A proposal under the EU-FP7 Programme submitted by Dr. Ram C. Bhujel, Affiliated Faculty, in the Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AARM) Field, has been selected for funding. The 36-month project entitled "Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SARNISSA)" will start in January 2008, and will be coordinated by the University of Stirling, UK, with AARM-AIT, as one of the key partners in the project. The total estimated budget of the project is 996,037 (Euro).
Under the project, AARM-AIT will play a key role in producing the Aquaculture Compendium (AC). From the viewpoint of using Asian aquaculture, it will look at the dissemination and its impacts thereafter. AARM-AIT will host and assist key African stakeholders to visit Asia, especially Aqua Outreach partners, and also work in reviewing the impacts on final users of the case studies compiled in the AC, so that they can be taken forward as a template. As a leading organization in Asia, AIT will play a key role from Asia to link with African research networks. It will also be responsible for the work plan for a study and subsequent State of the System Report on governmental approaches, benefits and constraints to aquaculture development in the sub-region of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, in conjunction and comparison with similar studies carried out by the ETC Foundation (in The Netherlands) and WorldFish Center in Africa.