Prioritising your innovation needs for a more prosperous and sustainable Scottish seafood industry

Fisheries Innovation and Sustainability believes that innovation will release untapped potential for greater prosperity and sustainability in Scotland’s seafood industry. Our organisation exists to facilitate projects that can make the greatest positive change for the industry in Scotland and more widely.

We want to accelerate innovation through a more precise understanding of our industry’s needs to help innovators focus on the challenges and opportunities that confront us. We cannot do this without your input.

We are asking for your expert view on the most pressing innovation needs in relation to the Scottish seafood industry.

What are the key innovations that would transform the way the Scottish fishing industry performs – scientifically, economically, environmentally, socially or a combination of these? What innovations are required to improve the way we fish, the data we use and how we collect it, how we manage our fisheries, how we structure supply chains?

These innovations would have a short or medium term positive impact on the way you conduct business, i.e. leading to greater efficiency, increased productivity, reduced environmental impact etc.

Your knowledge and expertise will inform FIS and help guide our thinking and priority setting.

We appreciate the many calls on your time, and so this exercise is straightforward and also robust, as it is supported by Professor Michel Kaiser, Chief Scientist & Professor of Fisheries Conservation at Heriot-Watt University. Professor Kaiser has experience of similar exercises for aquaculture and trawling which led to two influential scientific papers* that informed policy and science, and also released substantial investment funds. The papers have been cited many times, as they provide stakeholder consensus view on ‘what matters’ and ‘what would make a difference’.

The task: Please fill in the online form at the bottom of this page 

What happens next?

When the deadline for responses has passed, we will compile a full table of responses, and arrange the questions into categories. We will then poll respondents to help prioritise these questions. The list will be publicly available on the FIS website.

When we meet at the Scottish Fishing Conference 2020, on 1 & 2 July in St Andrews, delegates will review the list to help decide the most important innovations for our industry, and reach a consensus on which of these are immediate priorities.

We’d be grateful if you would complete this important task by Friday 7th February.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge for this important project

ONlINE FORM

*References

Jones, A.C. et al., 2015. Prioritization of knowledge needs for sustainable aquaculture: a national and global perspective. Fish and Fisheries, 16(4), pp.668-683.

Kaiser, M.J. et al., 2016. Prioritization of knowledge‐needs to achieve best practices for bottom trawling in relation to seabed habitats. Fish and Fisheries, 17(3), pp.637-663.