The COFASP ERAnet
Building a Research Agenda
European Seafood processing
challenges
Menu
•
•
•
•
Building a research agenda
Foresight process
COFASP results
European Seafood processing
challenges
BUILDING A RESEARCH AGENDA
How to built a research agenda?
Building a research agenda
•
•
•
•
•
What are the questions?
Who is involved?
What do we know?
What do we know we don’t know?
What are the future challenges?
How can we answer these questions?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wish lists
Do what we know best
Policy priorities
Research priorities
Societal challenges
Foresight analysis
FORESIGHT ANALYSIS
The Steps
System
Drivers
Micro scenarios
Macro scenarios
Research Agenda
COFASP PROGRAMME
Programme
• Focus on Fisheries, Aquaculture & Seafood
processing
• 4 workshops
• Stakeholders from sectors, research, policy,
NGOs
• Step by step built the research agenda
• Present and discuss research agenda with
COFASP partners, SCAR, JPI Oceans, other
ERAnets, and here today
System
Drivers
Micro scenarios
Macro
scenarios
Research Agenda
WHAT WE FOUND
System
Drivers
Micro scenarios
Macro
scenarios
Research Agenda
The System
Fisheries,
Aquaculture
and Seafood
Political objectives
and
All aspects Processing
of the production
legislation in a EU and
national context.
distribution and consumption of
goods and services. Demand vs.
supply.
Economics
Markets
Policy
The use
of marine
resources and the
Biological, physical,
competition between
Resourcechemical environment of
different users
Use human marine activities
Nature
Societal trends,
Information, understanding,
Value Chain
facts, technology, or skills
Society demographics and
Chain of
activitiesorto
developments, including
acquired through
research,
a valuable product
Knowledge experiencedeliver
values around the marine
or education
or service for the market.
system
Drivers
F1: Physical and chemical forcing (including tipping
points, extreme conditions etc.)
• Definition: The physical and chemical conditions that drive the abiotic
environment of the ecosystem (climate, hydrography, nutrient levels etc).
• Indicators: Temperature, salinity, pH, nutrients, hazardous substances, sea
level
• Past developments: increase in temperature, decline in strength of north
Atlantic conveyor. Increasing nutrients (from human activity). Decreasing
pH. Loss of Arctic ice. Overall increase in hazardous substances.
• Hypotheses:
– Major variations to physical and chemical forces cause substantial ecosystem
changes providing new (positive) opportunities for ecosystem services.
– Major variations to physical and chemical forces cause substantial ecosystem
changes reducing ecosystem services.
– No major change to physical-chemical forcing/conditions
Micro-Scenarios
Policy
•
•
•
•
•
•
A1. Central Heating / Comedy Central (formerly known as Comfort zone)
A2. Pull the rabbit out of the hat / Don’t worry be happy
A3. Rabbit in the headlights
A4. Command and control / United we stand divided we fall
A5. Europe in splendid isolation
A6. Power to the (green) people
Overview
The Macro scenarios
Fortress
Europa
It’s not
EU,
It’s me
EUtopia
The Moral
High
Ground
EUtopia
EUtopia
• Europa after the crisis has veered back and is flourishing.
• Consumers drive developments in the fish produce and
seafood market: focussing on health issues
• Increase in number species as a result of climate change
but a decline in ‘traditional species’, yet, the net effect on
ecosystem services and benefits are positive, resulting in
even more productive ecosystems.
• People have a strong sense of self-responsibility, welleducated with knowledge and awareness of the sea.
• Fixing the main challenges for society is considered to be
a public affair.
Fortress Europe
…not so splendid isolation
Fortress Europe
• Europe closes its borders and restricts free
movement of capital, people and goods.
• With no common market, member states take
back responsibilities for economic and other
social strategies
• with maximal resource exploitation and use of
marine space at the top of the agenda.
• increased human impact on the ecosystem.
• Research funding is almost exclusively by private
funds demanding for IP rights.
“It’s not EU, it’s me…”
A return to independent and noncooperating European countries
It’s not EU, it’s me
•
•
•
•
Failure of the EU; re-nationalisation
Uncertainty and public distrust of political process
Food and energy crises; high unemployment
Environmental degradation and decreased
production
• No public investment in research
The Scenario
• A sophisticated, well organized and well controlled
recreational and artisanal/small-scale harvesting regime.
• Persuaded by the public, the EU takes the lead on taking a
stand and developing a policy on how to harvest marine
animals in a sustainable and low impact way.
• consumers are very critical on ethical principles and public
awareness about preserving the environment and carefully
using the ecosystem services
• Knowledge is a public good and there is public access to
ecosystem information.
RESEARCH TOPICS
Marine Science in General
• Optimal use of the seas:
– what is the optimal sustainable use of our seas and oceans
– with increased possibilities of using available resources in
novel ways
– and using novel ways to extract and use marine resources.
• Value the use of the seas:
– in order to strive for an optimal sustainable use:
– put a value to existing and potential future ecosystem
goods and services.
– cost the impact of activities
– incorporate these costs into the production costs in the
value chain.
Environment
• Low impact products:
– develop products and production techniques with:
– Low direct impact
– And produced with the lowest impact possible (eg carbon footprint).
• Sustainable use strategies:
– Operationalise Ecosystem Approach
– Set up strategies for marine resource use.
– This needs method for assessment of cumulative impacts of
multitude of activities, geographical & time scale.
– E.g.
• modelling and risk assessment of disease and pathogen distribution in wild
populations and aquaculture systems; develop prevention and treatment
systems.
• species adaptation to ecosystem change
Fisheries (1)
• Monitoring and Management:
– develop long term integrated management plans for resource use.
– models predicting dynamics of ecosystems and activities
– monitoring techniques assessing impact of (alternative) fishery management
– improve (technology) monitoring and surveillance & data collection.
• Adaptation strategies:
– As result of ecosystem change, how can fishers adapt vessel types and
equipment to make a fit with the new dynamic circumstances?
– fishing fleets respond to a societal call for low impact fishing methods (ecofriendly powered vessels, low impact fishing gear).
– market demand: how can the entire harvest of vessels, including by-catch
and discards be appropriately managed and used.
Fisheries (2)
• Data use:
– develop technology and methodology for
– effective and accepted fishery-independent data
– And commercial data from industry, especially in small-scale fisheries.
• Recreational Fisheries:
– Development recreational fisheries and other recreational uses of the sea
e.g. tourism.
– How do these activities relate to other commercial use of marine space
– How does competition between alternative uses of resources develop.
Aquaculture (1)
• Market demand:
– Challenge: species that can be cost effectively produced and meet market
demand.
• Which species and production techniques can serve a high-value novel niche
market?
• How could a diversified production scheme look like?
• How can aquaculture producers operate in a market characterized by
multiple high-value products?
• Organic aquaculture:
– Develop the system, using the potentials for herbivore species, sources of
feed, plant aquaculture, bivalves (shellfish).
– And lower the production costs relative to conventional methods.
Aquaculture (2)
• Technology development:
– Improved
• recirculation facilities
• multi-trophic aquaculture/agriculture/hydroponics
• off-shore Multi Trophic Aquaculture.
– Understanding the potential of Multi Trophic Aquaculture systems
• Health issues
• species, sources of feed, water treatment technology
• increases in water/feed efficiency.
• Species enhancement:
– aquatic animal health and welfare.
– GM (genetically modified) feed use and fish genetic strains with low environmental
risk
– Species adaptation to ecosystem change
– Coordinated breeding programmes.
Governance
• Control:
– which incentives to ensure compliance of the industry
– which technology could be further develop to support this (e.g. effort
controls, VMS, CCTV).
• Licence to produce:
– increasingly producers need to acquire a licence to produce:
– Need:
• (science based) information on primary production and across all steps
in the production chain.
• insights in the public attitudes towards marine production and
communication between producers, consumers and citizens.
• Participation:
– increased need for Marine Spatial Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation
of the use of marine resources.
– Develop platform for stakeholders to increase participation/input in
decision-making and evaluation processes.
Organisation of Research and Funding
• Three levels: MS, EU Region: regional level is expected to become of more
importance: Investments and organisation @ regional level: Centres of transfer
of excellence.
• Dynamics between public and private funding: data sharing and making
commercial data more widely available for research a cooperation between
science and producer organisations.
• Micro-financing (private and public opportunities): local initiatives to address
local problems.
• Balance short-term oriented research programs focussing on market and applied
science (e.g. development of high-value products/niche markets) and more long
term research programs focussing on a shared understanding of long-term
ecosystem dynamics.
Value Chain (1)
• Increased sustainable efficiency:
– a generic challenge to the fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors lies
in a search to increase efficiency of vessels and gears, of aquaculture
production and seafood processing:
– reduce impact on the ecosystem AND make the most efficient use of
harvested resources.
– The entire value chain will have to adapt to this principle of ‘more with less’,
especially new technology/techniques in the processing sector will have to
be developed to adjust to changes in raw materials (e.g. species, size).
Value Chain (2)
• Setting standards:
– methods to ensure that seafood products meet appropriate standards for health and
safety.
– So set standards and devise systems (eg labelling) to communicate produce
attributes.
– Along the supply chain
• Information in the value chain:
– how can labelling and standardization be organized in the value chain towards a
multitude of consumer groups and markets?
– Best practice for certification and labelling and into the development of EIDs
(electronic identification documents) providing relevant information along the value
chain operators and final consumers.
Seafood Processing
• Towards more flexible production units:
– Production becomes more diverse (and more seasonal)
– European market with multiple market segments (high-value (non-bulk)
products, next to bulk ingredients market)
– Move from single-species production plants towards more small-scale and
multi-purpose processing units.
• Maximise processing efficiency:
– Use all of the harvested fish produce
– So maximisation of the filet yield.
– Also optimising the use for fish meal and oil from remains and use of all coproducts for high value products for feed, food, pharmaceuticals and
cosmetics.
• New products and new production technologies:
– Develop production technologies for new resources such as seaweed algae
such as the production of biodegradable packaging (from seaweed).
– Overall reduce waste and environmental impacts in processing.
For more info:
• Check out the website: http://www.cofasp.eu/
• Or get hold of me: [email protected]