Norway-Japan Partnership for Excellent Education and Research in Aquaculture

During the project period, ExcelAQUA has been established as an institutionalized collaboration platform for education and research between two Norwegian and seven Japanese institutions in the field of sustainable aquaculture and integrative fisheries biology. In the partnership, arrangements have been established that support mobility for students and researchers. Over the past year we have spent time completing trials, analyzing samples and publishing results that has been part of this mobility. This applies to trials with several CRISPR / CAS genetically modified lines of zebrafish. These lines were established at UiB as part of the project and will be used further in the collaboration. This work has involved 1 Japanese senior researcher, a Norwegian (female) postdoc, a Norwegian master and 2 PhD guest students. In the other experiments, the students have worked with Atlantic salmon and these students have worked to finish their thesis and publications. This includes (from Japan) a senior researcher, a post-doc, two masters and three undergraduate students who have all completed research stays in Bergen. Two Japanese and two UiB students completed a 1-week internship at Lingalaks in Hardanger in September -19. We have now formalized a collaboration with TUMSAT to further develop this over the next 3 years. A course in the "Sustainable Aquaculture Summer School" has been held every year during the project period, and we have been working to constantly improve the teaching program. We have further developed a seminar for teachers in active learning methods in collaboration with bioCEED. Researchers at ExcelAQUA and BioCEED investigated teaching methods in the summer school, and the results have been compiled into a publication which after revision has been submitted for peer review in a scientific journal. The results have also been presented at several educational conferences. The results of the biological experiments in the last summer school were so good in quality that they were developed into a peer-reviewed paper that is now published, with all students involved as co-authors. Due to the COVOD-19 situation in the spring of 2020, we had to change plans for a PhD student and 2 researchers from UiB (all women) who were to spend a month's research stay at the University of Nagoya. Parts of the training were completed and the remaining resources were redistributed to training and method establishment at UiB. Involved researchers and students also participated in analyzes of samples from the project work that will be used in future publications, and have further developed methodology that will be used in phase 2 of the ExcelAQUA platform. We plan that the collaborative platform, which is now financed for another three years (ExcelAQUA 2.0), will continue to be an important instrument for the development of a strong, long-term and functional education and research collaboration between participating institutions in Norway and Japan.

We have established a new annual course in Sustainable Aquaculture and established and conducted shared bachelor and master supervision based on research-based education. One task we did not achieve was the annual workshop for student, instead we established an annual trainee program in Aquaculture companies that provides career related experience for the candidates. We have established institutionalized structures and conducted mobility of students and researchers. We have achieved excellence in education though pedagogical expert supervision, that include establishment of a course for training of teachers in active learning and continuous assessment of teaching. Partly based on ExcelAQUA I. Rønnestad (PM) was awarded the prestigious Olav Thon National price for excellence in education in 2019. We have disseminated the scientific results with 11 peer review joint papers, and several more in prep. Lastly, we have been granted more than 3 joint new projects as part of the platform.

The ExcelAQUA has established an institutionalized collaborative platform for education and research between two Norwegian and seven Japanese institutions in the field of sustainable aquaculture and integrative fish biology. In the partnership, several arrangements were established to support mobility of students and researchers between institutions. During the past year, 1 senior researcher (4 weeks), 1 post-doc (> 1 year), 2 masters (2 weeks) and 3 bachelor students (3 weeks) from Japan have completed research stays in Bergen. Furthermore, 2 Japanese students and 2 UiB students have completed a one-week internship at the Atlantic salmon farming company Lingalaks in Hardanger. Two visiting students at UiB have completed parts of their PhD thesis using methods developed within the ExcelAQUA project. In 2019, the two-week "Sustainable Aquaculture Summer School" course was held in Bergen with 6 Norwegian and 6 Japanese students, as well as 8 instructors. This course was conducted every year during the project period. In connection with the 2019 summer school, a seminar dedicated in active learning methods was held for teachers, in collaboration with bioCEED. Furthermore, researchers in ExcelAQUA and BioCEED have collected and analysed information regarding the teaching methods used in the summer school, and the results compiled into a publication submitted for peer review in an educational journal. In addition, the results obtained from the laboratory work performed by the students during the summer school were of such good quality that they were further developed into a scientific paper that has been submitted for peer review, with all students involved as co-authors. We plan that the ExcelAQUA platform will continue to be an important tool for developing a strong and long-term educational and research collaboration between the participating institutions in Norway and Japan.