The Fisheries Scholarship Fund is now the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF).
The announcement came on Thursday during the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) board meeting, held at the end of the organization’s 2012 Global Seafood Market Conference in Miami.
The transition marks a new beginning for the 40-year-old non-profit, with is aligned with NFI. Research will now be dictated by industry members; previously it was dictated by researchers. The research will be geared toward benefiting the industry, and the research results will be owned or partially owned by SIRF to maintain control.
Also, SIRF will increase its communications and outreach efforts. On Thursday, www.sirfonline.org was launched; it will serve as a public database for the nearly 400 research projects funded by the group over the last four decades.
Murry Berger has retired as chairman, replaced by Joel Kolen.
“Our agenda is to serve,” Kolen told SeafoodSource after addressing the NFI board. “SIRF can benefit anyone in the industry, not just NFI members.”
SIRF is managed by a volunteer board consisting of seafood professionals, with little overhead; nearly all of the donations raised are used for research. Any number of topics can be addressed through the research, including fisheries management, food safety, health and nutrition.
