Fisheries Research and Development Corporation


The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation is a statutory authority that manages research and development investment by the Australian Government and the Australian fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors.

Business model

The FRDC is one of fifteen Australian rural research and development corporations managing investment by the Australian Government and primary industries that during the past 25 years has been crucial to the doubling of the productivity of the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors.
At its inception in 1992, the Corporation's major focus was on research concerning the management of commercial wild-catch fisheries and, to a lesser extent, aquaculture. Since then, the scope has widened greatly to encompass economic, environmental and social aspects of the entire fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors – that is, the recreational and indigenous customary sectors in addition to the commercial wild-catch and aquaculture sectors. The Corporation's strategic investments in research, development and extension activities benefit all its stakeholders. However, the FRDC is unique among the corporations in balancing its investment between natural resource management and industry productivity and development. Therefore, a significant proportion of funding is directed at research that has a public good benefit.
In fulfilling its role of planning, investing in and managing fisheries research, development and extension activities in Australia, the FRDC provides leadership and coordination of the monitoring, evaluating and reporting on RD&E activities and facilitates the dissemination, extension and commercialisation of research results to end-users. The FRDC achieves this through coordinating investment by government and industry, and involving stakeholders to set and address RD&E priorities. The FRDC also monitors and evaluates the adoption of RD&E outputs to inform future decisions.

Governance

Formed as a statutory corporation on 2 July 1991 under the provisions of the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989, the FRDC is responsible to the Minister for Agriculture.
A Chairman and a board of directors govern the FRDC; the Executive Director leads the corporation's business activities on a day-to-day basis. The board oversees corporate governance, sets strategic direction and monitors the ongoing performance of the Corporation and the Executive Director. The board and the Executive Director are responsible for managing and evaluating the Corporation and its investments, and for reporting to government and the fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors. During 2012-13 the focus for the FRDC Board was on:
The FRDC supports a network of Research Advisory Committees located in each state and the Northern Territory. The RACs have an extremely important role in maximising the efficiency of the FRDC's planning and funding process.

Investment

Revenue sources

The primary revenue for the FRDC comes from the Australian Government and the fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors, based on:
The Corporation also manages significant contributions by stakeholders in FRDC-funded projects.
The FRDC's strategic investments in RD&E activities benefit the three sectors of fishing: commercial, recreational and indigenous customary.
The FRDC has a significant responsibility in ensuring, on behalf of the Australian Government, that research is undertaken to assist in the management of the fisheries and aquaculture resource for ongoing sustainability. A significant proportion of funding is therefore directed to research that has a public good benefit.

Investment strategy

The FRDC invests in RD&E across the fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors, and for the benefit of both recreational and indigenous customary fishers. The FRDC seeks to achieve maximum leverage from its investment by providing research administration and services using a value-adding model in which research projects are tailored to deliver a specific outcome and are actively managed and monitored.
The FRDC commissions RD&E through a variety of flexible investment approaches, including an open call for project applications; formal partnership agreements with industry sectors; subprograms and coordination programs that are tailored to a specific industry sector or activity; short-term tactical research investment; and specifically targeted commissioned RD&E, especially where there is market failure by private investment.
The focus for FRDC investment aligns with the following 14 themes, as outlined in the Corporation's 2010-2015 Strategic RD&E Plan. The investment balance between themes, which may vary depending on strategic needs, is reported in each annual report.
FRDC strategic research themes
ProgramsThemes
Environment
1. Biosecurity and aquatic animal health

2. Habitat and ecosystem protection

3. Climate change

4. Ecologically sustainable development
Industry
5. Governance and regulatory systems

6. Resource access and allocation

7. Production, growth and profitability

8. Consumers, products and markets

9. Value from aquatic resources
Communities
10. Resilient and supportive communities
People development
11. Leadership development

12. Workforce development

13. Innovation skills
Extension and adoption
14. Extension and adoption

— Extracted from the FRDC's RD&E plan, 'Figure 1: Our planning environment', showing the drivers to which the Corporation responds, implementation, outputs and outcome.

Relationships with stakeholders

In developing projects addressing the Corporation's five programs, strategic directions are established in association with the FRDC's stakeholders, which are:
The FRDC works with its partners to undertake program management effectively, to disseminate the results, and to assist with their adoption and, when appropriate, commercialisation.

Stakeholder research priorities

One of the primary challenges for the FRDC is to gain a solid understanding of the needs and priorities of its stakeholders, many of whom come from a diverse range of sectors and operations. There are many common, national issues, but each sector faces unique challenges and has specific RD&E needs, which vary greatly around Australia. In developing the National RD&E Strategy and the Corporation's RD&E Plan, the FRDC has consulted widely with a majority of these groups and has undertaken industry research to build on knowledge gained through consultation.
To ensure a balanced portfolio, and to align with industry research priorities, the large majority of project applications are reviewed by the RACs. Where possible, industry and fisheries management are directly engaged and integrated into the delivery of each project.

Australian Government priorities

The federal Minister for Agriculture, the Parliamentary Secretary and the Department of Agriculture set priorities that the Corporation is required to address. In 2009 the Australian Primary Industries Ministerial Council endorsed a “statement of intent” to implement a National Primary Industries Research, Development and Extension Framework through 14 primary industry sectors and 7 cross-industry sectors. Within the framework, each industry sector and cross-sectoral issue was to be assessed for its RD&E capacity. As its contribution to the framework, the FRDC and its stakeholders developed a landmark document setting out future directions for fishing and aquaculture RD&E: the National Fishing and Aquaculture RD&E Strategy 2010.

Consultation and collaboration

Australian Fisheries Management Forum

The Australian Fisheries Management Forum comprises the heads of the federal, state and territory government agencies responsible for management of fisheries, who discuss strategic issues relating to fisheries and aquaculture management. The FRDC works with the forum, sitting as an invited representative to meetings, providing advice and ensuring forum priorities are incorporated into the Corporation's RD&E planning processes.

Representative organisations

Four representative organisations have been appointed under the PIERD Act, with which the FRDC consults and reports formally at their annual general meetings:
The FRDC administers a research and development levy on behalf of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, a levy organisation, which has a leading role with FRDC in ensuring its priorities are met. FRDC investments in prawn farming research and development is driven by the APFA's RD&E Plan. The two entities enjoy a very close working relationship. The APFA has nominated that the majority of its investment is to be through co-investment with the Australian Seafood CRC.

Industry sector bodies

The FRDC also has a close relationship with the National Seafood Industry Alliance. The Alliance represents the commercial fishing, pearling and aquaculture industries through state industry councils and peak sector associations to build on the partnerships established with individual industry sectors.
The FRDC also invests in, and partners, entities such as Southern Rocklobster Ltd, Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association, Tasmanian Salmonid Growers’ Association, Australian Pearl Producers Association, Australian Prawn Farmers’ Association and Australian Barramundi Farmers’ Association.

Other rural research and development corporations

The FRDC joins with other rural research and development corporations – at the project level and more broadly in functional areas – on a range of activities to enhance joint strategic outcomes. Most significant are climate change projects, evaluation of RD&E, and the “Appetite for Excellence” primary producers tour – a competition for chefs, waiters and restaurateurs. The FRDC is a member of the Council of Rural Research and Development Corporations, participating in meetings of R&D corporations' executive directors, business managers and communications managers. The FRDC also provides advice and services in project management and the FRDC-developed project management software, OmniFish.

Industry development

The FRDC works with various entities to develop the fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors in such matters as market development; strengthening trade and market access; developing standards, e.g. for responsible fishing; standardising names for Australian fish; developing quality management systems; and reaching agreement on sustainability. To that end, in 2001 the Corporation and a now defunct peak body of the commercial sector incorporated a not-for-profit company, Seafood Services Australia Ltd, with the mission “to enhance the profitability, international competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the Australian seafood industry”. Industry development activities suffered a setback in 2013, when the company ceased trading after "a significant reduction in the availability of funding".

Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre

The FRDC initiated, and is a core participant in, the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre. The Centre's research program aims to increase the profitability and value of the Australian seafood industry, increase access to premium markets and increase demand for Australian seafood – priorities aligned with the FRDC's RD&E programs, in particular Program 2: Industry.

Research partners

In any given year, the Corporation has under management about 300 active projects. Investment in research is the FRDC's core business. As a result, it is vital to the FRDC's success that it has excellent relationships with its research partners. The key research partners are:
The fishing and aquaculture commercial, recreational and indigenous sectors is one of the most complex of Australia's primary industries in terms of both its structure and the natural resources on which it depends. Most of the industry's business environments are made more complex by their dependence on access to natural resources that are publicly managed in the interests of present and future generations. Australian fishing comprises three main sectors:
Legislatively, the "fishing industry" is defined in the FRDC Regulations 1991, issued under the PIERD Act 1989, as "any industry or activity carried on in or from Australia concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing, or selling of fish or fish products".
The commercial sector comprises approximately 120 wild-catch fisheries and 70 aquaculture species. Commercial seafood and marine products were valued at $2.2 billion in 2008–09. The recreational sector has 3.4 million participants, who were estimated in a 2001 survey to expend $1.9 billion annually on their fishing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people participate in commercial and recreational fishing, as well practising customary fishing. The legal rights around indigenous customary fishing are being refined over time and some aspects are now part of existing legislation and court decisions.
In 2009–10, 11,431 people were employed in the commercial fishing, hunting and trapping industry, with 7646 employed in the fishing, hunting and trapping sector and 3785 in aquaculture enterprises. Compared with 2008–09, total employment in the commercial fishing, hunting and trapping industry increased by 24 per cent following a 30 per cent increase in full-time employment and a 10 per cent increase in people engaged in part-time employment in 2009–10.
Demand for seafood is rising in Australia because of increasing affluence and increasing awareness of seafood's prominent role in a healthy diet. In Asian markets consumption is also increasing with the growth of the middle class, especially in China and India. This will place demands on the supply of the limited resource, leading to increases in price.
Currently Australia's commercial seafood production only provides about 28 per cent of domestic demand. In part because of the rising value of the Australian dollar, the commercial sector is now re-orienting towards better serving the Australian market. Increasingly, value chains will encompass both domestic and imported product. Other factors, such as further improvements in fisheries management and better utilisation of catch, will also be important in meeting domestic demand.
Australian commercial fisheries and aquaculture production 2010-11
2006-072007-082008-092009-10Change
Wild-catch sector$1.5bn $1.38bn $1.4bn $1.3bn
t: -0.9%
Aquaculture sector$806m $869m $867m $870m $: +0.3%
t: +4.9%
Overall production$2.21bn $2.21bn $2.21bn $2.18bn $: -1.3%
t: +1.5%

It is not only seafood for consumption that the Australian industry produces. Pearls are a high value consumer item that is produced at the highest level of quality through advanced technology and environmental credentials, making it one of Australia's most valuable and sustainable fishing sectors.