The project is led by Professor Dave Little (Previous Deputy Head of the Institute of Aquaculture with expertise in Aquatic Resource Development). Dr Simão Zacarias (Aquatic animal welfare expert) is the project Research Coodinator who works most closely with our funded partners in Asia. Ms Tanya Kay is Project Manager, responsible for coordinating activities and contracting with partners. Ms Natalia McCleary is the Project Administrator and Mr John Bostock provides support with project communications and training resources.

The first round funding also involved expert inputs and strategic guidance from Professor Sonia Rey Planellas (Aquatic Animal Behaviour, Animal Welfare & Environments), Professor Amaya Albalat (Aquatic Animal Physiology, Welfare and Proteomics) and Professor Jimmy Turnbull (Emeritus Professor with expertise in Aquatic Animal Welfare and Health). Dr Timothy Weise (Postdoctoral researcher on aquatic animal welfare) was also contracted for short-term inputs on training support.

In the first round of activities we called on academic organisations in Vietnam and Thailand to work with other stakeholders in those countries, and with international partners, to develop short research projects that can be funded to help build capacity and understanding of the issues. The University of Stirling hosted online workshops (“sandpits”) to help build appropriate partnerships and guide the development of concise proposals. These took place in February 2023. Funded projects fall into one of two categories. The first is for research into practical measures for improving fish welfare and demonstrating the benefit of those actions. The second category is for research that helps develop better communication strategies for engaging with all stakeholders in fish and seafood value chains. Eight projects were selected for support. A second round competition was held in early 2024 and a third round in mid 2024. Overall, the first project funded fifteen collaborative research projects - See the full list with links to relevant blog articles here. The programme of collaborative research projects will be further expanded under the new project to include Indonesia.

Other activities under the project include the development of online aquatic animal welfare training materials, support for exchange and mentorship programmes (details to follow in due course) and the funding of students from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam to take the MSc programme in Sustainable Aquaculture and Aquatic Pathobiology respectively at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling. Follow the tile links further down this page for more details.