WHAT IS SUCCESS ?

SUCCESS is a European research project financed for 3 years (2015-2018). It is part of the H2020 Strategy, which is the EU Research and Innovation Programme for the period 2014-2020. H2020 puts the emphasis on three core themes : science of excellence , industrial leadership and societal challenges. It aims to raise the level of excellence in Europe’s science base, encourage important achievements, discoveries and “world-firsts” by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Included in the Blue Growth Strategy, defined by the European Commission as “a long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole” (COM(2014) 254/2), SUCCESS specifically addresses topic BG-10-2014 : Consolidating the economic sustainability and competitiveness of European fisheries and aquaculture sectors to reap the potential of seafood markets.

For the most part management of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors is mostly dominated by the production process and control thereof. Indeed biological and environmental sustainability is required to maintain the industry, but the economic sustainability of seafood production is a wider issue. To ensure that economic sustainability, the production sectors have to maintain supply but also have to operate competitively in the market place and satisfy demand of consumers and/or other users where choice is so important.

The SUCCESS project is driven by a strong research consortium with significant partnership and input from stakeholders. It is designed to develop state of the art knowledge and results that are directly applicable to the production sectors and also the wider value chain. With the input from stakeholders, the relevance and direction of the project will be assured to address issues that are pertinent and in need of addressing to fulfil the objectives of ensuring economic sustainability and competitiveness. The outcomes will include scientific support to European seafood producers, will produce a clear and state of the art view of the current and future of the value chain, and will provide reliable usable tools for planning and development of seafood products by taking global drivers of seafood supply and demand into account. Boom and bust cycles will be addressed and specific research undertaken to avoid such negative market-based impacts to the industry in the future.

Working closely with stakeholders throughout the project will ensure a greatest acceptance of the results and recommendations from the SUCCESS project. SUCCESS will provide a more complete and better understanding of the European value chain than before: providing outputs, recommendations and opportunity for change will aim to drive better performance, competitiveness and sustainability.