Capability and Capacity Building - Scientific Networking & Early Career Development (Australian Society for Fish Biology)
We submit this EOI as a non-competitive sponsorship application.
The ASFB is the premiere professional Society promoting research, education and management of fish and fisheries in Australasia. Our capacity to facilitate these goals is dependent on the amount of financial support generated from ASFB members (via membership fees), conference sponsorship (from Government and industry stakeholders), and the FRDC.
We request a new round of funding support from the FRDC to allow us to continue delivering our annual conference and supporting students and early career researchers (ECRs) at a high level. We also request support from FRDC to help facilitate the following: i) real advancement in our Society’s engagement with, and inclusion of, First Nations peoples; ii) recognition and promotion of the value of the core principles of equity, diversity and inclusion in the fish and fisheries sector; iii) better engagement of fisheries managers with scientists; and iv) closer ties with our neighbouring Asian Fisheries Society.
Students and early career researchers represent the future of Australasia’s fish and fisheries sector. ASFB has a long and successful history of promoting and supporting student and ECR members as they undertake their research training, showcase their discoveries and ideas, and begin a career working with fish and fisheries. For the last 10 years, FRDC has been an invaluable partner in this endeavour through the provision of travel bursaries that enable students to attend our annual conference and awards that recognise outstanding achievements. We request FRDC funding to continue supporting our students and ECRs.
ASFB has been making steady progress in ensuring our Society actively supports and facilitates an equitable and inclusive environment that promotes the value of diversity. In 2014, our 40th annual conference (held in partnership with the Australian Society for Limnology; FRDC 2013-404) was built around the theme of ‘Indigenous participation in research and management of aquatic ecosystems’. We facilitated a workshop on Indigenous cross cultural awareness, and throughout the meeting, delegates had the opportunity to explore ways of meaningfully including indigenous peoples in the design, delivery and interpretation of scientific work. Ten years on, we believe there is still a clear need for ASFB to better engage with and include First Nations peoples in our Society. We seek financial support from FRDC to form an independent working group that includes strong indigenous representation, alongside ASFB representatives, to advise our Society on how we can enact meaningful actions that help achieve these goals. Whilst we do not seek to pre-empt the working groups recommendations, we see great opportunity for ASFB to promote the primacy of Indigenous Peoples around water and fisheries rights, facilitate the inclusion of cultural practices and knowledge into western science and management paradigms, and to build capacity of Indigenous Peoples in the sectors of fish, fisheries and aquatic natural resources.
Our Future of the Society Committee is currently drafting a policy document that promotes the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion in ASFB. At our 2016 conference, we held an important event titled ‘Women in Ichthyology’. This was borne from the acknowledgement that, while in recent decades we have made great strides in achieving higher representation of women in research, the job is far from done. Women are often equally represented at lower tiers of the research sector, such as postgraduate students and early career levels, but rapidly dwindle as the professional hierarchy increases to senior leadership roles. The 2016 event celebrated the key contributions of women to fish and fisheries science, and explored how we can all encourage gender equity in this area. We have seen a steady increase in the representation of women in senior roles in our Society (e.g., three of our last six presidents since 2012 are women; three of the last six winners of the prestigious K. Radway Allen Award were women). We believe that more can and will be done to address gender equity in our Society.
The ASFB endeavours to be free from all forms of discrimination, and welcomes all members regardless of age, cultural background, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, physical or mental differences, politics, nationality, religious affiliation or beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family or caring responsibilities, socio-economic background, career status, and work experience. The ASFB aims to continue to foster an inclusive environment where a diversity of people, ideas and perspectives can inspire members to advance fish and fisheries science and management. We seek FRDC support to host a plenary presentation and/or special session on the equity, diversity and inclusivity challenges and opportunities we face in the fish and fisheries sector at the 2024 annual science conference in Newcastle, NSW.
The annual conferences of ASFB provide a fantastic opportunity for fisheries managers from around Australia and New Zealand to meet up and experience networking opportunities with their peers and fisheries researchers. Our conferences provide a forum for managers to hear about the challenges faced in other jurisdictions and work together to develop solutions and innovations. Feedback from our members who are fisheries managers is that it is difficult for them to attend our conferences due to low levels of support from their employers for travel and registration costs, which is a poor outcome for fisheries managers. In turn, our broader membership suffers because they miss the opportunity to engage with managers in an environment conducive to knowledge sharing and collaboration. Furthermore, our students and early career researchers are not exposed to employment opportunities in a valuable sector of our industry. Here, we propose a new travel bursary program, co-funded by FRDC, ASFB and employers, to address the major financial barrier limiting manager engagement with our Society’s activities.
Lastly, we need a vibrant and viable Society to deliver on our project objectives. ASFB is now 53 years old. Throughout this time, the Society has successfully served its membership, and by extension, the broader fish and fisheries community in Australia. Our executive council and sub-committee members are all volunteers and collectively dedicate thousands of hours in-kind each year to ensure we provide effective leadership and deliver on our responsibilities (conservatively valued at $100,000 pa of salary). More recently, we have sought professional support to administer membership databases, facilitate conference logistics (they work for local volunteer organising committees), handle internal and external communications and maintain our website. These are all essential roles and beyond what can be expected from our volunteer office bearers. We are reviewing our current membership fee schedule to help cover some of these costs. We seek FRDC support to contribute to the management and facilitation activities of our Society so that we can continue to deliver excellent opportunities for all our members and successfully deliver on the important objectives outlined in this proposal.
