This two-year project is led by the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling and funded by Open Philanthropy.

The project is led by Professor Dave Little (Deputy Head of the Institute of Aquaculture with expertise in Aquatic Resource Development), Professor Sonia Rey Planellas (Aquatic Animal Behaviour, Animal Welfare & Environments) and Professor Amaya Albalat (Aquatic Animal Physiology, Welfare and Proteomics) are providing strategic guidance and contributing to specific activities. Professor Jimmy Turnbull (Emeritus Professor with expertise in Aquatic Animal Welfare and Health) also contributed significantly during project preparation and start-up. The project directly employes Dr Simão Zacarias (full-time) as Postdoctoral Researcher, and Mr John Bostock (part-time0 as Project Manager. Dr Timothy Weise (Postdoctoral researcher on aquatic animal welfare) has also been contracted for short-term inputs, especially on training support.

In the first round of activities we called on academic organisations in Vietnam and Thailand to work with other stakeholders in those countries, and with international partners, to develop short research projects that can be funded to help build capacity and understanding of the issues. The University of Stirling hosted online workshops (“sandpits”) to help build appropriate partnerships and guide the development of concise proposals. These took place in February 2023. Funded projects fall into one of two categories. The first is for research into practical measures for improving fish welfare and demonstrating the benefit of those actions. The second category is for research that helps develop better communication strategies for engaging with all stakeholders in fish and seafood value chains. Eight projects were selected and seven are currently underway. A second round competition was held in early 2024 and a third round in mid 2024. Overall, the project is funding (subject to finalisation of contracts in some cases) fourteen collaborative research projects.

Other activities under the project including the development of online aquatic animal welfare training materials, and the funding of one student from Thailand and one from Vietnam to take the MSc programme in Sustainable Aquaculture and Aquatic Pathobiology respectively at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling. Follow the tile links further down this page for more details.

Project activities

Links, resources and future events

Read the first blog post about the project here.

Download the Project Information Flyer (PDF)

If you are working in Thailand or Vietnam with an interest in this issue, please get in touch with us using the form below and we will keep you informed of events and activities.