Data Trawl Home Working

Kommunenes Internasjonale Miljøorganisasjon

Local Authorities International Environmental Organisation

Data Trawl Home Working Pilot Project
Learn more about this innovative project which was run in 2007

Background

Between April and December 2007 KIMO UK undertook a pilot project designed to see whether high quality marine environmental research could be undertaken by graduates, working from home and trawling for data on the Internet.

Funding for the project was secured from Shetlands Islands Council, Leader Plus and HIE Shetland. The KIMO Data Trawl Pilot Project was based on the premise that many graduates moving to, or returning to live in Shetland – a remote and rural area - are not working in their own disciplines, for a variety of different reasons. It was felt that this pool of skilled and well qualified graduates might be able to meet a demand for data trawled from the Internet in their area of expertise while working from home.

The Pilot was designed to identify such graduates, and to match their background and experience with group, individual or agency with requirements for data. The collected data would then be presented as a report to the client. Eight graduates accepted the terms and conditions of the pilot and spent up to two months working from home, on a flexible basis, to compile the reports which were then forwarded the submitting agencies. The submitting agencies were not charged for the research.

Data Trawls

In order to generate sufficient data trawls adverts were placed nationally and locally resulting in 12 research briefs from organisations such as NAFC Marine Centre, Natural England, Environment Agency and Aberdeen University and the Wildlife Trusts. This list was then reduced to the final 8 trawls which were undertaken by the project.

The reports covered a wide range of subjects as outlined below:

Regional Trends in Fisheries Data in England since 1900
Review of “restocking” practices for the Mussel Industry
Building Public Support for Marine Protected Areas
Aquaculture Species Diversification – what is the next species with potential for Shetland?
Comparison of Grazed and Ungrazed Salt Marshes
Comparison of Testing Methodologies for fatty acid analysis in fish
Improving the Marketing of Shetland caught Velvet Crabs
Geospatial Tools for visualising the Marine and Coastal Environment

Analysis and Discussion

Overall the pilot was judged to be highly successful with the majority of clients stating that the research exceeded their expectations and all trawlers stating they would be interested in undertaking trawls in the future. The project proved that not only was there the expertise available within rural communities in Shetland to undertake this type of work but that there was a potential market for the research.

Download the final project report here.

OctEportal