Sonia Rey Plannella and Dave Little are involved in a new Newton Institutional link coordinated by the Manchester Metropolitan University. Partners include Herriot Watt and CEFAS in the UK and the University of Cartagena in Colombia together with local partners CEINER, FUPAC and LISMAR. The latter are local organisations that have skills in training and production of local species. The project has both freshwater and coastal sites around Cartagena where initial participatory workshops were held in August with a range of stakeholders. Three European and 4 local interns are now building on the knowledge base that was co-developed during the workshops and are filling some information gaps before detailed designs for follow-on work are finalised. Stakeholders at each site prioritised 3 specific foci each with the outside research teams.