Aquainnova

''Supporting governance and multi-stakeholder participation in aquaculture research and innovation'' EATIP is coordinating a new European Project

‘Aquainnova' - "Supporting governance and multi-stakeholder participation in aquaculture research and innovation" - an FP7 project focusing on the creation of an international framework that will facilitate the development of vision documents and strategic research agendas on the sectoral components of European aquaculture.

The challenge

Aquaculture in the European Union encompasses the production of a wide range of fish and mollusc species and is a true pan-European production activity, which in the last 40 years has grown rapidly into an industrial sector that is composed of multi-national companies, SMEs and family firms. While aquaculture appears to be integrated within the Common Fisheries Policy, there is no real Europe-wide policy for aquaculture development, and its growth occurred within a relative vacuum for strategic development.

In 2002, the European Commission developed a "Strategy for the Sustainable Development of European Aquaculture" which was the first attempt to provide a European plan for development and this was reviewed to provide more impetus in 2009. Nonetheless, it is only recently that European States have developed clear national strategies or policies for aquaculture development. This effort has been largely supported by the European research community, with its many institutes and universities dedicating specialised departments to carry out R&D activities for the benefit of the sector.

Commission funding has stimulated European and international cooperation across the research community and, in recent years, through CRAFT and collaborative projects, has encouraged closer contact between the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and research players. Today, the Seventh Framework Programme (FP 7) has a clear mandate to progress this approach. Therefore, Aquainnova has been devised to examine and identify research areas that could be supported by the industry in its own right.

At a Glance

Title: Aquainnova, supporting governance and multi-stakeholder participation in aquaculture research and innovation
Programme: FP7, Cooperation, Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology (KBBE)
Instrument: Coordination and Support Action
EC contribution: €988,954
Duration: February 2010-July 2012
Project Partners:

Project Coordinator:

• European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform (EATIP)

Contributing EATIP member organisations:

• The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP)
• European Aquaculture Society (EAS)
• AquaTT - Ireland
• Eurofish - Denmark
• SINTEF - Norway