NERC (the Natural Environment Research Council) has unveiled a £6m scheme to help ensure the UK''s fish farming industry develops healthily, safely and sustainably.
The UK Aquaculture Initiative, funded by NERC and the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), will support research and innovation, and encourage researchers and UK industry to work together. It will be co-funded by Cefas, Marine Scotland Science, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland, and a consortium of leading companies, including Marine Harvest, EWOS and Zoetis will be closely involved.
The £6m in funding will be available to support innovative projects that will help solve the challenges facing the industry, including efficiency, productivity and sustainability.
The initiative will invest in collaborative, pre-competitive, relevant research, and will break down barriers between academia and industry, by highlighting the benefits of collaboration such as access to data, skills, facilities and cutting-edge research.
Professor Duncan Wingham, NERC chief executive, said, "Our investment in this vital part of the UK food industry is needed to promote collaborative working between researchers and the seafood industry to ensure it is sustainable. The initiative will demonstrate how the research community can underpin the long-term needs of industry through interdisciplinary research, research translation and the provision of training."
The scheme will include two components: networks, and a portfolio of collaborative research and innovation projects.
NERC and BBSRC will invite proposals for two networks in finfish and in shellfish. Network proposals, led by one or two academic principal investigators, will be assessed through peer-review. Each network will have an advisory panel made up of industry and academics to ensure the network fulfils the needs of both communities. The networks will be responsible for developing a research and innovation strategy which will inform a programme of funding for collaborative research.
NERC and BBSRC will also invest in innovation projects that use or translate existing NERC and BBSRC-remit data and knowledge into tools, technologies and approaches to meet a specific aquaculture industry need or issue.
