Bordeaux (France) - 15th & 16th of February 2012

This workshop addressed the future of Shellfish aquaculture and targeted shellfish farmers and aquaculture associations, government representatives, research institutions, research funding agencies and other stakeholders in the sector. Over 1.5 days, it was organised into several sessions, with a strong emphasis on discussion and consensus building.

Sharing the vision
Within the general policy framework “Europe 2020, the Innovation Union”, the opening session explained the background on Aquainnova and how the workshop would function - the idea being to provide a broad picture of European policies and the current position of European aquaculture within these. The overall EATIP Vision for European aquaculture developed within Aquainnova formed the basis for discussion on how to fit shellfish aquaculture within these desires.

A vision exercice took place at the beginning of the event to shaw aquaculture perspectives for 2030.

Environment and Health
In the first session participants discussed environment and health issues together with related legislative constraints and other influencing factors, as these are the hot topics for Shellfish Aquaculture. 

Technology and Biological lifecycle
This part covered a range of mainly technical topics (including systems) as well as Biological issues, and new species

Consumer, Socio-economic and knowledge issues
This session focussed on the ‘horizontal’ conditions of development affecting shellfish aquaculture, with a view to how businesses would operate in the future and how knowledge management, transfer of research, training and networking will develop. Consumer issues covered needs, regional preference(s), products, certification and standards.

Identifying strategic research priorities
The key points of the EATIP Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda relative to Shellfish aquaculture were the basis for discussion and debate to prioritise key issues identified by theme. Participants worked in small thematic groups and defined their ranking of research needs. They moved from one group to another and representatives of each EATIP Thematic Area provided background, where required. The outcomes of these discussions as well as the identifed future trends were presented in the last sessions on day 2.

 
Addressing unanswered questions
The workshop concluded with two dynamic rounds of open session conversations on identified issues from the debates of day 1, followed by the priority listings that need resolution from research and innovation. These were divided into the appropriate means of action and the associate funding tool(s) and hence provided a roadmap for the development of the sector.

Click here to open the compilation of technical leaflets related to the workshop