The FRDC’s Strategic Priority Areas

The FRDC sets its strategic directions by facilitating and consolidating the views and priorities of all its key stakeholders. Chief among them are government investors and the Corporation’s industry representative organisations: the Commonwealth Fisheries Association, the National Aquaculture Council, and Recfish Australia.

The FRDC’s programs and accompanying themes incorporate responses to a wide range of Australian Government priorities, including the National Research Priorities and the Priorities for Rural R&D relevant to the FRDC; and to significant national plans and policies including those of the fi shing and aquaculture industry. 

 

The FRDC has five programs:

 

1. Environment
2. Industry
3. Communities
4. People development
5. Extension and adoption

 

 

Program 1: Environment

Theme 1: Biosecurity and aquatic animal health
Objective: Develop the capability, systems, knowledge and technologies to detect and identify pathogens to mitigate their impact on aquatic animals, ecosystems, profitability and viability.

Theme 1 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• prevent and manage disease incursions
• develop diagnostic procedures and techniques to rapidly detect and identify pathogens
• develop protocols to ensure biosecurity within the fishing and aquaculture industry to mitigate and control disease
• improve access to fit-for-purpose aquacultural veterinary chemicals and vaccines.

Theme 2: Habitat and ecosystem protection
Objective: Minimise the effects of fishing, aquaculture, pollution, habitat destruction and land-based activities, and non-fishing occurrences, on fish, aquatic habitats and ecosystems.

Theme 2 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• mitigate the impacts of fishing, aquaculture, pollution, habitat destruction and land-based activities, and non-fishing occurrences, on fish, aquatic habitats and ecosystems
• develop and adapt technologies to reduce bycatch; impacts on threatened, endangered and protected species; and the effects of fishing on aquatic habitats
• enhance recreational fishing experiences through enhancement of fish habitats
• provide information to the community to demonstrate improvements in the fishing and aquaculture industry’s environmental performance.

Theme 3: Climate change
Objective: Adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and variability on the fishing and aquaculture industry.

Theme 3 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• understand the vulnerability of fish stocks and ecosystems to climate change
• adapt to the impacts of climate change, including the impacts on resource access
• reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the fishing and aquaculture industry, with a focus on energy efficiency
• develop tools to improve cross-jurisdictional resource access and management as part of adaptation to climate change.

Theme 4: Ecologically sustainable development
Objective: Ensure the ecologically sustainable use of aquatic natural resources by the fishing and aquaculture industry

Theme 4 priorities 

RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• improve their knowledge of key biological attributes for target species
• develop practical tools that implement ecosystem-based fisheries management and incorporate understandings of the cumulative impacts of fishing into fisheries management plans
• incorporate improved understanding of environmental factors, including oceanographic and ecological processes, into fisheries management
• develop tools and technologies to acquire environmental, economic and social data underpinning harvest strategy evaluation systems, especially for data-poor fisheries
• quantify the environmental carrying capacity of aquaculture operations
• develop and implement standardised environmental impact assessments and statements for the aquaculture sector
• implement environmental management systems and acquire third-party certification, including eco-labelling
• improve recreational sector performance based on acquiring information about sustainable, ethical fishing; motivations; demographics; participation; fishing methods; and catch-and-effort.

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Program 2: Industry

Theme 5: Governance and regulatory systems
Objective: Develop more cost-effective, efficient regulatory processes and co-management arrangements.

Theme 5 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• reduce the costs, complexity and duplication inherent in existing regulatory systems
• participate more collaboratively in fisheries and aquaculture management, including co-management
• develop fine-scale and spatial approaches to improve local fisheries management
• develop efficient multi-fishery and multi-sector fisheries management arrangements when more than one jurisdiction is spanned
• develop fisheries management that enables maximum economic yield.

Theme 6: Resource access and allocation
Objective: Develop and maintain access to aquatic resources, and effectively manage competition between the users of aquatic resources.

Theme 6 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• develop improved processes and technologies to quantify rights between users and mechanisms for allocating shares
• develop methods to value the rights of recreational and indigenous customary users
• increase knowledge among diverse groups of stakeholders about each other’s expectations about resource access and allocation.

Theme 7: Production, growth and profitability
Objective: Increase the gross value of production, profit margins, productivity and opportunities throughout the fishing and aquaculture industry (as applicable within the three main industry sectors).

Theme 7 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• increase and diversify opportunities for the aquaculture sector and other sectors
• improve productivity through operational efficiencies, new technologies and better utilisation of energy sources, and reduction of wastage
• develop new business opportunities
• develop improved business models and building business modelling skills.

Theme 8: Consumers, products and markets
Objective: Produce high-quality products that satisfy expectations of existing and potential consumers.

Theme 8 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• build efficient, effective seafood value chains
• develop new products and processes that meet the demands of consumers
• improve trade and market access
• improve recognition of Australian products internationally and domestically.

Theme 9: Value from aquatic resources
Objective: Enhance the value derived from recreational and indigenous customary fishing activities.

Theme 9 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• incorporate indigenous customary practices into fisheries management
• enhance experiences through adoption of best-practice fishing, including catch-and-release practices
• enhance fish stocks
• advance economic self-reliance of indigenous communities based on the use of fish resources
• quantify the social, health and economic benefits of recreational and indigenous customary fishing.

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Program 3: Communities

Theme 10: Resilient and supportive communities
Objective: Improve the resilience of the fishing and aquaculture industry and the communities in which the industry operates. Improve community support for the benefits provided by the fishing and aquaculture industry.

Theme 10 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• improve the resilience of the fishing and aquaculture industry and the communities in which the industry operates
• understand and influence the perceptions that the community holds about the fishing and aquaculture industry and improve interactions between them
• increase the community’s capacity to accept and incorporate higher levels of fishing and aquaculture activity
• address the social impacts of change in industry business environments.

 

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Program 4: People development

Theme 11: Leadership development

Objective: Develop the skills and networks of leaders within all sectors so they can better contribute to decision-making and implementing change.

 

Theme 11 priorities

RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• develop industry leadership across all stakeholder groups
• move to co-management of fisheries
• build industry capacity to drive change, including to manage resource conflicts.

Theme 12: Workforce development
Objective: Understand, and plan to meet, the needed capabilities of the industry’s future workforce.

Theme 12 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• plan for future workforce needs
• improve workplace health and safety
• identify and address reasons for poor uptake of training and education in the fishing industry
• identify education and training needs and preferred delivery mechanisms.

Theme 13: Innovation skills
Objective: Build human capability to produce and adopt knowledge, technologies and innovative practices.

Theme 13 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• be responsive towards new practices and innovation
• develop relationships that encourage new ideas and make more effective use of scientific and community resources, knowledge and skills
• ensure human RD&E capability is available to meet end-users’ future needs.

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Program 5: Extension and adoption

Theme 14: Extension and adoption
Objective: Achieve change through timely delivery of accessible, accurate RD&E outputs to all stakeholders, including governments, managers, industry, the research community and the broader public.

Theme 14 priorities
RD&E outputs will assist end-users to:

• have timely access to RD&E project outputs and other knowledge
• be part of appropriate knowledge management systems that build extension and adoption capacity.

 

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