AquaNet and the Inter-Provincial Initiative for Freshwater Aquaculture Sustainable Development are organizing a research forum that is to be held on October 29th at the Victoria Conference Centre in Victoria, British Columbia.

The meeting's objectives are to:

1. identify and prioritize in order of importance the major problems affecting the production, sustainability and acceptance of freshwater aquaculture industry development in Canada,
   
   
2. develop a short/mid term R&D and technology transfer action plan required to address and solve the major problems facing the sector within an interdisciplinary framework (a document presenting the issues will be sent out shortly to all participants for preliminary comments and in order to stimulate reflections - afterward, a new version will be comprehensively discussed in Victoria) and
   
   
3. enhance the degree of collaboration among all stakeholders implicated in R&D and tech transfer, and create the necessary synergies needed for the sustainable development of the sector (in, for instance, identifying projects to be first and foremost undertaken to address the prioritized issues).
   
   

Participation is by invitation only and we expect not more than 30 individuals to ensure that the objectives are met. The participants will represent producers/processors industrial associations, supplies and services sectors, federal government, the provinces and researchers.

• Éric Gilbert, OCAD, Inter-Provincial Initiative
• Moira Ferguson, University of Guelph, Co-theme leader, AquaNet