Designing a research tool for sustainable aquaculture project

Many research projects require strong interactions between academics and practitioners. Academics often face the challenges of collecting sufficient, high-quality research data, while achieving the project aim and producing practical impact to industrial partners. This paper presents the design of a research tool for data collection that increases industrial engagement in a sustainable aquaculture project. The project aim was to explore digital solutions for improving sustainability of shrimp aquaculture industry in Indonesia. To better facilitate the data collection and industrial engagement, we adapt the life cycle thinking and multi-stakeholder concepts from an existing tool, known as Sustainable Value Analysis Tool, redesign the rationale, and develop a new research tool to meet the specific purposes of this project. The research tool is composed of three parts: mapping and clustering challenges, assessing challenges, and co-designing digital solutions. The research tool was used in a workshop with 12 industrial partners from various organizations across the aquaculture supply chains in Indonesia in August 2019. The findings show that the empirical data collected through this tool is richer and more comprehensive compared to semi-structured interviews, and that the use of the tool greatly improved the industrial engagement. The feedback from the industrial partners shows that the tool has effectively helped them engage in the research process and improved the communication between themselves. This paper therefore suggests that designing and using such research tools is an effective way for data collection and industrial engagement.