The United Kingdom will provide funding for universities and research institutions to implement four projects supporting sustainable aquaculture in Southeast Asia.
On 7 March, U.K.’s national funding agency – U.K. Research and Innovation (UKRI) – announced that it has launched a GBP 12 million (USD 15.5 million, EUR 14.3 million) program to provide funding for four projects to strengthen sustainable aquaculture in Southeast Asia.
These include a project to support small shrimp farmers in Thailand and Vietnam; a program led by U.K.’s University of Southampton to improve mollusk-farming practices in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia; a project led by U.K.’s Natural History Museum to support the seaweed industry in Southeast Asia; and another led by U.K.’s University of Stirling to develop a digital tool to safeguard ecosystems and support sustainable aquaculture in Vietnam.
The first initiative is a GBP 3 million (USD 3.9 million, EUR 3.6 million), three-year project led by scientists from the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) that is expected to develop affordable, early-warning monitoring systems that will enable small-scale shrimp farmers in Vietnam and Thailand to monitor water quality, detect pathogens, and forecast environmental risks in real time.
“Our project will co-develop accessible, low-cost biosensors and climate models to empower farmers with real-time data, allowing them to act before disease strikes. This is about boosting resilience, increasing productivity, and ensuring sustainability,” UWS Professor Kath Sloman, the project’s lead, said.
Vietnam and Thailand, both major shrimp-producing and -exporting nations, have frequently dealt with disease outbreaks and environmental risks. Existing monitoring technologies to mitigate these risks are either too costly or complicated for small farmers to use, leaving them exposed to sudden losses, according to project co-lead and UWS Professor Fiona Henriquez-Mui...
