Over the next 3 years, the FRDC’s Circular Economy Program plans to deliver five separate initiatives that will educate and engage stakeholders and communities. The program has been designed to support the FRDC’s Vision “Fish Forever 2030: Collaborative, vibrant fishing and aquaculture, creating diverse benefits from aquatic resources, and celebrated by the community” to enable the transformation of regions to be more circular, working to improve industrial symbiosis and engagement with stakeholders, and in doing so, build resilience to climate change.

The RCC convenes a network of organisations to deliver circularity initiatives. Informed and powered by two global circular economy design and strategic delivery partners, KPMG Australia, and Rabobank, coupled with education and research institutions Charles Sturt University (CSU) and University of Wollongong (UOW), this program has been designed around the ‘Principles of Resilience’ with an embedded impact evaluation framework (at both program and project level) to measure outcomes and monitor performance. Key industry groups and participants in the ecosystem, for example Sapphire Coast Wilderness Oysters, Fishing Co-ops, mussel farmers, Ocean2 Earth, Pentarch, seaweed businesses, and so on, may be engaged throughout the process as appropriate. Other agencies such as Local Land Services and Department of Regional NSW may also play a role.

It should be noted, there are many participants yet to be engaged, for example Oysters Australia, Oceanwatch, NSW Farmers, DPI Fisheries (Aquaculture), all of whom will have done some work on moving towards a more sustainable industry, upon which the program will be built.