February 23. 2004Pillar coordinator Karen Brunsų (MAPP) welcomed 12 participants at the kick off meetings for the 4 project with RTD Pillar 2 'Seafood and consumer well-being and behaviour'. The overall aim of the meeting was that all participants get to know each other and the content of all four projects in Pillar 2. Furthermore, the aim of the meeting was to reveal possible relations between the four projects, and to coordinate activities accordingly, as well as to discuss and agree on how to continue work in Pillar 2 with regard to next meetings, costs and management, evaluation etc. The agenda was therefore organised as a mix of Pillar 2 plenum and meetings on the project level. During project level meetings detailed planning of the first 6 months (activities and milestones) should be outlined and agreed upon.
After the introduction and presentation of participants, Karen Brunsų presented latest news from the SEAFOODplus launch meeting in Brussels (22 January) and from the RTD team, followed by project leaders/participants presentations of the four projects, discussion of coordination, and project group discussions.
By the end of the meeting, the following general decisions had been made:
Definition of Seafood
It was discussed how various activities in Pillar 2 should define and use the term "seafood" when carrying out research. The term seafood is very broad and could possibly include everything from the sea. Furthermore, experience from earlier studies has shown that consumers perceive fish and shellfish very differently, and that consumers often do not know what the term seafood refers to. In some countries (e.g. Denmark) the term does not even exist, which makes it hard to translate and explain the term. It was agreed that in order to carry out good and valuable research it is necessary to focus. Therefore it was concluded to focus on fish for the first 18 month. After the first 18 months, it will be considered how shellfish can be included in the future research activities.
Deliverables
Performance will primarily be evaluated based on academic papers. It was therefore agreed that for reporting of research results the emphasis should be on writing academic publications instead of long reports. Academic publications should be supplemented with shorter publications for industry and conference papers/presentations.
Coordination with pillar 4
Input from project 2.1 to be used in Pillar 4 about consumer attitudes and consumer food related life style will not be ready by the end of month 5, but results from previous research on food related lifestyle in Europe together with results from the focus group discussions (to be finished by month 5 in project 2.1) seem to be sufficient input for Pillar 4 to continue their work as planned.
Management and coordination
It was agreed to make a common Pillar 2 calendar with important dates/deadlines, meetings, data and information, etc. This should be used by all participants to exchange important information on Pillar and project level.
A list with questions for the RTD team was made and will be presented and discussed during the next RTD meeting in beginning of March. The list covers subjects on reporting, costs, Technical Annex, homepage and other related issues.
Next meeting for Pillar 2: 3 October 2004 in Copenhagen
