DTU Aqua has successfully coordinated an EU network on fishing activities in collaboration with the Danish Agency for Research and Education.
Since 2002, the European Commission has tried to develop and strengthen European research collaboration with the help of so-called Public to Public Partnerships, where national research-funding authorities coordinate their efforts in various strategic areas. The European Research Area Network—also called ERA-NET—is one of these public partnerships, and DTU Aqua has played a key role in the recently completed project Cooperation in Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood Processing (COFASP) focusing on fisheries, aquaculture, and processing.
There are a total of 92 active ERA-NET and other public-sector partnerships. Denmark is taking part in 20 of them—in such areas as sustainable foods, information technology in agriculture, and infectious diseases. The ERA-NET instrument is also used in areas such as energy and transport.
With regard to COFASP cooperation on fisheries, aquaculture, and the processing of fish and shellfish, Denmark undertook the management and coordination of the project under the proviso that experts from DTU contributed their academic expertise. This ERA-NET was headed by a triumvirate consisting of Head of Section Dennis Lisbjerg and Academic Officer Per Mogensen from DTU Aqua, as well as Head of Office Niels Gøtke from the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education.
Ambitious goals
They set highly ambitious goals, aiming to produce a minimum of two research reports over the four years, but ended up with three.
“Getting the countries to sit down and talk is a challenge in itself, and several of the ERA-NET collaborations have only succeeded in identifying common challenges while never producing actual reports,” explains Dennis Lisbjerg.
“Among other things, we have organized conferences and launched both future studies and case studies in order to identify the key challenges for the sectors across countries and special interests. We have mapped the partners’ national research projects in the area to identify deficiencies—just as we have investigated the possibilities of financing—also through regional funds.”
The future
The project was just completed with a report and a excellent evaluation. The cooperation between the ministry and DTU as well as grant givers Innovation Fund Denmark and GUDP has been problem-free—just as the participating countries have made a positive contribution. There is therefore keen interest within the EU in continuing the cooperation in the next three-year Horizon 2020 work programme. However, it is not a given that Danish grant givers want to continue with this type of international partnership.
“But we believe there are many good reasons for doing so—partly because the projects receiving funding in connection with ERA-NET are interesting in themselves for Danish researchers—and partly because for each krone Denmark contributes, the European Commission contributes half the amount again. Also, it’s worth remembering that if you participate as a government ministry or a research programme in an ERA-NET partnership, you also gain substantial influence over the topics coming into the other Horizon 2020 programmes,” says Chief Accountant Niels Gøtke .
And Dennis Lisbjerg adds:
“A large EU research project can be an extremely complicated and cumbersome administrative affair. Typically, in an ERA-NET-funded research project, there are less than five partners, so it’s much easier to maintain an overview. This may pave the way for more creative thinking and the involvement of institutions which the participating countries don’t know so well. In this way, it is possible to expand your network and gain access to new major research projects—just as the industrial participants gain new knowledge and can thus enter new export markets.”