UoS/SEAT shortlisted for award
15 Aug 2011
We are proud to announce that the University of Stirling has been shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award for International Collaboration of the Year for its leadership and co-ordination of the Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) project. This is a highly prestigious award and our shortlisting recognises the high standards of work and co-operation among the thirteen members of the consortium.
Keeping fish on the European menu is increasingly challenging as supplies of wild-caught fish – often unsustainably exploited – are failing to keep pace with demand. Aquaculture has been growing to meet this demand and now accounts for half of globally consumed seafood – a trade worth €150billion. The University of Stirling, globally recognised for its research in aquaculture, is the coordinator of the Sustainable Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) project. This large-scale collaborative EU-funded research project, running from 2009 to 2013, explores the sustainability of trade in aquaculture products such as tilapia, catfish, shrimp and prawns from Asia to the European Union. It accesses the considerable breadth and experience of Stirling’s research and that of five other European and four Asian universities alongside national and international governmental organisations.
Much of the aquaculture production destined for trade arises from South and Southeast Asia, where the rapid development of efficient farming systems has been a key driver of economic growth. This trading relationship poses challenges in meeting Western consumers’ demands for product standards that embrace quality, animal welfare, environmental impact, workforce ethics and food safety at competitive prices. Reconciling these demands within the political and social-infrastructure constraints in producing countries presents considerable challenges to the equitable and sustainable development of aquaculture. The collaborative and highly inter-disciplinary approach of this project is exploring the environmental, social and economic impacts of production and trade in a way mutually beneficial to all parties.
The SEAT project, developed through decades of prior collaboration between Asian and European partners, explores and strengthens new and reciprocal relationships in order to enhance the existing knowledge base. To this end 14 PhD students, almost half from Asia, are engaged on SEAT, helping to strengthen effective research information flow amongst all partners, thereby significantly reducing the usual perception that research relations with European partners are extractive. True knowledge exchange relationships have been built with small and medium enterprises in Europe and Asia, where the two-way sharing of ideas and information supports both research and commercial outputs.
Gaining the trust of larger scale industrial operations posed challenges for researching and understanding their practices. Demonstrating impartiality, spending time working with stakeholders and disseminating project findings publicly and objectively helped to overcome these barriers. When a senior MEP voiced significant concerns over catfish production in Vietnam, SEAT briefed him with an objective appraisal of the current situation, embracing the full extent of available science. Asian partners and stakeholders are intensely interested in improving their understanding of European markets and consumers, and SEAT’s focus on reciprocal exchange of information has been key to relationships with all stakeholders and partners.
Working with new partners in new regions and informing policy-makers internationally has raised our profile. Our engagement with WWF and Fair Trade aquaculture standards has contributed to greater international awareness of these emergent issues. To this end an Ethical Aquaculture Food Index is being developed to provide a measure of overall sustainability throughout the value chain and answer the key project question: how sustainable are these fish?