A Network Approach to Addressing Strategic Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences Issues at a National Scale: An Introduction to a Series of Case Studies from Canada

Abstract

Traditional funding programs for fisheries, aquaculture, and aquatic research provide short-term support for an individual or small research team to test a specific hypothesis, often having only limited spatial applicability. To tackle more complex issues existing at larger spatial scales (national or continental), other approaches are necessary. In Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has developed the Strategic Network Grants (SNGs) program that enables multi-institutional teams of academics (typically 10 to 20 co-principal investigators) to work with industry and government partners on large-scale, multidisciplinary research projects in targeted research areas. The network model is intended to create unique training opportunities and enable researchers to study problems at spatial and temporal scales that could not be addressed with traditional funding. Currently, six of the 30-plus SNGs in Canada are focused on fisheries, aquaculture, and aquatic sciences issues, namely, impacts of hydropower on fish and fish habitat, capture fisheries, integrated multitrophic aquaculture, healthy oceans, and the spatial ecology of aquatic vertebrates in coastal waters. Here we introduce five case studies that will examine the motivation, scientific research objectives, and operation of networks in detail. In addition, we explore the perceived benefits and challenges with the research network-funding model with specific reference to the advancement of large-scale studies in fisheries, aquaculture, and aquatic sciences.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section for supporting this special series. We also thank NSERC for funding the SNG program and the five SNG teams that have provided contributions to Fisheries. We also thank K. Smokorowski and T Chopin for providing comments on this manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caleb T. Hasler

Recent Ph.D. graduate, Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, currently a biologist with Dillon Consulting, Ottawa, Ontario, and member of the executive committee of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of AFS. E-mail: [email protected]

Gavin C. Christie

Division Manager of the Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, and member of the executive committee of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of AFS

Jack Imhof

National Biologist, Trout Unlimited Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and member of the executive committee of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of AFS

Michael Power

Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Steven J. Cooke

Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor in Biology and Environmental Science at Carleton University, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and member of the executive committee of the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of AFS