FIS OPENS ITS DOORS TO THE UK SEAFOOD COMMUNITY

FIS opens its doors to the UK seafood community. Fisheries Innovation Scotland announces new name and remit.

At the FIS AGM in December, the Board formally agreed that FIS should evolve to have a UK-wide remit – to facilitate, coordinate and leverage investment for innovation in UK seafood. FIS is funded and governed by its Board of Trustees, consisting of senior representatives of Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Young’s Seafood, The Fishmongers’ Company and Seafish.

“There are so many new challenges facing not only the Scottish catching sector, but end-to-end along the UK seafood supply chain, which point to an even greater need for innovative thinking. It’s time for FIS to serve as a catalyst for greater prosperity and sustainability across UK seafood.” – John Goodlad, Chair of FIS Board

“Our current projects add value to businesses and communities across the UK by developing precision fishing gear, supporting decarbonisation in ways that are practical for UK fleets, and piloting ‘whole supply chain’ digitalisation to improve traceability and verification. We have had wonderful support and advice from our Scottish industry advisors, and we’re now establishing a new, inclusive stakeholder structure that reflects our expanded remit.” – Kara Brydson, FIS
Executive Director

About FIS

Since 2014, when FIS was established by the Scottish Government with support from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation and others, we have commissioned multidisciplinary
research projects worth more than £2m to support prosperous and sustainable fisheries. Innovation is vital to making positive changes for the UK seafood industry and all FIS projects share this core theme. Some of our project highlights include:

• Collaborating with Professor Paul Fernandes at Heriot-Watt University, to develop the Smartrawl system, which uses state-of-the-art tools to eliminate skipper’s waste from discards, and retain commercially valuable catch.
• Piloting ‘whole supply chain’ digitalisation to improve data sharing and product traceability, and strengthen the UK seafood brand, building on the “Roadmap to Digitalisation developed in collaboration with Verifact.
• FIS is working with Scottish naval architects at Macduff Ship Design to develop detailed concept designs for net zero fishing vessels.