Dissemination has been an integral part of IMPRESS with all students participating in different activities, such as Researchers Night, Fish Migration Day, Researcher Grand Prix, Research Fair, visits to local schools and more. The ESRs have produced a common popular science article at the start of the project. Further examples include a children's book in Spanish and English on the life cycle of the eel, construction of a 230 m long Atlantic salmon broadcasted on le Tour de France 2017, and numerous press coverages in local newspapers, radio, and TV.
In terms of research, IMPRESS has provided novel information on the neuroendocrine regulation of reproduction and smoltification in salmon, eel, and sturgeon. Also, big leaps have been taken in gamete quality assessment, storage, and management, especially in eel and sturgeon. To improve production strategies intended for stocking, this project provides results showing the importance of enriched rearing environment for improved fitness in salmon and sturgeon, both in terms of feeding and predator escape. As support for the sturgeon part of the project, we have assembled a draft genome of European sturgeon, and a number of tissue specific transcriptomes that greatly facilitates future molecular studies in their physiology. Regarding socio-economic dimensions we have gathered a lot of data on the general public and their view on various aspects of wild fish populations and river systems, performing comparative studies in several European countries. Furthermore, we show that the mode of communication between scientists, (local) politicians, and important stakeholders such as hatchery workers is key to transfer scientific knowledge into practice.
