ExpectedOutcome:
In line with the European Green Deal objectives, both the farm to fork strategy and the common fisheries policy aim to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are ecologically, economically and socially sustainable and provide a source of healthy food for EU citizens. The successful proposals should unequivocally contribute to phase out the practice of discarding unwanted fish and improving catch-reporting data by using automatic species recognition and artificial intelligence to analyse data sources, such as video footage, rapid DNA-based assays and sensor data in real-time through, for example, internet of things or similar monitoring systems.
To ensure that fisheries are ecologically, economically and socially sustainable and provide a source of healthy food, the EU needs to close the possible loopholes in the legislations that could potentially allow for illegal and unsustainable fishing practices. To be successful, the EU needs to have in place a technologically advanced and effective fisheries monitoring and control system and the digitisation of fisheries is a key element (notably through the use of techniques such as artificial intelligence, sensors and robotics). This objective will also contribute to the headline ambition “A Europe fit for the digital age”.
The selected project is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- Effective methods, tools and systems for species automatic recognition, analysis of Remote Electronic Monitoring video footage, rapid DNA-based assays and sensor data in real-time, and enhanced integration of results into the reporting systems used by fishers to report catches to competent authorities;
- Enhanced capability to monitor and control illegal discarding practices at sea and increased ability by EU Member States to fully implement the Landing Obligation;
- Implementation of ad-hoc sensors for the detection of discards and take advantage of the data from the Copernicus network, namely from its Maritime Surveillance Service;
- Optimal fishing operations and fishing processing and enhanced EU ability to collect, exchange and analyse data;
- Improved monitoring capabilities, including processing activities on board fishing vessels, and ultimately support to a sustainable management of marine biological resources.
Scope:
Proposals should develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for automatic species recognition and quantification and assessment of health status of species (e.g., presence of parasites), and automatically analyse Remote Electronic Monitoring video footage, rapid DNA-based assays and sensor data in real-time. They should also develop mechanisms to ensure that the data collected by the cameras and sensors to be automatically analysed cannot be tampered with and that the system can automatically identify cases of system malfunction or missing information. Additionally, proposals should test the suggested solutions in real conditions, including the development of at least three pilot cases in three different European seas. They should also analyse vulnerabilities, dependencies and critical infrastructure in expanding the use of the solutions to Europe and worldwide (e.g., Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements).
Moreover, proposals should investigate possibilities for the integration of the results of the artificial intelligence analyses for the purposes of automated catch recording and reporting recommend effective designs of remote monitoring systems to cover processing activities on board of fishing vessels, and explore the possibilities of the system to contribute to the identification of parasites in processed fish (e.g. via DNA-based assays). They should also recommend standardised remote electronic monitoring formats for the exchange of the information between different control authorities or to be used for scientific purposes, including standards based on FLUX that could be potentially proposed for recognition by UN/CEFACT.
Also importantly, proposals should analyse how fisheries data, containing private information, can be shared in an anonymized and safe way complying with EU data protection rules (General Data Protection Regulation).
Finally, they should explore and recommend strategies to overcome possible resistance, by all stakeholders/parties, to the implementation of the innovative solutions and propose different ways for effective implementation.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
