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About us

Project summary

VeriFish, a project funded under Horizon Europe will provide a framework of verifiable sustainability indicators based on existing EU and global databases. VeriFish will work on the creation of a prototype web application, a series of media products and recommendations for communicating sustainability indicators to various stakeholders including guidelines for retail and the hospitality sectors. The goal is to provide an accessible and dynamic framework for the improvement of communication and understanding of sustainable seafood production and consumption.

Objectives/Goals

Stimulate increased consumption of sustainable seafood by establishing a framework of verifiable indicators, using these as basis for targeted, accessible, and engaging media products and campaigns, and delivering European Good Practice recommendations on how to efficiently organise such campaigns.

A framework of verifiable indicators

The primary goal of VeriFish is to develop ways to integrate indicators from different sources and to make recommendations for how to present and visualise different types of indicators in a uniform manner for a specific seafood type and consumer group.

For that, VeriFish will elaborate a framework of verifiable indicators, considering environmental sustainability, social sustainability, origin, provenance, processes, health, and nutrition, leveraging on trustworthy data sources from FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries, EUROFIR’s FoodEXplorer, FISHBASE, the global species database of fish species, and more.

Communicating about seafood sustainability

Several media products, including guidelines and a prototype web application, will be developed to help make informed consumption choices.

The indicators framework must not only be communicated to seafood producers and retailers, but also to policymakers, citizens and children. Therefore, a storytelling series, recipe books for kids, puzzles, and posters are among the planned product outputs. Finally, the project will develop and publish European Good Practice recommendations, co-designed with seafood sector stakeholders, on how to efficiently use the indicator framework to communicate with citizens.

Specific Objectives

1. Verifiable Indicator framework

Establish a framework of indicators that can be used as basis for making verifiable claims about seafood.

2. Community of Practice

Establish a Community of Practice (CoP) of organisations and stakeholders committed to promoting sustainable seafood.

3. VeriFish Prototype App

Design a prototype of a App for Mobile & We providing factsheets with indicator lists, links, and recommendations on how to make transparent & verificable claims about specific types of seafood to specific consumer groups.

4. Awareness Campaign

Create and distribute media products and run awareness campaigns to provide verifiable information on seafood.

5. European Good Practice recommendations

Provide a EU Good Practice recommendation for how to efficiently organise sustainable seafood consumption campaigns, and to publish this recommendation as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA).

Work packages

Work package 1

Description

Ensures the timely and high-quality results through efficient administrative, technical, organisational, and financial coordination.

Objectives

Administrative and financial management, scientific & technological coordination, decision making and conflict resolution, quality assurance and risk management, ethics management, External Advisory Board (EAB).

Leading partner: TURST-IT

Work package 2

Description

WP2 will develop a European framework for verified seafood indicators, so that any communication campaign can access, and use verified and qualified information.

Objectives

Develop a set of system-wide science-based indicators related to sustainability, provenance, nutrition, and health.  For year 1 the WP will define 1) data requirements for appropriate end use, 2) the indicator framework, 3) prioritisation of the indicators, and 4) the data use policy. This will lead to a set of Guidelines for the use of verifiable seafood indicators.

Lead partner: EUROFIR AISBL

Work package 3

Description

WP3 will raise awareness, inform and promote VeriFish´s main assets among 8 identified stakeholder categories and to increase consumers ´awareness about how to “choose fish” based on verifiable indicators.

Objectives
  • Design and prototype several easy-to-use media products and the running of different outreach campaigns
  • Digest VeriFish seafood and aquaculture products indicators into accessible and comprehensive media products for user communities.
  • Build a community of practice of different end users to gather requirements for the VeriFish media products, test the effectiveness of the approach and contribute to the release of the guidelines.
  • Promote awareness of the activities of the project maximising the impact of the results.
  • Engage and involve stakeholders at local and EU level via a coordinated communication strategy.


Leading partner: Eurofish

Work package 4

Description

WP4 will use the indicator framework developed in WP2 and the experiences from the outreach work in WP3 to develop a Good Practices recommendation that take all these issues into consideration.

Objectives
  1. To collate experiences and knowledge from WP2, WP3 and existing literature to formulate an initial, coherent recommendation for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood and how to organise sustainable seafood consumption campaigns.
  2. To manage a consensus-driven process to refine the initial document to a representative overall European Good Practice recommendation.
  3. To initiate and manage the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) process, and to formulate and publish this recommendation as a CWA.

Partners

Trust IT Services SRL

Project coordinator and dissemination.
Contact: Sara Pittonet

Eurofish International Organisation

Dissemination and develop the scoring system and guidelines for communication of the use of the indicator framework

COMMpla SRL

Prototype of the VeriFish web app

FORTH - Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas

Develop the verifiable indicator framework and the prototype of the VeriFish web app

NOFIMA - Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research

Develop the European Good Practice recommendation on seafood communication and dissemination

EuroFIR – European Food Information Resource

Develop the verifiable indicator framework

PMT PL - PREMOTEC Poland

Contribution to the development of the verifiable indicator framework

clupeastaadkleur

Clupea

Develop the verifiable indicator framework and dissemination

Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd

External Advisory Board

Anton Ellenbroek

Consultant at FAO

David Basset

EATiP General Secretary

Richard Stavis

Engagement leader at the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) initiative

Irene Kranendonk

Impact Manager at Fish Tales
Board Member Fish Tales Foundation

Andrea Fabris

API Associazione Piscicoltori Italiani Director

Anne Marie Cooper

ICES Expert Program Manager in International Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science, Policy, and Management

Fabio Grati

CNR IRBIM of Ancona – chair of STECF and involved in the development of indicators for the EU

Pedro Reis Santos

Secretary General of the Market Advisory Council (MAC) 

Irene Kranendonk

Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.

Andrea Fabris

Andrea Fabris born 11.08.1968, Italian, has a Veterinary Medicine full graduation achieved at the University of Parma. He has also a Specialization in “Farming, Hygiene, Pathology of Aquatic Species and Control of Derivative Products ” achieved at Udine University and a Specialization in “Animal Feeding” obtained at Bologna University.

Actually (from May 2016) he is Director of Associazione Piscicoltori Italiani (API – Italian Fish Farmers Association). At National level behalf of API he is member of some working groups at the General Direction for Fisheries and Aquaculture of Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Italian Ministry of Health regarding aquaculture EU rules and their implementation at national and regional level, and member of Exotic Species Aquaculture Committee – Italian Ministry of Agriculture. Lecturer on in training /courses organized by Ministry of Health, Universities and Local Veterinary Authorities; member of Board of Directors of SIPI (Italian Society of Fish Pathology).

He is also involved at international level with the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) as Chairman of FEAP Fish Health and Welfare Commission. Andrea is part of the FVE (Federation of Veterinarians Europe) Aquaculture Working Group, and of FishMedPlus Coalition, and from the beginning member of Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) where is actually Chair of WG1 – Finfish.

He published as an author or co-author about 30 articles on international and national scientific journals concerning Fish pathology and Aquaculture and more than 60 issues on divulgative (fishermen and aquaculture producers associations) publications

Anne Marie Cooper

Anne shapes global sustainable fisheries and aquaculture policies through her work at the science-policy interface. Driven by a commitment to improving human lives and aquatic ecosystems, she serves as the Professional Officer for Fisheries and Aquaculture Advice at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Anne leads ICES’ efforts in developing and applying methods to provide scientific advice on data-limited fish and shellfish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic, covering over 60% of ICES stocks. She also heads the development of ICES’
advisory framework for sustainable aquaculture. Before joining ICES, Anne advised on national fisheries, aquaculture, climate, and marine science policy in the US Senate, House of Representatives, and NOAA. She holds a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology and Development Studies and Social Change Theory and an M.Sc. in Fisheries Science from the University of Minnesota.

Fabio Grati

A fishery biologist presently employed at the National Research Council, Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (Ancona, Italy), he brings to the table more than thirty years of expertise in marine environmental conservation and sustainable resource management. Over the course of his career, he has overseen and participated in numerous international projects focused on understanding and mitigating anthropic impacts on marine ecosystems. Since 2019, he holds a membership in the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) under the European Commission. Within this role, he has chaired two STECF Expert Working Groups (EWG 22-12 and EWG 23-18), where he led efforts to establish scientifically robust yet accessible criteria and indicators for assessing the sustainability of fisheries products.

Pedro Reis Santos

Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.