The UK seafood industry is under unprecedented pressure to deliver on national food security during COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, while trying to adapt to remain socio-economically viable. However, no data exists on the systemic impacts to the UK seafood industry, adaptation actions employed by businesses and their potential effects on seafood supply. This compromises the timely adoption of measures to address challenges currently faced by businesses and delays the implementation of changes to increase the UK seafood industry's resilience to future shocks. RiseUP brings together the expertise of SAMS, the University of Manchester and Seafish to explore pathways to increase resilience at the system and business levels and provide policy-relevant recommendations and stakeholder-specific advice to address challenges. It will collect evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 disruption across the UK seafood industry, how these are managed by businesses and how impacts are propagating trough the supply network. A mix-method approach combines data collection through interviews and surveys; modelling of the industry supply network to explore systemic, particularly unintended, consequences to its resilience; and in-depth case studies to investigate business model adaptation and circularity in selected sectors. The project will provide evidence for decision-making under pressure and uncertainty, to manage the COVID-19 disruption. The project will outline areas for immediate action and inform strategic changes to increase the resilience of the UK seafood industry to future shocks. RiseUP will contribute to understanding the routes to increased resilience, sustainability and security of the UK's seafood system.

For any business, making decisions on the best course of action should be informed by the best available evidence. The UK business sector is asked to integrate issues of sustainability and environmental impact into their decision-making as part of a transition to a greener economy (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/economy). In current circumstances this is inhibited by the absence of a shared and reliable evidence base from which to draw decision-making support and develop consensus on best practice. In a competitive world it will be important for business decisions to be based on a reliable evidence-base characterized by rigour in assembly , transparency and objectivity. Most importantly the evidence base will need to be synthetic and inclusive of all available primary research related to a question relevant to evidence needs of the decision makers. In environmental management, the evidence base supporting policy decisions is incipient and syntheses of the best available evidence are not readily available. This project will develop and test an open-access database of research syntheses (evidence syntheses). The database will list syntheses conducted to assess evidence on a specific question of policy or practical relevance in environmental management. The database will provide information on the reliability and transparency of the syntheses, tailored to the needs of decision makers/end users in government, non-government and private sectors. We will work with a group of end users and pilot the database format by identifying a subject area that represents an example of their evidence needs. Existing research syntheses will then be identified and critically appraised for their reliability as a source of the best available evidence. The web-based product will be presented to the end-user group for their feedback and modifications made in preparation for expansion from a pilot to a fully functional system.

By 2050 it is estimated that the global population will exceed 9 billion. This is expected to result in a 100% increase in demand for food. The world needs more high-quality protein, produced in a responsible manner. This challenge is addressed by UN Sustainable Development Goals SDG2 (Zero hunger) and SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Expansion of marine fish aquaculture has been highlighted as a key route to increase food production. It is also an important area for the blue economy with high potential for new jobs and revenue. In the UK, marine aquaculture is worth over £2 billion to the economy, supports 2300 jobs and has ambitions to double production by 2030. But climate change is a threat as fish production is highly sensitive to the environment. Climate change assessments are often only available for large areas, e.g. global or regional, and do not capture the local conditions that influence fish production. They focus on long-term decadal averages which miss the daily environmental variability and multiple stressors that fish experience. Impacts on growth, health and welfare of the farmed fish are determined by these environment-biological complexities at farm level, and are also influenced by production strategies and industry decisions which may be based on social or economic factors. Robust, industry-relevant, climate impact assessment must include the complexities, relationships and trade-offs between different natural processes and human interventions. Thus, a more comprehensive approach which uses systems thinking to capture the interlinking interdisciplinary components is urgently needed. Precision aquaculture, where vast amounts of data are collected and analysed, offers a framework to provide the detail required to understand the complex farm system, evaluate how the environment is changing and assess implications for future production. In this FLF, I will deliver a rigorous scientific framework for assessing impact of climate change on marine aquaculture using systems thinking and precision-based information. I will create an approach which integrates detailed knowledge of what is happening in the complex farm system now, with future projections of climate change and potential stakeholder response. This will involve collecting high resolution data, analysing complex datasets, developing farm-level models, simulating future climate scenarios, and determining the adaptive capacity of the sector. I will work closely with my network of key industry partners, research organisations, regulators and policy makers to maximise translation and transfer of knowledge and approaches to industry and associated stakeholders. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture in the Northeast Atlantic (Scotland and Norway) is used as a case study. Salmon leads marine fish production, with over 2 million tonnes produced each year, the equivalent of 17.5 billion meals. Norway and Scotland are responsible for 60% of production. The latitudinal range of farms extends across the thermal tolerance of the salmon, from temperate conditions in Scotland and south Norway, to arctic conditions in the north of Norway. This allows assessment of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of climate change and a thorough analysis of how impact may vary between locations and different responses required. Beyond aquaculture, the positioning of marine fish farms offers an exceptional opportunity to gain deeper insight into the rate, magnitude and variability of climate change in coastal areas. This FLF will deliver vital new knowledge, data and approaches to understand how the environment is changing. This research is highly interdisciplinary, covering aspects of climate, environmental, biological and social science. The innovative techniques and transformative approaches will allow aquaculture to respond to the climate emergency, enhance blue economy opportunities and maximise its contribution to global food security.

major transformation of the food system is required, which is focused on the production and consumption of healthy and sustainable food. Change will need to be facilitated through a number of means, both direct and indirect. The Sus-Health project will establish and demonstrate a blueprint of a system that incentivises both directly and indirectly the consumption of sustainable and healthy food. The project will demonstrate to stakeholders how the use of a codesigned, combined measure of environmental impact and nutritive value (the Sus-Health Index) of foods, meals and ingredients can be used to influence the future direction of our food system and the stakeholders within it. Sus-Health will co-create a systemic strategy and innovative solution for influencing food choices and consumption, so that they better align with planetary boundaries and nutritional guidelines. The resulting consumer preferences (obtained through living lab experiments and through simulation) will feed back down the entire food chain driving the processes and raw materials used, towards more sustainable and health-inducing foods and diets. Comprising two academic partners and a range of stakeholder involvement Sus-Health will demonstrate a range of stakeholder focused communication vehicles, in a range of interventions in Northern Ireland followed by upscaling activities in the rest of the UK. The consortium comprises a mix of academic, and food industry partners with expertise in consumer behaviour, sustainability, nutrition, agri-economics, software design, agriculture, food service, and food systems. Key outputs of the project will be: - The develpment, validation and demonstration of the use and applicability of a combined measure for assessing sustainability and nutritive value in real settings (restaurants, fast food outlets, canteens and related supply chains) - A range of communication tools and approaches aimed at influencing change in consumer food choices - Interventions focused on food affordability including economic assessments of direct policy interventions that would make healthy sustainable food more affordable. - Stakeholder guidelines for using the Sus-Health index and related communication tools together with extensive stakeholder focused communication and dissemination activities

Not needed for this application