Work package 8:Ten year Forward Look to identify and then jointly fund a strategic programme of fisheries research

Objectives

To identify the strategic research evidence that will be required to support the likely development of fisheries management over the next ten years, especially within the context of management of broader marine activities. Agree priorities for a jointly funded programme, commission and fund the resulting strategic research programme.

Liaise closely with the Commission on emerging strategic priorities for fisheries research, for possible funding under future Framework Programmes.

Description of work

WP8 will link up to and benefit from the ongoing process of international discussion of embedding the ecosystem approach into marine strategies. WP8 will gather the conclusions from these discussions, synthesize the results and in the light of the output from WP 5 – 7 formulate strategic requirements for fisheries research not addressed by the existing programme, and commission a jointly funded strategic research programme: The following tasks have been identified:

Task 8.1

Workshop of fishery managers, stakeholders, scientists and advisors to gather state of the art of the anticipated future demands for fisheries management and the future research requirements, new technologies, new approaches and opportunities etc which may assist fishery managers to 2015. In addition managers, stakeholders and scientific advisors from areas of other marine activities will be invited to the workshop to contribute their views on how to advance scientific advice for an ecosystem approach to management. The workshop is expected to be co-organized with international organizations in the fisheries research area (e.g. ICES and ESF). (150 participants – two days).

Task 8.2

Workshop of MariFish partners to synthesize the results from T8.1 in the light of the output from WP 5 – 7 and on the basis of this identify strategic requirements for fisheries research and joint funding. (16 participants – two days)

Task 8.3

Preparations of the administrative framework for call for proposals. Discussions on and agreement on the level of contribution from the involved countries, and design and structure of the call based on input from WP2, and experience from other ERA-nets. (3 day-meeting of 5-10 persons).

Task 8.4

Meeting of MariFish partners to agree on a shortlist of strategic priorities for a jointly funded strategic research programme. This meeting will also identify a single priority topic to run as a pilot call to test procedures (16 participants – two days), and confirm proposed administrative call arrangements.

Task 8.5

Meeting of MariFish Steering Committee and Commission to discuss strategic priorities identified in this WP, confirm pilot priority topic and agree at least two research topics for a jointly funded research programme, to be run as a second call.

Task 8.6

Drafting detailed description of pilot research topic, launch of pilot call, bid selection and commissioning.

Task 8.7

Evaluation of the process of pilot call 1 undertaken, and administrative process revised as necessary

Task 8.8

Drafting the detailed description of the research topics for call 2 of the jointly funded research programme. Drafting groups with scientific experts will be organised to this end. Clarifications on which countries that wish to participate in the joint programme (it is estimated that the joint programme will cover two topics and involve 5-10 countries.

Task 8.9

Launch of second call, bid selection and commissioning of programme.

Task 8.10

Monitoring of progress of pilot programme and evaluation of monitoring process

Task 8.11

Monitoring of progress of second full programme

Partner Involvement

WP8 is lead by Partner 8, with Partner 14 as the WP Co-Leader.  All MariFish Partners will attend the workshop to identify strategic priorities for jointly funded research.  Through the SC all MariFish partners will be involved in agreeing the research topics, the call for proposals and selection criteria.  Because of the tight time constraints and aim to have a pilot call, the WP Leader will be assisted by Partner 14.