Key policy stakeholders with an interest in the SMMR programme were invited to contribute their research priorities. Particularly, they were asked to define the outputs and solutions that would be of benefit to them. The research community then used this information to target their research to meet the needs of these policy stakeholders.
The research priorities for several of our key policy stakeholders are outlined below. We refer to “policy stakeholders” as Defra, Marine Scotland, and their equivalents in the Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive.
A number of policy delivery bodies have also provided their research priorities:
Central to the SMMR Programme is interactions between academic disciplines and policy stakeholders.
To help with partnership development, the SMMR programme introduced a facilitation process led by the SMMR Programme Champions, to support interdisciplinary and stakeholder connections.
Due to a high volume of interest in Policy engagement and to ensure fairness and consistency as proposals are developed, all policy stakeholder engagement for the SMMR Programme is coordinated by the SMMR Programme Champions.
Policy stakeholders will, by definition, have privileged access to information about the SMMR Programme and it would therefore not be appropriate for policy stakeholders to be named on projects (with the exception of Project Steering Group membership) whilst at the same time setting policy requirements.
Please contact the SMMR Programme Champions if you have any questions.