Strengthening the Norwegian participation in the GoJelly! project through increased stakeholder involvement in a Norwegian context

The goal of the project MoreGoJelly was to contribute to a realistic overview and understanding of the potential for ? and a deeper understanding of ? the innovative opportunities and challenges there are in starting a fishery for jellies in Norway, with a special focus on the species Periphylla periphylla. The secondary aim was to use Serious Games as a method of communication and analyse to what degree interactive workshops with boardgames as a methodology will enable a deeper understanding for both the subject area (from the perspective of the user) and a better source of data for the researchers as compared to traditional methods. The first 10 months of the project was spent developing the game concept with brainstorming sessions with researchers, including a test round in February 2020, where the aim was to optimize the game from a game theoretical perspective so that the logic would make the most sense. This work was interrupted by the global shutdowns because of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and most of our plans that involved the industry partners was impossible to implement in a project period where planning became difficult at best, and time pressures on the industry because of the ease of availability of TEAMS made it hard to schedule gaming sessions. We therefore instead focused more on the development of the concept for game for future generations. We were able to test a first version of this game in June of 2020 during a temporary opening up of restrictions in Norway. At the same time, in collaboration with our partners and in consultation with the Norwegian Research Council, we decided to reallocate our budget to allow us to develop a semi-digital remote facilitation solution to ensure that travel restrictions would not hinder the implementation of the gaming session. We arranged three semi-digital remote facilitations sessions in Tromsø, Norway, using this adapted methodology. Because of a new wave of covid restrictions closing down schools in Bergen, however, we were unable to use this method of remote facilitation there. Therefore, and in consultation with the NFR, we reallocated our budget again and collectively funded House of Knowledge to develop a fully digital version of the game that could be played via TEAMS. We played this version twice ? once in Bergen and once in Trondheim, before restrictions were lifted and we were again able to hold physical gaming sessions. These sessions were where we saw the best results and this was reflected in the feedback from the users as well. In the end, we played the game in respectively Trondheim, Tromsø and Bergen with future generations (1 phyisical; 1 semi-digital; 1 fully digital), university students (1 fully digital; 1 semi-digital; 1 mixed physical), and professional adults (2 physical; 1 semi-digital; 1 mixed physical). We presented the game during the Aquaculture Europe conferences in Madeira October 4th-7th 2021, during a thematic session on Ocean Literacy. A methods article entitled "Ocean literacy and how Serious Games can play a part: the case of the jellyfish and microplastics governance game MoreGoJelly" has been submitted to the journal Simulation & Gaming for peer review.

The outcome of these gaming workshops was to communicate theoretical applications of jellyfish exploitation and have discussions and reflections in the general public related to real life project outcomes in the GoJelly! project The new insights provided discussions that allowed us to put learning into context and engage participants in dialogue and enable them to utilize the new knowledge and methods of how to look at the sustainable development goals and their indicators within the context of a real life situation. Because of covid 19 and the resultant restrictions on travel and physical meetings, we were also able to develop a digitalization of the game. The logic of the game ? both digital and physical - can be used in a number of other issue areas, whether it is biodiversity protection, plastics governance or aquaculture area use.

In More GoJelly! we take the results from the GoJelly! Horizon2020 project to a more in-depth contextual Norwegian setting and assess to what degree industry, markets and consumers are ready to consider jellyfish as a resource in terms of food, feed, cosmetics and as part of the solution to solving microplastic pollution. We do this by inviting stakeholders from industry‚ science, NGOs, managers and other parts of the seafood value chain to two workshops, spaced over two years, to assess the products from a conceptual and a product vantage point. We invite product developers from the GoJelly! project to come to these workshops and present their results to these Norwegian user groups, after which we move on to a session of Serious Games. The serious games we propose offer just-in-time and on-demand training for learning and reflection to establish awareness, competence and expertise on the topic of jellyfish exploitation within an intricate environmental as well as international market setting. We want to emphasize through this workshop methodology that learning is all about motivation, triggering reflection and relating theory to the experience base of those involved. Personal experience is the starting point of these perception games, and the game-playing provides new insight that triggers reflection, a learning circle we will further develop and explore in the second round of workshops with the same set of stakeholders in the second year of the project. We will also run these serious games with future generation representatives in both Tromsø and Bergen, to assess their adaptability to new realities around not only jellyfish-based products, but also as a tool in combatting microplastic pollution - and what other innovations they consider possible within an ocean context.