Madrid (Spain) - 16^th- 17^th November 2011

This workshop addressed the future of Mediterranean aquaculture and targeted fish farmers and aquaculture associations, government representatives, research institutions, research funding agencies and other stakeholders in the sector. Lasting 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”, this opening session gave the background on Aquainnova and how the workshop will function - the idea being to provide a broad picture of European policies and the current position of European aquaculture within these. The EATiP Chairman, Mr. Gustavo Larrazábal, prepared a video presentation on the motivations for creating EATiP and the goals anticipated from this. The overall EATIP Vision for European aquaculture developed within Aquainnova formed the basis for discussion on how to fit mediterranean aquaculture within these desires.

Consumer and producer issues
This session provided the introduction to the key issues considered by the individual EATIP Thematic Area documents – with specific considerations directed towards Mediterranean aquaculture. Consumer issues cover needs, regional preference(s), products, certification and standards. Producer issues are varied and cover a range of mainly technical topics, including systems, disease control, predators and other environmental issues. The discussion here focussed on the key issues, the legislative constraints and other influencing factors.

Socio-economic and knowledge issues
This session focussed on the ‘horizontal’ conditions of development  affecting Mediterranean aquaculture, with a view to how businesses would operate in the future and how knowledge management, transfer of research, training and networking would develop.

 Identifying strategic research priorities
The key points of the EATIP Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda relative to Mediterranean 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. Participants moved from one group to another and representatives of each EATIP Thematic Area provided background, where required. The outcomes of these discussions were presented in the last sessions on day 2.

Supporting tools
Each research priority has a number of supporting tools that are available to enact it. Discussion on the type of projects, the makeup of potential consortia (e.g. academic research, joint research actions with industry...), current and future funding schemes at EU, national and regional level and the assurance that the results get to the sector were the key components of this session.

 The workshop concluded with presentations of the key 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 provide a roadmap for the development of the sector.

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