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Work Package 1: Programme Management
A kick-off meeting was organised in London, UK on 17th-18th January 2006 by the MariFish Secretariat, to allow the new Partners to meet, some for the first time; and to develop the work packages in greater detail. The Consortium Agreement was developed and agreed by Partners in September 2006 to define in greater detail the roles and responsibilities of Partners and the practical arrangements of the project.
Our next important milestone was the launch of the website in June 2006 to allow Partners to communicate effectively, with a private site for internal communications, and a public site for disseminating information.
Task 1.4a Fisheries management drivers
An analysis report of the fisheries management drivers and priorities of MariFish Partners was published in November 2006. Opinions were first gathered via questionnaire, then a workshop was held in London on 9-10th May 2006 to discuss and summarise the results. The history, economics and geographical characteristics of each country influences its policies on fisheries management, and this report summarises these drivers on a matrix, grouping countries by motivational factors.
Task 1.4b Priorities for fisheries research to develop sustainable marine fisheries
This task was cancelled due to similarities/overlaps with other areas. Instead the following two tasks were developed to replace the task.
Task 1.10 Communication
Good practice guidelines have been developed as part of a study of how fishery managers and scientists communicate their research questions. John Holmes, a communication expert, was commissioned to conduct interviews of a fisheries manager and a research scientist within six MariFish partner organisations. The information from the six ‘paired’ interviews was augmented by a literature review and a questionnaire sent to MariFish member organizations. Highlights of the report are summarised below:
With regard to establishing evidence needs the study highlighted the importance of:
- close interactions between the research organisation and the fisheries managers, building understanding and trust,
- being based on an effective ‘system’ rather than being unduly reliant on individual personalities.
- having sufficient in-house scientific capacity to be an intelligent customer for research and advice,
- having in place a long-term strategic plan for research with the research institute, the fishing industry and other stakeholders
Effective communication of research results and advice requires:
- appropriate communication channels for the issue and the audience, with research reports made readily available on web sites and easily retrievable:
- adequately resourced communication activities, with testing and debate of research results via face-to-face interactions
- researchers to pass on tacit knowledge to customers via the provision of advice, and to be rewarded for their efforts
- non-technical summaries and updates to be provided to interpret the results of detailed technical reports in the context of the issues of concern to the audience.
Task 1.11 Knowledge Management
- D1.11 report will be available in 2009.
MariFish has commissioned a study into the management of the information related to fisheries management, asking questions such as ‘how do I keep up to date with the latest developments’, ‘how can I find out who is the leading expert on a certain topic’.
The contractor, Alistair Scott, started by conducting a literature review on work already published on knowledge management, particularly in the field of fisheries management. A short report, which is very accessible and easy to read, offers some advice on good practice when managing knowledge and commissioning fishery management research.
His findings resonate with the work carried out on communication (see above), since both recommend commissioning more literature reviews or audits of evidence available on a specific topic. This is vital because research tends to be commissioned to answer a specific management decision but tends to focus on the outcome of the commissioned research with less emphasis on providing a wider context. For policy customers there is a clear benefit if the context of the research and its implications are explained in simple non-technical language.
Alister provided a valuable input to the Work Package 7 Discards meeting in Lyon (PDF, 39 KB) by applying the knowledge management practices outlined in his report to enhance the outcome of the meeting. Since 17 organisations were represented at the meeting, it was important to encourage and develop communication between these organisations to ensure the success of the collaborative programme. Alister will use the Discards programme as a case study, continuing to provide input over the coming months to help build an expert community.
Alister will also study what fishery managers and policy staff need to do to get up to speed when they start a new job, how they keep themselves up to date on key developments and how they pass on their knowledge to others. He will use Defra and Defra's fisheries research agency Cefas as case studies. The results will be used to generate best practice guidelines that will help the MariFish partners with their own challenges.