Start of NordSalt!
I am one of the lucky researchers of the world who gets to work interdisciplinary with very exciting researchers of all walks of disciplines and geographical areas and projects with exciting themes on topics I formerly knew nothing about – such as Nordic Salt Marshes! The NordSalt tagline is: Climate Change Impacts and Biodiversity Interactions in Nordic Salt Marshes. The aim of this three-year project, that started this March 1st, is to assess the nature, diversity, extent and long-term changes of Nordic coastal marsh habitats. This is so that we are able to evaluate the role of salt marshes in climate regulation and assess their vulnerability to not only future…
Annual Meeting – Smartfish
The Smartfish project, funded by Horizon2020, is having its annual meeting now. It was originally supposed to be in Lorient, France this year – which for Covid-19 reasons was cancelled. It is now on TEAMS, like most of our interactions have been on for the past year. Close to 40 participants attended the first day of presentations. The meeting lasts for two full days (February 16th- 17th 2021). Presentations are made from the results of the last year from the different work packages on fisheries technology, and Covid-19 challenges are identified. Mostly, these result from the inability of testing our technologies at sea because cruises have been cancelled.
Interview with “All About Money”
I was recently interviewed by the Hong Kong International Business Channel about whether commercial fishing can be made more efficient and sustainable – within the framework of the Smartfish project. Smartfish is an international research initiative that’s developing high-tech systems for the fishing industry, including methods for scanning catch in real-time. I was interviewed in two roundsv – about 12 minutes each – by journalist Dhruv Tikekar. This is the link to Part 2 of the interview: https://fb.watch/3oNEsNjVtj/
4 project awarded for Christmas
What a wonderful Christmas this will be! With good colleagues from around the country and at SINTEF Ocean, I had the honor of being part of four projects that were funded by the Research Council of Norway! I am the project coordinator of one of them – and lead work packages in the three others. Congratulations to all of us and have a wonderful Christmas! RCN 2021-2024: CompareIt!: Opportunities and challenges with innovations in aquaculture production systems. Project Coordinator. KSPSAMARBEID20 – Collaborative and Knowledge-building Project. RCN 2021-2024: Plasticene: Development of tools for increased resource utilisation, circularity and regulatory support of plastic use in Norway. WP leader for WP4: Multi-Actor Integration…
Interview with CNN
My colleage John Reidar Mathiassen and I were interviewed by CNN internationals series Business Evolved recently about a Horizon2020 project SINTEF Ocean coordinates – Smartfish – this is the finished product! We were interviewed the entire day – and it all ended up with this 3 minute video that was aired on CNN – along with a story about the project. Click on the picture below to go directly to the CNN page where the video and the interview is located. You can also find it here: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/business/smart-tech-fishing-spc-intl/index.html
A rare trip to Oslo – mid-pandemic
With regulations easing up over the summer, there was suddently an opening in the regulations for SINTEF and we were allowed to travel inland to meetings or workshops. I had at this point not been on a flight since February 2020 – and given my history of flying, this is a very long time! It was eerie being on the flight though. Masks were mandatory – which was not the norm in Trondheim. The flight was quiet. Very quiet. The lounge wasnt open. The coffee shops werent even open. The Microfibre project – funded by the Norwegian Reserach Council – wanted me to facilitate a future scenarios and policy action…
More GoJelly! A Serious Game!
In January 2020, we were awarded 1 million NOK for a coordiantion and support action for the Horizon2020 project GoJelly! The aim of this extra funding was to enhance the Norwegian participation in EU projects – and bring in more Norwegian partners. Our pitch was among others that we wanted to develop a board game – a Serious Game – for data gathering on perceptions of sustainable development goals within the context of jellyfish blooms and microplastic marine pollution. To gain further insights into the key challenges pertaining to these issues we wanted to use Serious Games as an iterative methodology and focus on integrating youth as players of the…
Aberdeen – 2nd annual meeting for Smartfish
Smartfish is another Horizon 2020 project I am involved in – this one I am Project Leader for and work closely with the SINTEF Ocean team on coordinating the project – and this trip was the second annual meeting – we are halfway through the project, and it was time for us to discuss how to continue with the testing part of the project. SMARTFISH H2020 is an international research project which aims to develop, test and promote a suite of high-tech systems for the EU fishing sector. The goal is to optimize resource efficiency, improve automatic data collection for fish stock assessment, provide evidence of compliance with fishery regulations…
Brussels and the 18 month review
One of the research projects I have a work package leader role in is called COASTAL – and it is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. In this project, we take advantage of a unique multi-actor collaboration of coastal and rural business entrepreneurs, administrations, stakeholders, and natural and social science experts in our networks, and we developed a proposal where one of the aims was to formulate and evaluate business solutions and policy recommendations that had as its aim to improve coastal-rural synergies that could in turn foster rural and coastal development while still preserving the environment. My role in this project is to lead…
Bergen – January 2020
As soon as the New Year was over and regular work started, I flew straight over to Bergen to see my good colleague Dorothy and her colleague Jeppe – we are writing a proposal to Horizon2020 on fisheries and I needed input and help from Dorothy – we have worked together for many years and on many projects and proposals and she is excellent at what she does! I was only there for a day and a night – but despite what is said about how most things dont need trips – well – some things do – and working on proposals together is one of those things that in…
