119 results

Recreational fishing and human wellbeing: insights from existing data and development of best practice approaches to future measurement

Project number: 2018-095
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $46,000.00
Principal Investigator: Jacki Schirmer
Organisation: University of Canberra
Project start/end date: 8 Nov 2018 - 28 Mar 2019
Contact:
FRDC

Need

This project is needed as there are knowledge gaps about the effect of recreational fishing on the health and wellbeing of recreational fishers. Recent years have seen many claims about the health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing, as well as growing interest in nature connection and outdoor recreation as wellbeing interventions more generally. Measuring and valuing the wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing is not currently possible due to a lack of evidence, and limited methods for monitoring, measuring and reporting wellbeing effects. The FRDC’s RD&E Plan 2015-20 aims by 2020 to have robust community net benefit metrics that enable measurement of the benefits of fishing. This project will develop robust metrics related to health and wellbeing benefits of recreational fishing. Achieving this requires better understanding both (i) whether and under what circumstances engaging in recreational fishing has measurable impacts on health and wellbeing, and (ii) how to measure these benefits to produce readily accessible and understandable metrics. This will help achieve the FRDC’s national research strategy deliverable ‘Social contribution is supported by the fishing and aquaculture sector so it can capture the non-monetary value of activities across sectors.’ This work will also contribute to national science and research priorities in the health field, specifically the priority ‘Build healthy and resilient communities throughout Australia by developing … preventative strategies to improve physical and mental well-being’ (http://www.science.gov.au/scienceGov/ScienceAndResearchPriorities/Pages/Health.aspx). Nationally, this research priority aims to develop strategies for supporting wellbeing. This project contributes by identifying the role recreational fishing can play in building healthy and resilient communities through supporting physical and mental wellbeing. This research will also contribute to the overarching aims of Australia’s rural research, development and extension strategy, which include ‘develop a range of technologies and knowledge to contribute to healthy Australian lifestyles’ (http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/innovation2/nsrrdip-investment-plan1.pdf)

Objectives

1. Understand whether engaging in recreational fishing (or in particular types or frequency of fishing) is associated with improved health and wellbeing for individual recreational fishers using available datasets
2. Identify best practice methods for establishing a causal relationship between (i) engaging in fishing and (ii) health and wellbeing outcomes for individual recreational fishers
3. Produce proposed set of measures and associated methodology that can be used to robustly measure causal association between engaging in fishing and health & wellbeing for individual recreational fishers and that can be used to provide valuation of these benefits for the broader economy
Industry
Industry

Capability and Capacity: Understanding diverse learning approaches and knowledge transfer opportunities to inform and enable change

Project number: 2023-131
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $130,000.00
Principal Investigator: Nicole McDonald
Organisation: CQUniversity (CQU) Rockhampton
Project start/end date: 1 Jul 2024 - 10 Jul 2025
Contact:
FRDC

Need

FRDC recently co-funded a cross-commodity project on Designing the integration of extension into research project (James, 2022), which sought to improve adoption of outcomes from RD&E project. At the conclusion of this report, recommendations for Phase 2 were made, and these included several focused on developing and trailing different learning approaches for knowledge transfer. Understanding learning approaches required for different topics and cohorts is an essential next step to improve practical outcomes associated with development, change, and adoption processes. This project represents an opportunity for FRDC to build on this initial investment and generate new knowledge on the connection between learning approaches and knowledge transfer to enhance the fisheries and aquaculture sector’s capability and capacity for adaptability and change.

A systematic review of the literature on the topics of adult learning, knowledge transfer, and transformational change will identify and evaluate relevant findings for the fisheries and aquaculture sector. These will be further ground-truthed through extensive stakeholder consultation within (a) wild catch organisations, (b) aquaculture organisations, and (c) through the wider industry knowledge network (e.g. extension officers and research teams). A compilation of informal and formal learning and development opportunities in fishing and aquaculture within organisations and in the wider industry will be analysed, and case studies of best practice identified, analysed and showcased as examples of successful change, adoption, skill development and shift in mindset.

These evidence-based context-specific insights will be translated into a guide, tool or micro-credential for best practice in designing and delivering knowledge transfer and practice change activities. The usefulness and ease of use of this resource will be tested in a workshop with FRDC extension professionals and other interested stakeholders, refined and then introduced to the fisheries and aquaculture community for application to learning and training in organisations and throughout the wider industry. It is expected that the findings of this project will have implications for the project Capability and capacity: Navigating leadership pathways in fishing in aquaculture, in particular insights on how learning approaches for the topic area of non-technical skills development (e.g. communication, team effectiveness, career self-management, problem-solving, strategic thinking and foresight) occur within organisations that may prove to be the start of the leadership pathway for people within fisheries and aquaculture, and if done effectively may widen and diversity the talent pipeline into mid to high leadership level development opportunities.

This project has been designed with a 12-month timeline, with options to scale down if required by FRDC.

Objectives

1. This project will establish a practicable evidence-base for understanding the interaction between learning approaches and knowledge transfer to enhance human, organisational, and industry capacity and capability for adaptive change in the fisheries and aquaculture sector
2. A guide/tool/micro-credential to apply insights regarding successful learning approaches and knowledge transfer for the design and delivery of interventions targeting change, adoption, skill development and shift in mindset for a diverse range of relevant topics and segments of the fisheries and aquaculture sector
3. Deliver 2 workshops to test the use and ease of use of the guide/tool/micro-credential for key industry stakeholders
4. Deliver a webinar to share research findings and launch the guide/tool/micro-credential to the wider fisheries and aquaculture community
5. Determine multiple pathways to delivery for use of the guide/tool/micro-credential including integration and alignment to other relevant project such as Capability and capacity: Navigating leadership pathways in fishing and aquaculture and the Fishing and Aquaculture Workforce Capability Framework
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Impacts of COVID19 on the Australian Seafood Industry: Extending the assessment to prepare for uncertain futures

Project number: 2021-042
Project Status:
Current
Budget expenditure: $179,564.00
Principal Investigator: Emily Ogier
Organisation: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) Hobart
Project start/end date: 20 Dec 2021 - 14 Mar 2024
Contact:
FRDC

Need

In March 2021 the FRDC published an initial rapid assessment - Impacts of COVID19 on the Australian Seafood Industry: January-June 2020 - of the direct and indirect effects of disruption to seafood production, supply chains and markets caused by the global COVID19 pandemic. That assessment covered the initial period of the shocks wrought by COVID19 and demonstrated the availability of data to support rapid assessment in such conditions.

However gaps remain to be addressed, including:
1. comprehensive coverage of production effects in fishing and aquaculture across all Australian jurisdictions,
2. coverage of impacts on recreational fishing activity and Indigenous commercial seafood activities;
3. assessment of emerging medium-term impacts (such as changes in Australian consumer purchasing behaviours, structural effects in labour markets and export-oriented sectors, effects of alterations in tourism patterns); and the interactions with non-CV-19 impacts (such as trade tensions affecting exports); and
4. the effectiveness of crisis responses.
Furthermore, the capacity to access data to support rapid assessment in times of systemic shock needs to be consolidated. Finally, insights from rapid assessments need to be harvested to provide Australia with a framework for assessment of systemic (i.e. large-scale, multi-level) risk to the Australian seafood community.

This project addresses these needs through a follow-up Impact assessment report which is more comprehensive, given data availability. The follow up report will include case studies of crisis responses by key government and industry decision makers, and the lessons learned for preparedness for future shocks. It will develop a Guideline for rapid assessment of economic and social effects in fisheries and aquaculture, which will contribute to FRDC's capacity for rapid appraisal and assessments. The guideline will include quality assurance steps to be applied to rapid assessments. Finally, the project proposes to draw insights from this more comprehensive assessment to identify what risk factors to assess, and how, in order to prepare for systemic shocks in future.

Objectives

1. Complete assessment of impact of COVID-19 on Australia's commercial, recreational and charter fisheries and aquaculture sectors for the period July 2020 to June 2021
2. Determine what were effective responses and interventions using selected case studies to inform preparedness for future shocks
3. Document all data streams and their source (organisation, private data, public domain data) - STOP / GO MILESTONE
4. Develop guidelines for data production, governance and use when rapid situational assessments are required.
5. Develop a framework for systematic risk assessment
6. Develop 'data architecture' for a portal to access live/near-real time data to support early detection and risk assessment of large-scale shocks (architecture to include: data sources, access and permissions
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