The FRDC Communications team has identified a need to engage with our research partners in more frequent and positive ways. Through discussions between FRDC's research and investment team and FRDC's stakeholder engagement team, it was decided that Seafood Directions 2024 and 2026 provided an excellent opportunity as an event platform to engage with our research partners to build capability and capacity.

EVENT
The FRDC FishTank campaign has been created to help researchers undertaking FRDC projects communicate their research outputs in creative and engaging ways. The FishTank campaign will encourage our research partners to think more deeply about the way they communicate their research and provide training for them to develop engaging and creative research presentations that will be delivered at Seafood Directions 2024. The costs of the FishTank campaign will be covered by FRDC and include professional presentation training by Scientell to advance the finalists’ research communications skills in unique and innovative ways. The aim of this project is to help researchers develop innovative presentations that will boost audience engagement and help extend the research to other relevant audiences, after Seafood Directions. In discussion and agreement with the FRDC Research Portfolio Managers, FRDC FishTank finalists may be able to use their Seafood Directions FishTank presentation to replace a milestone report from their FRDC Project.

The FishTank campaign will help build communication capability and capacity to enable change in the way research is presented and perceived. Participants supported by a 2024 Seafood Directions bursary or similar (including NSILP, ARLP, or Nuffield) will not be eligible to receive travel assistance via this project. Recipients of a 2024 FishTank bursary will not be eligible for 2026 FishTank bursaries.

PROCESS
Prior to the FishTank campaign being announced, an EDM (see EDM and other communication outputs in attached Strategic Plan Seafood Directions 2024 FRDC FishTank), will be sent to all FRDC current Principal Investigators, inviting them to submit a pitch video to FRDC for a chance to be part of this project. The EDM will outline the pitch video requirements, i.e. Researchers to provide a 3 to 5-minute ‘mock-up’ presentation pitch, which showcases at least three different innovative and creative communication executions (e.g. pictures, video, animations, props).

The group of individuals who can assess all applications throughout the entire process includes:
- Crispian Ashby (GM Research and Investment)
- Chris Izzo (Senior Research Portfolio Manager)
- Deepika Satchithananthan (Research Portfolio Manager)
- Ben Jones (Research Portfolio Manager)
- Kylie Dunstan (GM Stakeholder Engagement)
- Sally Roberts (C&C Portfolio Manager)
- Sue Rana (Corporate Affairs Manager)

PI’s will have four weeks from the first EDM being sent out to submit their applications. The selection panel will have two weeks to assess all applications. All applicants will be notified if they were successful or not. FRDC’s Managing Director, Patrick Hone, may also record a video snippet, that could be attached and promoted to PIs through the EDM. This could be part of two follow-up EDM’s sent prior to the public FishTank campaign announcement.

PROCESS FOR FRDC FISHTANK FINALISTS
After assessing and determining the six successful pitches, applicants will be notified followed by a an EDM outlining:
- Allocated budget $4,000 pp (up to $2,000 AUD for travel/accommodation & $2,000 AUD for materials)
- Training information (who the provider is, the dates & the format [online or in-person] - PI’s will be given 4 weeks to do this training.
- The email will also provide instructions on how to finalise their successful bursary application in fishnet. Each researcher will enter into an individual bursary agreement, so that FRDC can pay their bursary.

The bursary agreement will also stipulate that successful researchers will engage with bursary finalists for 12 months after Seafood Directions to provide guidance on future similar initiatives.

TRAINING INFORMATION
Principal Investigators will be asked to work with Scientell to complete a science presentation training program. This offer can be extended to a member of the PI’s project team. However, if they extend this offer to a project team member only this person can present as a finalist at FRDC FishTank. A PI and a research team member cannot BOTH complete the training, it can only be undertaken by one person within a project team.

BUDGET SUMMARY
Accommodation and travel up to $2,000 x 6 = $12,000
Material Cost up to $2,000 x 6 = $12,000
Training budget = $6,000
Contingency (~8-10%) = $2,500
Budget = $32,500 per event (SD 2024 and SD 2026 - 2 total)

NOTE: see a more in-depth plan and link to all communication outputs in an attached document to this application, called Strategic Plan Seafood Directions 2024 FRDC FishTank

This conference is organised by the Southern eDNA Society (SeDNAs - sednasociety.com), Australia and New Zealand's scientific society for the environmental DNA discipline. SeDNAS aims to promote best practices and help the adoption of methods across sectors, by closely working together with researchers, industry, and government. Conferences are organised biannually, alternating between Australia and New Zealand. The first conference (Hobart 2023) was uniformly well received by the attendees, particularly the focus on end-user applications and collaboration. Unlike many other scientific conferences, SeDNAs makes a point of inviting key stakeholders from industry and government to both attend the conference and present their own work or research needs. We found this stimulated discussions to be more likely to develop real-world research collaborations of higher relevance to end-users.

Including and supporting ECRs is an integral part of the mission of SeDNAs. We offer a range of sponsorship opportunities, but as part of our drive to ensure eDNA research benefits industry stakeholders, we are reaching out to key organisations interested in supporting ECRs to travel to the conference. FRDC bursaries would showcase the relevance of FRDC to upcoming molecular fisheries researchers and the broader eDNA community, while also offering FRDC a cost-efficient opportunity to remain abreast of the most cutting edge developments in the field.