TRANS-ATLANTIC COOPERATION: AQUACULTURE BUSINESS, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRIORITIES  

In 2013, EU Commissioners for Maritime Affairs and Research/Innovation, together with high level representatives from United Stated of America and Canada, signed the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation to launch the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AORA). The goal has been to enable transatlantic cooperation in order to better understand and increase knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean, its dynamic systems, and to promote sustainable management of its resources. Having identified aquaculture as one of the AORA priority areas, the Trilateral (Canada, EU, US) Aquaculture Working Group was established and several international projects were launched to advance scientific knowledge and promote international collaboration. Not only have these initiatives furthered understanding of aquaculture processes, impacts and benefits, but also pointed to challenges common to many countries, e.g. to utilisation of available marine space or to weak "social license" for marine aquaculture development which complicates and slows efforts to authorize business operations.

The aim of AORA CSA project is to provide Europe, the United States and Canada with relevant and responsive information on the status of the identified priority research areas to meet scientific and industry needs in the North Atlantic. The initiative is implemented through the provision of preliminary mapping and connectivity assessments and sectoral analysis to contribute to long-term aligning the planning and programming of trans-Atlantic research activities.

Several key thematic areas of trans-Atlantic interest were described in the Trilateral Aquaculture WG 'roadmap'. The objective of this presentation is to present progress, future action plan and engagement opportunities for the American research community. Intensified international effort is planned, under the umbrella of the AORA, in order to communicate success stories, including: local level cases that may have international value by pointing to health effects or social and economic benefits; transfer of best practices, e.g. investments in aquaculture education and examples of social awareness campaigns to promote aquaculture products like the 'Farmed in the EU' campaign; and examples of increased cooperation among various subsectors of aquaculture to achieve greater political hearing.