Project

The focus of the project is governance in fisheries with special emphasis on the role of management institutions in the decision-making process and the conditions under which management institutions work effectively and cost-efficiently. Associated questions of participation and representation of interests in fishery management, levels of decision‑making, factors influencing compliance/ non‑compliance behaviour, legitimacy and what is considered a valid knowledge base for management will be addressed by focusing on the following five research questions:

User-groups or broader stakeholder involvement - how are stakeholder interests voiced and mediated in management institutions?
The rationality of fisheries management - what is the overall rationality of the management institutions in terms of managing society's utilisation of its natural resource base and sharing access for interest groups?
The cost-effectiveness of fisheries management - how are transaction costs reflected in the design of management institutions?
The embeddedness of management institutions - to what extent are management institutions consistent and integrated with the cultural and social references of user and stakeholder groups?
The cognitive basis for management - how is knowledge about the resource system and other systems (e.g. the policy system) generated and used in management institutions, and what constitutes the social validity of such knowledge?

The research will eventually lead to submission of an anthology entitled: "Governance in fisheries - an institutional approach to management of fisheries" undertaking a structured analysis of the 5 research issues mentioned above. The aim is to disseminate the results to both the scientific community and policy‑makers in order to improve the performance of fisheries management systems in both developed and developing countries.

The objective of the project was to improve our understanding of the information needs and appropriate institutional structures for fisheries management in developing countries by making a comparative analysis of three cases in South East Asia (one in Laos and two in Vietnam) and four cases in Southern Africa (Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and South Africa).

The overall objective of this project was to address the poor understanding of the links between management tools, fleet developments and the pressure exerted on fishing communities, and more precisely to supply fisheries managers with a modelling tool that will allow them evaluating the impact of regulations on the dynamics of fleets and fishing mortality.

Project goals:

Develop the knowledge of discarding patterns and factors in European fisheries

Evaluate the effectiveness of selective devices and other discard management measures that have been implemented in the past.

Improve methods to analyze, monitor, and manage bycatch and discarding in European fisheries.

The project is a research-based analysis of the status and development potentials for the fish processing industry in Northern Jutland 2010-2025. The analysis provides updated descriptions of strengths and weaknesses in different segments of the fish processing industry. An integral part of the project is development processes in groups of processing industries, which will develop SWOT analysis and segment strategies. The project will present proposals and ideas of areas where the fish processing industry in Northern Jutland can base survival and development in the coming years.

Socio-economic effects of the main management principles of the future Common Fishery Policy (CFP): impact of new policy framework and opportunities for the fishing sector to develop self- and co-management.

The Common Fisheries Policy is in a major reform process at the moment. The European Commission draws the conclusion in its analysis of the previous reform in 2002 (COM (2009) 163 final) that despite making some progress there are still many problems unresolved. On the positive side, the Commission lists better stakeholder involvement, phasing out direct capacity-enhancing subsidies and the introduction of long-term management plans. On the negative side the Commission identifies a deep-rooted problem of overcapacity, imprecise policy objectives, a framework that does not give sufficient responsibility to the industry, lack of compliance and a decision making system that encourages a focus on short-term management. We will analyze a range of available, emerging and possible new management measures to overcome these shortcomings of fisheries management, and will consider their implementation on a regional level.

With Horizon 2020 funding, ECOTIP launches a pioneering assessment of changes to Arctic marine ecosystems and societies, from melting ice to shifting fisheries

The ambitious new ECOTIP initiative brings together a multidisciplinary group of scientists from more than 10 countries to study ecosystem tipping cascades in the Arctic marine environment. This major international effort will advance understanding of the impacts of climate change on Arctic biodiversity and the cascading effects that biodiversity change can have on marine ecosystems, the climate services they provide, and the human communities that depend on them. The innovative four-year project, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme, launched on 1 June 2020.

The Oceans Past Platform Action aims to measure and understand the significance and value to European societies of living marine resource extraction and production to help shape the future of coasts and oceans. The Integrative Platform will lower the barriers between human, social and natural sciences; multiply the learning capacity of research environments; and enable knowledge transfer and co-production among researchers and other societal factors, specifically by integrating historical findings of scale and intensity of resource use into management and policy frameworks.

The oceans offer rich resources for feeding a hungry world. However, the sea is an alien space in a sense that the land is not. Fishing requires skills that must be learned, it presupposes culinary preferences, technical ability, knowledge of target species, and a backdrop of material and intangible culture. The Action asks when, how and with what socio-economic, political, cultural and ecological implications humans have impacted marine life, primarily in European seas in the last two millennia.

The Action calls on historians, archaeologists and social scientists as well as colleagues from the marine sciences to engage in dialogue and collaboration with ocean and coastal managers. The Action will develop historical descriptors and indicators for marine and coastal management.

PERICLES is an EU-funded research and innovation project running from 2018-2021. PERICLES promotes sustainable, participatory governance of cultural heritage in European coastal and maritime regions through a unique interdisciplinary and geographically wide-ranging approach. The overall aim of the project is to develop and demonstrate a comprehensive framework to understand, preserve and utilize maritime cultural heritage for societal good.

Cultural heritage provides a sense of place, unity, and belonging. Rooted in specific landscapes, seascapes, buildings, stories, traditions, language, and cultural practices, cultural heritage is a fundamental part of every society. It connects people to each other and to the past and helps guide the future.

Protection and advocacy for cultural heritage can strengthen identity and local society, thereby improving the overall quality of life. Culture and heritage are essential in maintaining and building Europe's economic, social, cultural and natural capital. Realizing the potential of cultural heritage in these terms can generate prosperity, bring new jobs, enhance communities and improve environments in ways comparable to Blue Growth initiatives.

Yet, coastal cultural landscapes face risks from climate change, pollution, urbanisation, mass tourism, demographic challenges in remote regions, the fundamental transformation of the European fishing industry, neglect, and inconsistent policies of sea and shore conservation across governance scales and between regions.

The project originates from viewing the Port of Aalborg (PoA) as an infrastructure hub. This perspective is inspired by dialogues with the PoA and existing literature that discusses ports as complex organizations influenced by economic, cultural, political, local community, geographical, administrative, and technological factors.

This view aligns with the aggregated level of the project, where our ambition is to understand what does it mean to be a sustainable infrastructure hub and focus on the PoA not merely as an individual entity but as an ecosystem consisting of multiple internal and external actors and systemic linkages between them. The purpose of the project is to uncover:
- What does being a sustainable infrastructure hub entail, and what are its most relevant sustainability performance assessment indicators?
- How can the PoA, as an infrastructure hub, improve its sustainability performance across the identified sustainability performance indicators?

The logic behind these two questions is predicated on the notion that if green transition performance cannot be measured, it becomes impossible to discuss the strategies and practices that make the complex hub constellation of the PoA greener and more sustainable.

Project Flow
Phase 1 (Q4 2024 - Q1 2025): State of the Art, Literature Insights and their Validation
Terminological and definitional clarity as well as an analytical framework for the key parameters and constructs of the project
Phase 2 (Q2 2025 - Q4 2025): Empirical insights into the PoA and other port infrastructures in Denmark and internationally
Cases of the PoA, as well as other ports' ecosystems, will be developed with the objective to benchmark them against established regulation/guideline systems
Phase 3 (Q1 2026 – Q2 2026): Co-developing recommendations and advice for the PoA based on the best practices distilled from other ports' cases and theoretical lenses.