"Marine Economic and Social Research"
Research Measure: Policy Support Research Measure
Funding Type: NDP Marine Research Sub-Programme - Beaufort Awards
Funding Year: 2007
Project Duration: 7 Years
Project Type: Capacity Building
Total Grant-Aid: €2,099,204
Research Group:
- Irish Centre for Rural Transformation & Sustainability, NUI,Galway
- Teagasc
Project Summary:
To develop research capacity in the priority area of economic and social research related to the development dynamics of the marine sector in Ireland through the funding of a research team. This will inform the development of the marine sector through the use of knowledge derived from marine related economic and social research and analysis.
The overall aim is to establish a world class unit, SEMRU (Socioeconomic Marine Research Unit) for marine socio-economic research in Ireland around a research cluster in Galway led by ICERTS, NUI, Galway and linking with RERC, Teagasc, the Marine Insitute and other research institutions in Ireland. The vision for the centre is that it will underpin the development of the marine sector in Ireland as elaborated in the Sea Change strategy, that it will contribute to the EU marine socioeconomic research agenda and that it will strengthen marine research in general through providing a complementary socioeconomic element into scientific projects; it will train researchers to contribute to continuing research and to the transfer of tacit knowledge to marine industry, thereby enhancing innovation and raising its competitiveness.
Objectives:
- Building Marine Socio-economic Research Capacity through the development of a world class Marine Socio-Economic Research Cluster in Galway comprising ICERTS, NUI,Galway; RERC, Teagasc and the Marine Institute.
- Carry out research which will underpin the Sea Change Marine Strategy through describing, modelling and analysing the current state of the marine sector, simulating alternative scenarios and proposing or recommending alternative policy measures, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of the marine sector.
- Support/complement scientific research projects through joining in project proposals from other branches of marine science, therby providng economic evaluation to marine science findings.
- Attract further research funding to suport the elaboration of the marine socio-economic reserach programme in Galway, including future Irish funding and, in particular, European Commission FP7 funding.
- Train PhD students in Marine Socio-economic REsearch, so that they can continue to sustain the socio-economic research effort as well as transferring tacit knowledge to the marine industry, therby creating innovative capacity and enhanced competitiveness to the sector.
- Provide placement for potential future researchers in the marine area, thereby upgrading their interest and skills.
Further Work Package PDF, 229k details are also available. Project details are also available on the Social Economic Marine Research Unit pages of the NUI,Galway website.