Minutes of the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF) Board Meeting and AGM

Date: Wednesday15th May 2013

Location: Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory, PO Box 101

375 Victoria Road, Aberdeen, AB11 9DB

Board Meeting

Attendees:

Bill Ritchie - SARF Chairman

George Lees (D) –SNH

Mike Cowling (D) – The Crown Estate

David Bassett (D) –BTA

David Sandison (D) – Shetland Aquaculture

Rob Raynard (D) –Marine Scotland Science

Daniel Pendrey – Scottish Government

John Webster (D) – SSPO

Iain Sutherland (D) – HIE

Douglas Sinclair(D) – SEPA

Piers Hart (D) – SE LINK

Callum Sinclair (D) – RAFTS

Craig Burton – Seafish

James Bromham – HC

Alan Sutherland (D) – Marine Harvest Scotland

Anton Edwards

Richard Slaski – SARF

Sandra Gray – SARF

Apologies:

Paul Williams (D) - Seafish

George Hamilton (D) – HC

Walter Speirs (D) – ASSG

Alastair Mitchell (D) – Scottish Government

Alan Wells – (D) – ASFB

Chairman – Welcome and Introduction

  1. The Chairman welcomed the Board to the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen.
  1. Apologies are as noted above.
  1. Rob Raynard (MSS) also welcomed the Board to the Laboratory, and advised on domestic arrangements.
  1. The Chairman reminded the Board of the need for attendees to notify the Chairman of any potential conflicts of interest before an agenda item is discussed.

Minutes of last meetings and matters arising.

  1. It was noted that additional project concepts had been agreed and actioned subsequent to the last Board meeting.
  1. The Board was given an update on student projects, and it was noted that:
  2. Continued contact with the Telford Institute was required
  3. A further discussion with Prof Jimmy Turnbull at IOA was required

Action: RS

  1. The Crown Estate had provided information about its bursary scheme to SARF
  2. SARF has supported the MASTS application for CASE studentship funding, with the caveats agreed by the Board and the Chairman
  3. It will be essential to ensure that projects/students supported have clear business-oriented goals
  1. JW provided an update on progress with the second application to the Scottish Funding Council for a Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre. The deadline for submission is the 28th May 2013. It was noted that Liz Fletcher (Scottish Enterprise) is facilitating the 2nd application, and SARF’s support was again welcomed
  1. Daniel Pendrey explained the details of the new Minister’s Group on Sustainable Aquaculture, and its 7 working groups. The Board was advised that Mark James of MASTS would chair the Science and Research Group and that all the groups will have focused outcomes. The Chairman affirmed that SARF will be pleased to participate.
  1. It was noted that the addition of some detail to the standard SARF contract, to allow for the possibility of supporting contractor publication costs (with several caveats regarding amount and time limitation) was in hand, and that SARF’s solicitor would check the details

Action: RS SG

  1. There was a discussion about a more proactive approach to advertising SARF Calls for Proposals, and it was agreed that Board members would assist with this activity by providing suggestions about possible contractors that could be alerted when the Calls for Proposals were advertised on the SARF website
  1. It was noted that SARF’s research contractors need not be limited to Scottish institutions
  1. The Chairman informed the Board that he had made initial contact with LancasterUniversity, which, in addition to having a significant environmental sciences capability, is also the lead in a consortium of Northern Universities. This group include NewcastleUniversity, which has a strong marine science capability. Arrangements have been made for RJS to visit Lancaster and present details about SARF and its activities. The Board also noted that ThursoCollege and its Environmental Research Institute appeared to be doing good work currently.

Action: RS

Programme – status report

  1. Details of projects completed in the last year, and projects still extant, were presented in Paper 2 and on screen.
  1. Details of the core sponsorship for 2013/14 and the summary of available budget for new projects were presented in Paper 3 and on screen. There were two main points of discussion:
  2. The Board felt it would be helpful to see a summary of co-sponsor funding

Action: RS SG

  1. The Board agreed that the decline overall in core sponsorship remains a continued concern. It was, however,gratefully noted that Seafish would now be contributing to the core funding for 2013/14 and 2014/15 and that the input from SNH is increasing for 2013/14.
  1. It was noted that SARF’s available core budget for commissioning research in 2013/14 is £230,000, and that every effort would be made to attract co-funding from other sources.

Special Projects 2013

  1. The Board was update on progress with Special Projects 2013. In summary:
  2. Draft Calls for Proposals had been developed in collaboration with the two main industry sponsor bodies: the SSPO and The Crown Estate
  3. There are 11 project ideas in total, and the Board was briefly informed of the proposed titles of each
  4. The drafts have been submitted to Marine Scotland Science for their appraisal and input, as originally agreed within the terms of the SP2013 offer of grant
  5. The Board was assured that it would have an opportunity to contribute to the draft Calls, following the feedback from MSSand the outcomes of the normal research prioritisation results for 2013-2014 (see below)
  6. It was noted that the timeline for SP2013 Calls is now so close to that for the core 2013/14 Calls, that both processes may run in parallel, leaving the possibility of the work of considering and appointing contractors to take place in a normal November Board Meeting
  7. It was noted that this would be a long meeting, and the Chairman noted that the option of an additional Board Meeting should be kept open.

Research Prioritisation

  1. The Board heard short presentations on the 22 research topics detailed in Paper 4. Several of the topics were discussed in more detail by the Board thereafter. A discussion took place regarding criteria that Board members might wish to apply when choosing their preferred five project ideas.
  1. A system of voting for project topics using flip charts and stickers was trialled for the first time, and was undertaken during the buffet lunch break.

Research Prioritisation Results

  1. The highest-scoring project ideas, and subsequent discussion about refining them, are included in Table 1.

Table 1. Initial Project Details.

No: / Short Title: / Score: / Discussion:
02 / PAMP Refreshment Study / 12 / Suggest this is a two-part project, over 2 years:
a) Analysis of large amounts of SEPA data
b) Field validation of data analysis outcomes
(Note that funding would be over 2 years)
10 / Survey of Pacific oyster in Scotland / 9 / Discuss project specifications with David Donan, SNH
19 / Alternative treatments to formalin / 8 / Link project 19 and project 20 together as one larger project
20 / Natural Remedies and Organic Compounds / * / See above
14 / Assessment of the suitability of sea lice treatment thresholds in different Farm Management Areas / 6 / Need ASFB and RAFTS to lead on designing a draft Call. Possibly incorporate some elements of projects 16 and 17 into this
16 / Assessment of sea lice as a density-dependent constraint to salmonid farming / * / See above
17 / Connectivity between Farm Management Areas / * / See above
22 / Follow-on project to SARF071: seals and electric fields / 5 / Need to check on the ‘other’ device which is being tested, to ensure no conflict of interest. Request contractor to submit a formal application for a project follow-on (from SARF071)
  1. It was noted that it was now essential for all Board Members to help the Secretariat expand its "pool" of referees and assessors. Good quality review procedures are critical to maintaining SARF's reputation for fairness and quality assurance.

ACTION All Board Members to contribute two recommendations to the Secretariat

  1. The Secretariat will now work with appropriate Board Members to draft more detailed Calls for Proposals.

Action: RS

Workshops and Meetings

  1. The Chairman noted that there had been too much activity in connection with SP2013 to allow sufficient time for the Secretariat to develop large scale workshop proposals. However, the Chairman noted that Matt Gubbins of MSS has been working on marine spatial planning, and would be willing to deliver a small seminar on this topic. The Board agreed that Matt should be approached about this.

Action: RS

Update on Activities of the Chairman and Secretariat

The Board noted and approved the additional activities of the Chairman and Secretariat over the previous year.

Table 2. Activities.

  • 10 Project meetings
  • 4 Secretariat/Chair meetings
  • Shellfish Forum March 2012
  • KTN Diagnostics meeting March 2012
  • Marine Harvest meeting April 2012
  • Various meetings with MS and MSS
  • World Fisheries Congress May 2012
  • Aquaculture Common Interest Group 15th March (2012)
  • EFF UK PMC meetings
  • Aquaculture UK 2012 (May)
  • Minister’s Group on Aquaculture
  • Aquaculture & Fisheries Bill Stakeholder Group
  • MASTS Conference Session
  • Meetings with Telford Institute
  • Meeting with IOA
  • Meeting with M Wilkins (Celtic Marine and SAMS)
  • NERC/BBSRC research workshop

The Chairman closed the Board Meeting at 14:30

All Members remained in the room for the Annual General Meeting, which commenced at 14:31.

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

SARF Annual Report and Accounts: 01/03/2012 – 28/02/2013

  1. The Chairman introduced the Annual Report and Accounts, which had been circulated to Members as Paper 5, and invited comments:
  2. There was a discussion about the principle of Annual Contribution Reporting, and it was noted that there may be a trend towards wider use of this approach in the future

Action: Mike Cowling to provide additional information

  1. It was noted that the Annual Report contains a list of all SARF projects commissioned since SARF commenced operations, and the Board agreed that this was a useful section of the Report
  1. The Annual Report was approved by the Board, and was signed on the Board’s behalf by Douglas Sinclair and Callum Sinclair.

Sponsors financial commitments 2013/2014 onwards

General invitation to comment on any aspect of SARF

Resolutions:

1. Chairman’s appointment agreed by written procedure

2. Reappointment of JohnstonCarmichael as auditors:

Proposed:John Webster

Seconded:Mike Cowling

3. Continuation of ERM as secretariat

Proposed:George Lees

Seconded:Craig Burton

Date and venue of next Board Meeting and 2014 AGM– AOB

Possible dates: Autumn board meeting – Dates in 3rd week of November

AGM – 13,14 or15 May 2014 (Tue-Thu)

Marine Scotland offered to provide a venue for the November Board Meeting, and the possible options were Victoria Quay in Edinburgh and Strathearn House in Perth.

AOB

  • The SARF project to renew the Aquaculture R&D Database was discussed and approved by the Board
  • The Board agreed a short time extension for project SARF082
  • The 2nd 6 month Charity Bond (£350K) produced £2920 interest. However, no more 6 month Charity Bonds are available. The Secretariat is awaiting new issues of alternative investment opportunities.

15:30Close

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