Supporting governance and multi-stakeholder participation in aquaculture research and innovation

A new research agenda for aquaculture

Climate Change and Environment

Aquaculture in Europe is a large and important industry, but its competitiveness has been declining in recent years due to globalisation. This effect is compounded by changes in EU legislation and incoherent transfer of research knowledge to the commercial sector. The 'Supporting governance and multi-stakeholder participation in aquaculture research and innovation' (AQUAINNOVA) project aimed to develop a 2030 vision and a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for sustainable and competitive aquaculture in the EU. To achieve this, working groups were established for each of eight thematic areas, which comprehensively covered the broad field of sustainable aquaculture. A particular focus was placed on knowledge management, a horizontal theme that impacted all the other themes. Through stakeholder meetings and workshops, each working group produced a 2030 vision statement and developed a draft SRA. Within these agendas, a number of goals and sub-goals were specified, and a second round of workshops ranked these goals according to their priority. The final outcome is a unified 2030 vision for European aquaculture, and a documented list of challenges, opportunities and risks in the sector. Guides for improved knowledge management were created as well, and all are supported by an SRA.