By Katharine Sucher, Staff Writer
Sea Grant programs emphasize collaboration between marine industry and science—but what does that collaboration look like? A recently published study by Virginia Sea Grant (VASG) postgraduate fellow Amy Freitag aimed to find out.
As a graduate student in North Carolina, Freitag reviewed 15 Fisheries Resource Grant projects funded by the state to study how scientists and fisheries professionals collaborated. In addition to reviewing scientific reports and documents, she interviewed 7 fisheries staff, 19 scientists, and 5 North Carolina Sea Grant extension staff members who were involved in the projects. In all 15 projects, extension helped connect the researchers and fisheries workers.
Freitag found that research ideas originated about equally between scientists and industry participants—of the 15 projects she reviewed, six ideas originated with scientists, five originated with the fishing professionals, and three originated jointly. Collaboration was also high during the research phase—all but one of the projects Freitag studied involved both a scientist and a stakeholder in the field, and the project that didn’t relied mostly on historical data.
To the extent that collaboration broke down, it most often happened during the data analysis and reporting stages. Scientists focused on data analysis and drawing conclusions, while fishing staff decided how to incorporate scientific findings into practice.
Overall, both fishing industry participants and scientists reported learning from each other during collaborative projects. Freitag’s findings suggest that Sea Grant extension is critical in initiating and maintaining these industry-science relationships to produce effective research with a real-world impact.
Read more about Freitag’s study here: http://www.joe.org/joe/2015october/a4.php
While the North Carolina-funded FRG program ended in 2013 after Freitag completed her study, the program has since reformed as the Community Collaborative Research Grant Program with support from private funds.
