Summary of the group's research trajectory (2014-2016)

The IEO is structured in 3 research areas (aquaculture, marine environment and fisheries). The Fisheries Area is structured in turn into 5 regional programs; MERVEX is integrated into the Fisheries Resources Assessment Program in the ICES (Atlantic Northwest) area. Assessment is the process by which different fishery management alternatives are evaluated. To this end, MERVEX researchers participate in international organizations with responsibilities in the assessment of fishery resources, such as ICES (link) or STECF (link). These institutions are organized into ad-hoc working groups, to evaluate management plans, review assessments or respond to requests from the administration (ICES-WKMSY, STECF-SGMOS, IBMegrim, etc.) or stable groups, for annual evaluations of TACs and quotas (WGBIE, WGANSA, WGWIDE, etc) or methodological groups (WGSAM, WGMM, WGMME, etc). MERVEX members participate in these groups and have led some of them such as the WGMME or the IBMegrim. In this way, MERVEX's research activity is channeled towards an application to resource management. Therefore, MERVEX has a high international innovative potential.

The members of MERVEX participate in education tasks at Galician universities, mainly through Masters in fisheries orientation ("Master in Economics, Assessment and Management of the Marine Environment and Fishery Resources" of the "Campus del Mar" or the "Master of Marine Biology Galician universities: UVigo-USC-UDC ”) as teachers and coordinators of master's and doctoral theses. In the 2014-2016 period, 2 doctoral theses have been presented, both with international mention and one cum-laude. This international projection is also observed in the participation in European projects (VII-PM, INTERREG, LIFE or DGMARE), particularly projects applied to provide new useful knowledge for the management of fishery resources (5 FP7-KBBE projects). MERVEX researchers have led 4 national projects, 1 international and several leadership of WPs and Case Studies of the VIIPM in the period 2014-2016.