The staff of the Administration Centre would like to extend a warm welcome and congratulations to the new investigators that are joining the AquaNet community from the recent research competition.

To the new investigators, interim updates in this format will be emailed out regularly to keep you up-to-date on timely matters. Also, all of the updates are posted in the Members Only section of the AquaNet website. Your username will be your first initial and your full last name (e.g. Fred Smith = fsmith). Your password is determined by you and then emailed to aquanet@mun.ca. The password is case-sensitive and must be 6–12 characters long. Members are strongly encouraged to use alpha-numeric passwords.

Research

AP=Animal Production
EI=Environmental Integrity
SEA=Socio-economic Aspects

In 2000–2001, AquaNet funded 27 research projects. Of the 27 currently-funded projects, 24 were received for review by the January 2001 deadline. Following the review process, these 24 projects were renewed by the Board of Directors. From the Call for Research Proposals in the fall of 2000, 28 new research proposals were received. The Board of Directors decided that 7 of the proposals in the Animal Production Theme, 6 of the proposals in the Environmental Integrity Theme and 2 of the proposals in the Socio-economic Aspects Theme should be awarded funding.

The Board of Directors approved funding for 39 projects for the year 2001/02 and conditionally for 2002/03. The addition of 15 projects will bring the total of Network Investigators to 106 and will add 4 Participating Institutions (Université Laval, École polytechnique de Montréal, Université de Moncton and Nova Scotia Agricultural College).

All investigators should carefully read all caveats, if any, that are mentioned in the funding letter. The RMC will refer to these caveats when the projects are reviewed for progress in 2002.

The Research Management Committee (RMC) will be meeting in June to determine the timelines and procedure for the progress reviews of each project due on January 15, 2002.

During the Board of Directors Meeting on March 23, NCE (Networks of Centres of Excellence) issued a strong recommendation that AquaNet (and other Networks) require environmental assessments to be performed on all research projects approved by the Board of Directors prior to the release of funding. Use of NSERC's Environmental Assessment Form 101 and Appendices A and B, was suggested to expedite the process. The Board immediately established an Environmental Committee that proceeded to review all the projects tentatively approved for funding. For 2001-02, the Environmental Committee determined that none of the projects were likely to trigger a Federal Environmental Assessment. All Principal Investigators are required to complete and submit a NSERC form 101 to the AquaNet Administrative Centre before funds can be released.

Socio-economic Aspects Sub-committee

The Board of Directors has struck a sub-committee to develop a strategy to recruit more projects to the Socio-economic Aspects Theme. From the fall of 2000 Call for Research Proposals, only 3 of the 28 new research proposals submitted were from the social sciences.

Annual Meeting – Sept. 29 – Oct. 3, 2001

AquaNet I – Vision for the Future will be the title and theme for the first AquaNet Annual Research Conference & General Meeting. AquaNet I will occur Saturday, September 29 – Tuesday, October 2, 2001 at the Westin Hotel in Halifax. The AquaNet community will be represented at the conference along with a number of invited speakers. It is anticipated that over 175 AquaNet researchers from across Canada will be able to meet and interact, during the 4 days of the conference. Individuals from government agencies, industry and other interested parties will be able to participate through a daily registration fee.

Saturday will include registration, set-up of scientific posters and an evening reception. Sunday will include presentations from each of the Theme Leaders as well as interaction from the conference delegates. Theme Meetings will occur in the afternoon followed by a scientific poster social and a banquet. Monday will consist of four workshops / symposia on education, social sciences, animal production and environmental integrity. Researchers will have the opportunity to meet again in their respective themes on Tuesday morning. Every research project will have the opportunity to send representatives of the Network Investigators (senior scientists) and Network Researchers (PDFs and students) to the conference. Details of funding to help underwrite travel, accommodations and other logistics will be provided shortly.

AquaNet Booth

AquaNet will have an informational / promotional booth at the following locations:

• Aquaculture Association of Canada Conference in Halifax on May 7-9
• Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada Congress in Quebec City on May 27-30
• Atlantic Aquaculture Exposition, Conference and Fair in St. Andrews, NB on June 21-22

Take advantage of this face-to-face opportunity and mention the AquaNet booth to current / prospective industry partners.

Website

Updates to the research project page of the AquaNet website have been delayed to allow for the appropriate correspondence to be sent to all of the investigators that submitted funding proposals. The list of research projects must now be translated and then will be posted by the webmaster in the next few weeks.

New investigators are strongly encouraged to visit the AquaNet website (www.aquanet.mun.ca) to view the various aspects of the AquaNet programme as well as the documents found in the Members Only section.

Investigators are reminded that they can post recruitment ads for students and post-doctoral fellows on the website. You can email your ad to aquanet@mun.ca. If you find a discrepancy, an omission or have a suggestion for the website, please contact myself or the webmaster.

Administrative Changes in AquaNet

Mr. Leslie Dean, Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has submitted his resignation as a member of the AquaNet Board of Directors. Mr. Dean was recently appointed the CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation.

Dr. Kevin Keough, Vice-President (Research and International Relations) at Memorial University of Newfoundland has submitted his resignation as a member of the AquaNet Board of Directors. Dr. Keough was recently appointed the Chief Scientist of Health Canada.

With the number of research projects in the Animal Production Theme increasing from 15 to 20, Dr. Moira Ferguson at the University of Guelph has agreed to be a Co-Theme Leader with Dr. Joe Brown.

From the recent competition, a short-list has been made for the positions of AquaNet Education Officer and the AquaNet Manager of Business Development. These positions will be filled over the next few weeks.

Michael Riehl
Communications Officer