In a project supported by Vestland Fylkeskommune and The Norwegian Research Council and organised by The Western Norway University of Applied Sciences the cluster engaged 15 industry stakeholders in discussion on how to approach this issue.
The project aim is to understand the unavoidable gap between cutting edge research and the industrial application of the findings. In «Mind the Gap» we seek to find methods to reduce the gap and shorten the time between publication and application. As a case we presented a simple study encompassing the research on one bacterial species and how this research is incorporated into the biosecurity plans. As expected, we observed quite different uptake both in time and focus, even though the bacteria in question can represent problems for both RAS and flow through production of salmonids.
The discussion focused on how this gap can be closed or reduced and the findings presented more clearly to the industry. Among the methods discussed were use of advanced text analysis tools such as Watson Discovery, outreach officer employed by the scientific institutions, training researchers in industry oriented presentation of findings and how researchers present their results in scientific publications, reports and other communication to the industry during seminars and conferences as well.
We are presently looking through the alternatives and we are looking forward to present ideas to our cluster partners soon.