time of activity of the account, it had over >188K impressions, 3629 visits and 148 mentions, with tops tweets having over 100 engagements and 3000 impressions (Jan2018 data). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/AquacultureKE |
| Description | Video-blog of the VN Placement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | An interview on the outcomes and placement experience has been recorded (29th of June, University of Kent) by the VN team and should be available through their website. A personal videoblog has been recorded by the Fellow and has been submitted to the VN programme, also for online publishing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Website UKaquacultureKE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Creation of website domain on Oct 2016 and preparation of website resources (Jan/Feb 2017). In a first phase the website will be organized in the following sections: "About", "News", "Opportunities, "Toolkit" and "Contact us". These include information on UK aquaculture (sector overview, aquaculture production, market consumption and exports), the UK aquaculture initiative and the KE programme, news, funding overview, finding partners, resources and contact details. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www.ncl.ac.uk/research/UKaquacultureKE |