AQUA-TNET NEWSLETTER
August 2014
This is a free e-mail news service provided by Aqua-tnet for the Aqua-tnet network and its partners. Aqua-tnet is the European Thematic Network in the field of aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources management, funded under the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme, from 2011 - 2014.
In the newsletter you will find an update of Aqua-tnet and its activities, as well as information from the European Commission related to European education matters.
Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues and students. Please submit any relevant information for dissemination in the newsletter to aquatnet@aquatt.ie
    
CONTENTS
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AQUA-TNET NEWS
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 AquaCase Website
The AquaCase website is a major output of Aqua-tnet Work Package 1 with assistance from Work Package 5. It provides case study based learning materials and activities for different types of aquaculture systems and also overviews of aquaculture in different European countries. Current cases include a salmon smolt hatchery in Norway, a sea bass and sea bream farm in Italy, a sturgeon farm in Finland, and a mussel farm in Greece. Presentations are available on eleven countries, the latest addition being the presentation on Malta by Robert Vassallo Agius which was given at the 2014 Aqua-tnet Annual meeting. This presentation is also now available on the Aqua-tnet YouTube channel at: http://youtu.be/OQqpJmT3rcY and is linked via the event page on the Aqua-tnet website.
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Timesheets ReminderCori Crichlow-Watton is attempting to contact all members to ensure they fully account for time contributed to the project through timesheets and evidence of salary cost. EC funding support is dependent on this, so we ask all members to cooperate fully with these administrative requirements. Please send this information to aquatnet3@gmail.com
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PROGRAMMES, COURSES & PEOPLE
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 To search for PhD, MSc and mobility opportunities and courses and to access information on your colleagues in Aqua-tnet3, please visit the Aqua-tnet Education Gate. If you have any further additions or would like to make changes to your institution's information please contact Marieke Reuver at marieke@aquatt.ie
If you are a graduate and would like to post your request for an internship, or your company is seeking interns, please visit www.aquatnet.com/index.php/167/internships.
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RESEARCH & EDUCATION |
Call for Submissions: #design4learning - from Blended Learning to Learning Analytics in Higher Education
Submissions are invited for #design4learning, an Open University/Higher Education Academy conference being held from 26-27 November. Papers should be submitted by 15 September 2014.
The conference aims to advance the understanding and application of blended learning, design4learning and learning analytics. The conference will be of particular interest to those involved in the pedagogic and technical aspects of learning design and those involved in strategy, policy and implementation.
To find more information about the conference and the call for papers click HERE.
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Call for Proposals for Pilot Project on Open Knowledge Technologies: Mapping and Validating Knowledge
The aim of this pilot is to develop and demonstrate a European-wide learning technology system to support effective (re)-training. It will match the interests and current knowledge of individuals with the most demanded labour market skills and suggest possible learning roadmaps for acquiring knowledge and skills. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22/09/14 at 17:00 CET.
For a detailed description click HERE.
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www.enic-naric.net
The www.enic-naric.net website is a joint initiative of the European Commission, the Council
of Europe and UNESCO. It has been created primarily as a tool to assist
the European Network of Information Centres in the European Region
(ENIC)-National Academic Recognition Information Centres in the European
Union (NARIC) Networks in carrying out the tasks they have been
mandated to accomplish within their own jurisdiction, by directing them
to up-to-date information supplied and maintained by the competent
bodies in each member country and by each member organisation. It is
also its express purpose to help other interested organisations and
individuals easily find information on current issues in international
academic and professional mobility, and on procedures for the
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Google Classroom Opens Its Doors
Google has announced that Google Classroom, their latest addition Apps for Education, is available for all. Google Classroom is a product designed in collaboration with teachers to help them save time, keep classes organised and improve communication with students.The tool is completely free, and aims to create a simple, paperless assignment workflow for teachers to create, review and mark assignments all in one place.
More information on Google Classroom is available by clicking HERE.
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Scottish Marine Institute (SAMS) Courses
Marine Policy Masterclass: 19-23 February 2015
This exclusive, fully‐funded residential Marine Policy Masterclass is the first of its kind in the UK. It provides access to senior national and international advisers who will openly share their knowledge and experience of current and emergent political and scientific agendas, the challenges of communicating and handling uncertainty, and how to ensure your research is taken seriously at a policy level.
Applications are now open for just 15 PhD students and/or early career researchers who wish to take part in this intensive programme; designed to fast‐track international collaboration and improve your knowledge and confidence in applying for international funding.
To find out more, click HERE
Ecosystem Based Management Training Course: 24-26 February 2015
If you’re interested in constructing and interpreting ecosystem models using the ecological modelling software, Ecopath with Ecosim, this hands-on three-day course provides a solid introduction for you. Led by Dr Sheila Heymans of SAMS, who has worked extensively with Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecological Network Analysis, this course will give you the confidence to construct and interpret models of your own.
To find out more, or book your place, click HERE.
Other SAMS training courses are also available, including Marine Invasive Species Identification, Algae Research and Mapping and GIS Training. SAMS also has a number of postgraduate opportunities. To find out more, visit www.sams.ac.uk/education, email SAMSCourses@sams.ac.uk or call 01631 559000.
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Are You the Recipient of an FP7 Marie Curie Grant? Compete to Win a MSCA prize!
The European Commission has launched the second edition of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie action (MSCA) prizes competition. This year, the contest will have three categories:
- Promising Research Talent (open to all FP7 ITN researchers)
- Communicating Science (open to all FP7 researchers)
- Nurturing Research Talents (open to all FP7 Experienced Researchers)
Applicants must have benefitted or are currently benefitting from an FP7 Marie Curie grant. The application deadline is 21 September 2014. The prize will be delivered during the high-level Italian Presidency conference in Trento on 18 November 2014.
Further information is available HERE.
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The Open Education Handbook Needs Your Feedback
The Open Education Handbook is a collaboratively written living web document targeting educational practitioners and the education community at large. It offers an introduction to various open education topics including open education data, open education resources, learning and teaching practice, open source tools and open accreditation. It is currently available in Booktype, an open source book authoring tool, and can be edited by anyone.
The coordinators of the linked up project, which is behind the creation of the handbook, request that the Open Education community contribute to its crowdsourced writing.
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Fisheries Stakeholders Discuss Maximum Sustainable Yield
 The concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) for EU fisheries was recently discussed at a series of stakeholder meetings organised by the Myfish project. These meetings were an opportunity for fisheries stakeholders to give feedback on their priorities regarding the required trade-offs and their preferences for different implementation options for MSY management.
MSY is the maximum yield that can be derived from a renewable resource over a prolonged period of time. The Myfish project is an EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)-funded initiative which aims to provide an operational framework for the implementation of the MSY concept in European waters. The workplan of Myfish involves intensive consultations with stakeholders to obtain their input into project work and feedback on project results.
The stakeholder meetings were conducted in each of the project’s five case study regions: the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, the North Sea, Western Waters, and Widely Ranging Fish (covering fish stocks which tend to spread across more than one management area). The objective of the events was to bring together key stakeholders to discuss trade-offs and effective ways in which long-term targets can be established for multi-annual multi-species plans.
The following Myfish case study meetings were organised in collaboration with the Fisheries Advisory Councils:
- Widely Ranging Fish/Pelagic Regional Advisory Council (PRAC) meeting: 6 February 2014, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Western Waters/South Western Waters Regional Advisory Council (SWWRAC) meeting: 11 June 2014 in Paris, France
- Baltic Sea/Baltic Sea Advisory Council (BSAC) meeting: 26 June 2014 in Charlottenlund, Denmark
- North Sea/North Sea Advisory Council (NSAC) demersal working group meeting: 7 July 2014 in Amsterdam
Barrie Deas, chief executive of the UK National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), who attended the July meeting in Amsterdam, said: “I found the MyFish workshop to be at the cutting edge of thinking about how to achieve MSY within the context of biological, economic, social and political realities. A decision support platform such as that being explored and developed by Myfish should help fisheries managers and fisheries stakeholders in the advisory councils to understand the implications and consequences of their choices.”
The EC’s goal is to achieve MSY in the EU by 2015. However, there is currently a lack of common agreement on the interpretation of the "sustainability" and "yield" components of the MSY concept and on the effects that achieving MSY for one stock may have on other stocks and the broader ecosystem, economic system and social system. The Myfish project will address these ambiguities by evaluating different MSY objectives, conditional on different kinds of constraints (ecosystem, economic, social) and with different kinds of management measures to achieve the objectives.
More information about the Myfish project can be found at www.myfishproject.eu
For press queries please contact the Project Coordinator, Anna Rindorf (email: ar@aqua.dtu.dk).
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AQUAEXCEL at Aquaculture Europe 2014
Many of Europe’s leading aquaculture researchers will gather in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain on October 14-17, 2014 for the European Aquaculture Society’s annual ‘Aquaculture Europe’ Conference.
As part of the event AQUAEXCEL will host an industry workshop on Friday, 17 October. This workshop will provide a space for collaboration and interaction between the project's partners and an audience primarily drawn from industry. The workshop will focus on presenting achievements and results of the AQUAEXCEL project which can positively contribute to the enhancement of aquaculture in Europe and which are demonstrably beneficial to the aquaculture industry.
Watch this space and the AQUAEXCEL website for further details and an agenda which is shortly to follow.
For more information about AQUAEXCEL, visit: www.aquaexcel.eu
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Implementing EU Fishery Policies in the Baltic Sea
 Best practices and management strategies for implementation of new EU fishery policies in the Baltic Sea region were discussed by members of the Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Committee (BSRAC) and partners from two EC-funded projects, Myfish and SOCIOEC, at a recent meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The one-day stakeholder workshop, entitled “How to determine long term targets for Baltic Sea multi annual multi species plans”, was jointly organised by partners of the SOCIOEC and Myfish projects and held on 26 June 2014.
SOCIOEC and Myfish both aim to construct long-term sustainable fisheries management plans and to evaluate different management measures to ensure compliance and sustainability. The Copenhagen event provided an opportunity for debate and discussion with fisheries stakeholders on a number of topics, including the results of modelling the individual behaviour of fishing vessels facing spatial closures (DISPLACE model, presented by Francois Bastardie, from the Technical University of Denmark National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua)) and the possible measures for managing fisheries in their interaction with seals (introduced by Thomas Thøgersen, from the Danish Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO)).
As the SOCIOEC project is nearing its end date in February 2015, this meeting provided an ideal opportunity for the partners to present their results and get valuable feedback from the stakeholders.
SOCIOEC assistant coordinator Leyre Goti said: “The meeting in Copenhagen was a good chance to get first hand opinions of the industry with regards to management and the information that they would need from us scientists in order to improve it.”
The SOCIOEC project aims to focus on the socioeconomic effects of management measures of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The project is developing possible new future measures to be introduced in order to achieve a more profitable and efficient fishing sector that provides sustainable employment, supports society’s aims, and contributes to societal well being.
For more information visit the SOCIOEC webpage: www.socioec.eu
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ARRAINA 'Technology for Novel Fish Feeds' Course
 The ARRAINA project (www.arraina.eu), through SPAROS and Wageningen Academy is organising a course on Technology for Novel Fish Feeds.
Do you or one of your colleagues/students need an update on the
theoretical and practical aspects of fish feed manufacturing process?
Then the Technology for Novel Fish Feeds course might be something for
you. During this course, you will take advantage of the wide knowledge
basis gathered in the ARRAINA consortium, and using SPAROS pilot-scale
feed technology platform.
Upon completion of the course you will have acquired in-depth knowledge
of the state-of-the art and future challenges in formulation and
production of novel, sustainable and cost-effective fish feeds, with a
focus on the interaction of current formulation trends (plant-rich,
alternative feedstuffs, functional additives) and some feed processing
constraints.
The topics will be introduced by different experts from INRA, Univ.
Porto, NMBU-FôrTeck, CCMAR, FEFAC, SORGAL, CLEXTRAL, BIOMAR and SPAROS.
Interested? Find out more about the course or sign up now.
Practical information
Course dates: 26-29 October 2014
Early Bird Registration: 1 September 2014
Late Registration deadline: 29 September 2014
Contact: Malou Gosselink
Email: malou.gosselink@wur.nl
Course Information Flyer
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OTHER
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Mercury – Have Your Say on the EU Implementation of the Minamata Convention
The European Commission has launched an online consultation on issues related to the ratification and implementation by the EU of the Minamata Convention on mercury. The Convention was signed in October 2013. At that time, it was the first international environmental agreement concluded in a decade. It is a global treaty that aims to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, and aims to phase out many of its current uses.
The consultation, as well as background information and supporting documents can be found HERE. It will be online until 14 November 2014.
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Herring dispute: EU lifts Measures Against the Faroe Islands
The Commission has repealed the measures adopted against the Faroe Islands in August 2013 following their unsustainable fishery on Atlanto-Scandian herring. The measures imposed were lifted as of 20 August 2014.
The decision comes after it was agreed that the Faroe Islands would cease their unsustainable fishery and would adopt a catch limit for herring in 2014 at 40,000t. This level is considerably lower than the one the Faroes had adopted in 2013 and which, according to the current scientific assessments, does not put in jeopardy the conservation efforts of the coastal States sharing the stock.
For further information click HERE.
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Final Call for FREE Access to Top-Class Aquaculture Research Infrastructures: AQUAEXCEL 9th Call for Access Deadline Approaching
 The
ninth, and final, AQUAEXCEL (Aquaculture Infrastructures for Excellence
in European Fish Research) Call for Access is still open, with a deadline
of 12 September 2014. The AQUAEXCEL project invites proposals from
European research groups for scientific research that utilises the
facilities of any of the participating aquaculture Research
Infrastructures.
The AQUAEXCEL project unites major aquaculture experimental facilities
with capacity to undertake experimental trials on a selection of
commercially important fish aquaculture species and system types. These
facilities are made available to the research community for
Transnational Access (TNA) with the support of the European Union
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological
Development (Infrastructures).
The facilities available cover the entire range of production systems
(recirculation, flow-through, cage, hatchery and pond systems);
environments (freshwater and marine, cold, temperate and warm water);
scales (small, medium and industrial scale); fish species (salmon,
trout, sea bass, sea bream, cod, common carp etc.); and fields of
expertise (nutrition, physiology, health and welfare, genetics,
engineering, monitoring and management technologies).
Interested researchers can propose projects that involve visits of one
or in some cases two people to the chosen Research Infrastructure for
periods of up to three months. The use of the facilities (excluding any
additional costs) is covered through AQUAEXCEL partner funding and the
associated travel and subsistence expenses for the visiting scientist(s)
will be paid through the host institution, according to their internal
rules for reimbursement.
For more information, visit: www.aquaexcel.eu/call_for_access
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Introduce Budding Scientists to Marine Microorganisms with the MaCuMBA Education Supplement
 A
special educational publication which aims to introduce students aged
8-12 to the fascinating world of marine microbes has been produced by
the MaCuMBA (Marine Microorganisms: Cultivation Methods for Improving
their Biotechnological Applications) project. The Education Supplement
accompanies the eighth issue of the project’s newsletter and is
available to download from the project’s website: www.macumbaproject.eu.
MaCuMBA is a four-year EC FP7-funded
project that aims to uncover the untold diversity of marine microbes
using cultivation-dependent strategies.
The four-page Education Supplement
includes: fun marine microbe facts; links to online resources and
activities relating to marine microbes; a comic strip entitled MaCuMBA
Meltdown; and a marine microbe quiz.
In the eighth issue of MaCuMBA Project
News: an interview with Marieke Reuver, Programme Manager at AquaTT,
Dublin, who is leader of MaCuMBA Work Package 9 (WP9), Dissemination,
Knowledge Management and Linkages; MaCuMBA researcher profiles in the
Culture Club; get acquainted with the Marine Biotechnology European
Research Area Network (ERA-NET) in our series of Petri Dish Profiles of
other European-funded projects related to the study of marine
microorganisms; and the Under the Microscope section rounds up stories
about marine microorganisms that have been making the news.
You can also keep up to date with the latest news from MaCuMBA by “liking” the project’s Facebook page HERE.
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AQUA-TNET CALENDER
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Please check the Aqua-tnet calendar for a live update of upcoming events, courses and workshops.
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AQUATT TRAINING NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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 AquaTT's Training News is a free monthly e-newsletter. With the latest news from the European education community, opportunities for collaboration, announcements and a student corner, Training News is an important dissemination channel for education and training opportunities for the aquaculture and related sectors. CLICK HERE for the latest edition.
Please email news@aquatt.ie to submit your news which will reach more than 5,000 international subscribers.
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PISCESTT JOBS
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 PiscesTT Jobs is a free online recruitment service used by over 300 companies globally in Aquaculture, Fisheries and Marine Science. At the moment there are 10 interesting jobs/study opportunities. If you are interested in viewing or posting a vacancy please go to www.piscesttjobs.com or contact aquatt@aquatt.ie. Subscribe at www.piscesttjobs.com/feeds for live RSS updates.
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About Aqua-tnet
This update is published by the Aqua-tnet Secretariat. For further information e-mail aquatnet@aquatt.ie Previous editions are archived on www.aquatnet.com. Aqua-tnet welcomes any feedback regarding content, presentation and user-friendliness of the newsletter. If you would like to post a news item or event details on the next issue of the Aqua-tnet Newsletter or on the Aqua-tnet website, please send details to Marieke Reuver at marieke@aquatt.ie or aquatnet@aquatt.ie.
DISCLAIMER: AQUA-TNET provides this newsletter as a free service to its partners. Most of the information is provided by AQUA-TNET. Where it is not, the source of the news is provided in the text of the news brief or else AQUA-TNET attributes the news to the coordinating body as the "Data Source Provider". In no way does this newsletter intend to wrongly or inappropriately claim projects, news, etc. as its own nor is it responsible for incorrect information provided from other sources. The AQUA-TNET Newsletter is a dissemination tool and forum for both AQUA-TNET and its partners.
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