Responding to Workforce Demands and Overcoming the Challenges of Collaborative Fisheries Research: A Fellowship Program to Develop Professional Skills and Cohort

The marine science workforce, including conservation engineers, is shrinking at an alarming rate, while the next generation of scientists need collaborative research skills to be successful in today’s fisheries management environment.  Virginia Sea Grant, Northeast Consortium, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center pooled financial resources and faculty capacity to plan, design, and administer a graduate student fellowship program to: advance the development of fishing gear designs to reduce bycatch and minimize habitat impacts; train future scientists in conservation engineering and the skills to develop effective partnerships with industry; and cultivate a enduring professional cohort of collaborative researchers.  A multi-stakeholder program design process resulted in a graduate course, social networking/peer mentoring, and a research practicum.  Applicants from the U.S., Europe, South America and Africa completed and five exceptional finalists were selected.  The web-based course, “Theory and Practice of Collaborative Fisheries Research in Conservation Engineering” was team taught, and include a human dimensions section.  In 2011, the fellows refined their fishing industry partnerships and conservation engineering research projects.  A peer mentoring social network site has been established to foster faculty facilitation of class mentoring and coaching.  This talk provides an overview of the Fellowship and the symposium’s objectives.